Warring Contextualities -- Provably Classical vs Provably Nonclassical
Quantum Physics
2026-04-20 v2 History and Philosophy of Physics
Abstract
In the literature, there are two differing definitions of contextuality: Kochen and Specker's, and Spekkens' (or ``generalised''). However, researchers using one of these definitions rarely consider the other, meaning comparative analysis of these two notions is rare. In this paper, we advance the idea that Kochen-Specker contextuality provides a generalisation of the idea of system being fundamentally nonclassical, while Spekkens' noncontextuality provides a generalisation of the idea of a system being classical. This allows us to reconcile the two approaches, as different stages in a hierarchy of classicality/nonclassicality.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2604.14319,
title = {Warring Contextualities -- Provably Classical vs Provably Nonclassical},
author = {Enrico Bozzetto and Jonte R. Hance},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.14319},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
16+14 pages, 2+1 figures. v2. Fig 1a fixed, added brief discussion of related results for (un)steerability