Contextuality and Nonlocality in Decaying Multipartite Systems

TL;DR

This paper investigates how decay processes in space-time influence the ability to reveal quantum contextuality and nonlocality, finding that decay generally does not diminish this ability unless specific space-time constraints are applied.

Contribution

It demonstrates that decay does not inherently destroy contextuality in quantum systems, but space-time constraints can make the detection of contextuality dependent on decay properties.

Findings

Decay does not generally diminish contextuality detection.

Space-time constraints can make contextuality criteria decay-dependent.

Bell's nonlocality tests are affected by decay processes.

Abstract

Everyday experience supports the existence of physical properties independent of observation in strong contrast to the predictions of quantum theory. In particular, existence of physical properties that are independent of the measurement context is prohibited for certain quantum systems. This property is known as contextuality. This paper studies whether the process of decay in space-time generally destroys the ability of revealing contextuality. We find that in the most general situation the decay property does not diminish this ability. However, applying certain constraints due to the space-time structure either on the time evolution of the decaying system or on the measurement procedure, the criteria revealing contextuality become inherently dependent on the decay property or an impossibility. In particular, we derive how the context-revealing setup known as Bell's nonlocality tests changes for decaying quantum systems. Our findings illustrate the interdependence between hidden and local hidden parameter theories and the role of time.