English

Strong $O$-valued contextuality: ruling out discrete nondeterministic alternatives to quantum theory

Quantum Physics 2026-07-16 v1

Abstract

Gleason's theorem identifies the Born rule via non-contextuality over an infinite continuous lattice of projectors, while its corollary the Kochen-Specker (KS) theorem rules out the specific class of deterministic ({0,1}\{0,1\}-valued) noncontextual models using finite sets of projectors. Gleason's theorem also indicates the existence of KS-type finite vector constructions to rule out other discrete nondeterministic alternatives to quantum theory beyond the {0,1}\{0, 1\} case. Here, we construct finite measurement configurations to rule out noncontextual empirical models with outcome probabilities drawn from an arbitrary finite subset O[0,1]O \subset [0,1]. We do this by two means: (i) constructing a family of experimentally feasible state-dependent Hardy-type tests, and (ii) proving a generalized KS theorem for a broad class of OO that includes prior results as special cases. In the sheaf-theoretic framework of Abramsky and Brandenburger, a hierarchy of probabilistic-possibilistic-strong contextuality has been established quantifying contextuality as a resource. We extend this framework by introducing strong OO-valued contextuality, showing that quantum theory evades global sections of all finite-valued presheaves. We also discuss the implications of the result on finite many-valued logics as viable ontological models for quantum theory and for contextuality-based (semi)-device-independent protocols.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.14931,
  title  = {Strong $O$-valued contextuality: ruling out discrete nondeterministic alternatives to quantum theory},
  author = {Ravishankar Ramanathan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.14931},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

27 pages, 4 figures