No generalised contextuality from the vacuum

Abstract:We show that, under certain conditions, generalised contextuality, in the sense introduced by Spekkens, cannot be created from the vacuum of a quantum field. Initial noncontextual qudit states do not become contextual just by interacting with a quantum field. This is verified in two scenarios. First, in a perturbative approach where the time evolution operator is expanded in powers of the coupling constant. Second, in the limit of zero energy gap in the spectrum of the free detector Hamiltonian. Our results are at the opposite side of what has been recently obtained in the literature regarding the harvesting of Kochen-Specker contextuality. Our results demonstrate that the existing notions of contextuality can be independent of one another and that contextuality harvesting depends on which precise notion is used.

arXiv:2610.41964 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2610.41964v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.41964 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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