For a class of quantum systems that exhibit contextuality, a rigorous theoretical connection between anomalous heat flow and quantumness is established, thereby opening avenues to explore nonclassical...

arXiv abstract link

This article examines the fine-tuning problem in quantum contextuality, where distinctions at the ontological level vanish at the operational level. It explores how this disappearance might be explained through a physical process of information erasure, tied to entropy and potential heat dissipation, echoing earlier ideas like Valentini’s quantum equilibrium. By reframing ontological models as fundamental theories, the piece suggests that quantum theory itself could emerge from a deeper layer of physics, resolving the apparent paradox of contextuality.

Recent experiments utilising IBM’s noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) processors demonstrate definitive violations of non-contextual hidden variable bounds, specifically through the largest recorded breaches of the Rio Negro inequality and the first successful violation of the classical Mermin game on such hardware, facilitated by the application of finite geometries to generate robust statistical datasets for comparative analysis of quantum contextuality.

Researchers prove that even with the most flexible measurement techniques, quantum systems cannot fully replicate certain extreme correlations, demonstrating a fundamental limit to how quantum mechanics differs from classical randomness.

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Quantum computing promises advantages over classical computing for certain problems; now ‘quantum contextuality’ — a generalization of the concept of quantum non-locality — is shown to be a critical r...