Harvesting Contextuality from the Vacuum

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: LeMaitre, Philip A.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866918322287673344
author LeMaitre, Philip A.
author_facet LeMaitre, Philip A.
contents Quantum contextuality is the notion that certain measurement scenarios do not admit a global description of their statistics and has been implicated as the source of quantum advantage in a number of quantum information protocols. It has been shown that contextuality generalizes the concepts of non-local entanglement and magic, and is an equivalent notion of non-classicality to Wigner negativity. In this paper, the protocol of contextuality harvesting is introduced and it is shown that Unruh-DeWitt models are capable of harvesting quantum contextuality from the vacuum of a massless scalar quantum field. In particular, it is shown that gapless systems can be made to harvest contextuality given a suitable choice of measurements. The harvested contextuality is also seen to behave similarly to harvested magic and can be larger in magnitude for specific parameter regimes. An Unruh-DeWitt qubit-qutrit system is also investigated, where it is shown that certain tradeoffs exist between the harvested contextuality of the qutrit and the harvested entanglement between the systems, and that there are harvesting regimes where the two resources can both be present. Some of the tools of contextuality, namely the contextual fraction, are also imported and used as general harvesting measures for any form of contextuality, including non-local entanglement and magic. Additionally, new criteria for genuine harvesting are put forward that also apply to individual systems, revealing new permissible harvesting parameter regimes.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_11773
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Harvesting Contextuality from the Vacuum
LeMaitre, Philip A.
Quantum Physics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Quantum contextuality is the notion that certain measurement scenarios do not admit a global description of their statistics and has been implicated as the source of quantum advantage in a number of quantum information protocols. It has been shown that contextuality generalizes the concepts of non-local entanglement and magic, and is an equivalent notion of non-classicality to Wigner negativity. In this paper, the protocol of contextuality harvesting is introduced and it is shown that Unruh-DeWitt models are capable of harvesting quantum contextuality from the vacuum of a massless scalar quantum field. In particular, it is shown that gapless systems can be made to harvest contextuality given a suitable choice of measurements. The harvested contextuality is also seen to behave similarly to harvested magic and can be larger in magnitude for specific parameter regimes. An Unruh-DeWitt qubit-qutrit system is also investigated, where it is shown that certain tradeoffs exist between the harvested contextuality of the qutrit and the harvested entanglement between the systems, and that there are harvesting regimes where the two resources can both be present. Some of the tools of contextuality, namely the contextual fraction, are also imported and used as general harvesting measures for any form of contextuality, including non-local entanglement and magic. Additionally, new criteria for genuine harvesting are put forward that also apply to individual systems, revealing new permissible harvesting parameter regimes.
title Harvesting Contextuality from the Vacuum
topic Quantum Physics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.11773