Sheaf-Theoretic Preparation Contextuality
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2605.00975 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 1 May 2026] Title:Sheaf-Theoretic Preparation Contextuality Authors:Tom Williams, Mina Doosti, Farid Shahandeh View a PDF of the paper titled Sheaf-Theoretic Preparation Contextuality, by Tom Williams and 2 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:We introduce a preparation-dual notion of contextuality, formulated as an obstruction to stochastic extension. In parallel with the sheaf-theoretic formulation of measurement contextuality, preparation contextuality arises when locally specified preparation statistics cannot be extended to a single global response matrix compatible with all source contexts. Whereas measurement contextuality concerns the incompatibility of restriction maps (marginalisation), the preparation setting requires stochastic extension of partial conditioning data, which is inherently non-unique. We identify minimal structural and preparation compatibility conditions on admissible extension matrices and show that they enforce a rigid product form. This leads to a notion of preparation contextuality in which the absence of any admissible global response representation witnesses contextuality, while preparation compatibility identifies the cases in which this obstruction is nontrivial. The framework is formulated explicitly in matrix form and illustrated by a quantum-mechanical example exhibiting preparation contextuality. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2605.00975 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2605.00975v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.00975 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Tom Williams Mr [view email] [v1] Fri, 1 May 2026 18:00:00 UTC (19 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Sheaf-Theoretic Preparation Contextuality, by Tom Williams and 2 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-05 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?)