Memory cost of quantum contextuality

TL;DR

This paper investigates the classical memory resources needed to simulate quantum contextuality, revealing that such simulations require more memory than the quantum system's information capacity, highlighting fundamental differences between quantum and classical physics.

Contribution

It provides the first quantitative analysis of memory costs in simulating quantum contextuality and derives optimal strategies demonstrating the high classical resource requirements.

Findings

Memory cost exceeds the quantum system's information capacity.

Optimal simulation strategies are identified for key cases.

Memory is the critical resource for simulating quantum contextuality.

Abstract

The simulation of quantum effects requires certain classical resources, and quantifying them is an important step in order to characterize the difference between quantum and classical physics. For a simulation of the phenomenon of state-independent quantum contextuality, we show that the minimal amount of memory used by the simulation is the critical resource. We derive optimal simulation strategies for important cases and prove that reproducing the results of sequential measurements on a two-qubit system requires more memory than the information carrying capacity of the system.