title:

Leifer’s Generalized Zeno Effect is a proof of Contextuality

abstract:

The field of quantum foundations probes the boundary between genuinely quantum and semi-classical phenomena. Modern hidden variable theories allow us to emulate aspects of quantum mechanics, like entanglement and uncertainty relations, previously attributed exclusively to quantum models. Contextuality, a generalization of Bell nonlocality, captures this essence of “quantum weirdness”.  One way to prove contextuality for a given phenomenon involves showing measurement statistics cannot be reproduced by modern hidden variable models. This thesis concerns Zeno-type effects which involve performing frequent projective measurements to “freeze” the time evolution of a quantum state. Matthew Leifer recently argued the quantum Zeno effect only occurs in contextual models. We utilize a noncontextual model of operational process theories to find a probability bound of successfully freezing this evolution.