Value-indefinite observables are almost everywhere
Abstract
Kochen-Specker theorems assure the breakdown of certain types of non-contextual hidden variable theories through the non-existence of global, holistic frame functions; alas they do not allow us to identify where this breakdown occurs, nor the extent of it. It was recently shown [Phys. Rev. A 86, 062109 (2012)] that this breakdown does not occur everywhere; here we show that it is maximal in that it occurs almost everywhere, and thus prove that quantum indeterminacy--often referred to as contextuality or value indefiniteness--is a global property as is often assumed. In contrast to the Kochen-Specker theorem, we only assume the weaker non-contextuality condition that any potential value assignments that may exist are locally non-contextual. Under this assumption, we prove that once a single arbitrary observable is fixed to occur with certainty, almost (i.e. with Lebesgue measure one) all remaining observables are indeterminate.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1309.7188,
title = {Value-indefinite observables are almost everywhere},
author = {Alastair A. Abbott and Cristian S. Calude and Karl Svozil},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.7188},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
18 pages, 5 figures