A refined Frauchiger--Renner paradox based on strong contextuality
Quantum Physics
2026-05-27 v2
Abstract
The Frauchiger--Renner paradox derives an inconsistency when quantum theory is used to describe the use of itself, by means of a scenario where agents model other agents quantumly and reason about each other's knowledge. We observe that logical contextuality (\`a la Hardy) is the key ingredient of the FR paradox, and we provide a stronger paradox based on the strongly contextual GHZ--Mermin scenario. In contrast to the FR paradox, this GHZ--FR paradox neither requires post-selection nor any reasoning by observers who are modelled quantumly. If one accepts the universality of quantum theory including superobservers, we propose a natural extension of Peres's dictum to resolve these extended Wigner's friend paradoxes.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2409.05491,
title = {A refined Frauchiger--Renner paradox based on strong contextuality},
author = {Laurens Walleghem and Rui Soares Barbosa and Matthew F. Pusey and Stefan Weigert},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.05491},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
All comments welcome!