Spectral presheaves, kochen-specker contextuality, and quantale-valued relations

Dunne, Kevin (2018) Spectral presheaves, kochen-specker contextuality, and quantale-valued relations. Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science, EPTCS, 266. pp. 386-398. ISSN 2075-2180 (https://doi.org/10.4204/EPTCS.266.24)

[thumbnail of Dunne-EPTCS-2017-Spectral-presheaves-kochen-specker-contextuality]
Preview
 Text. Filename: Dunne_EPTCS_2017_Spectral_presheaves_kochen_specker_contextuality.pdf
Final Published Version
License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 logo
Download (173kB)| Preview

Abstract

In the topos approach to quantum theory of Doering and Isham the Kochen-Specker Theorem, which asserts the contextual nature of quantum theory, can be reformulated in terms of the global sections of a presheaf characterised by the Gelfand spectrum of a commutativeC-Algebra. In previous work we showed how this topos perspective can be generalised to a class of categories typically studied within the monoidal approach to quantum theory of Abramsky and Coecke, and in particular how one can generalise the Gelfand spectrum. Here we study the Gelfand spectrum presheaf for categories of quantale-valued relations, and by considering its global sections we give a non-contextuality result for these categories. We also show that the Gelfand spectrum comes equipped with a topology which has a natural interpretation when thinking of these structures as representing physical theories.

CORE (COnnecting REpositories)