Quantum Contextuality and Entanglement-Free Grover Search in a Trapped-Ion Optical Qudit

Quantum Physics arXiv:2608.04128 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 4 Aug 2026] Title:Quantum Contextuality and Entanglement-Free Grover Search in a Trapped-Ion Optical Qudit Authors:Tarun Dutta, Jasper Phua Sing Cheng, Alex Jin, Sergi Ramos-Calderer, José Ignacio Latorre, Manas Mukherjee View a PDF of the paper titled Quantum Contextuality and Entanglement-Free Grover Search in a Trapped-Ion Optical Qudit, by Tarun Dutta and 5 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Quantum computational advantage is generally attributed to coherent interference and other non-classical resources, yet their respective roles remain difficult to disentangle in experimental platforms where multipartite entanglement is inherently present. High-dimensional quantum systems provide an attractive route for investigating these resources while simultaneously reducing hardware overhead for quantum information processing. Here we realize a programmable four-dimensional optical qudit encoded in a single trapped $^{138}\mathrm{Ba}^{+}$ ion and demonstrate universal coherent control through phase-programmable optical rotations. Using this platform, we implement an entanglement-free realization of Grover's quantum search algorithm, achieving target-state identification probabilities of up to $94.5\pm2.0\%$. Within the same processor, we further demonstrate state-dependent quantum contextuality through a Clauser--Horne--Shimony--Holt (CHSH)-type noncontextuality inequality, obtaining a maximum violation of $S = 2.816 \pm 0.082$, in close agreement with the Tsirelson bound. By integrating programmable quantum computation and contextuality measurements within a single multilevel trapped-ion platform, our work establishes a versatile architecture for investigating the relationship between coherent interference and contextuality in quantum information processing and provides a scalable route toward high-dimensional quantum technologies. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2608.04128 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2608.04128v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.04128 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Tarun Dutta [view email] [v1] Tue, 4 Aug 2026 18:27:03 UTC (5,070 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Quantum Contextuality and Entanglement-Free Grover Search in a Trapped-Ion Optical Qudit, by Tarun Dutta and 5 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-08 Change to browse by: physics physics.atom-ph References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)