English

A complete characterisation of All-versus-Nothing arguments for stabiliser states

Quantum Physics 2021-03-09 v1 Logic in Computer Science

Abstract

An important class of contextuality arguments in quantum foundations are the All-versus-Nothing (AvN) proofs, generalising a construction originally due to Mermin. We present a general formulation of All-versus-Nothing arguments, and a complete characterisation of all such arguments which arise from stabiliser states. We show that every AvN argument for an n-qubit stabiliser state can be reduced to an AvN proof for a three-qubit state which is local Clifford-equivalent to the tripartite GHZ state. This is achieved through a combinatorial characterisation of AvN arguments, the AvN triple Theorem, whose proof makes use of the theory of graph states. This result enables the development of a computational method to generate all the AvN arguments in Z2\mathbb{Z}_2 on n-qubit stabiliser states. We also present new insights into the stabiliser formalism and its connections with logic.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1705.08459,
  title  = {A complete characterisation of All-versus-Nothing arguments for stabiliser states},
  author = {Samson Abramsky and Rui Soares Barbosa and Giovanni Carù and Simon Perdrix},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1705.08459},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

18 pages, 6 figures