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Contextuality is a key feature of quantum mechanics that provides an important non-classical resource for quantum information and computation. Abramsky and Brandenburger used sheaf theory to give a general treatment of contextuality in quantum theory [New Journal of Physics 13 (2011) 113036]. However, contextual phenomena are found in other fields as well, for example database theory. In this paper, we shall develop this unified view of contextuality. We provide two main contributions: firstly, we expose a remarkable connection between contexuality and logical paradoxes; secondly, we show that an important class of contextuality arguments has a topological origin. More specifically, we show that "All-vs-Nothing" proofs of contextuality are witnessed by cohomological obstructions.
@InProceedings{abramsky_et_al:LIPIcs.CSL.2015.211,
author = {Abramsky, Samson and Soares Barbosa, Rui and Kishida, Kohei and Lal, Raymond and Mansfield, Shane},
title = {{Contextuality, Cohomology and Paradox}},
booktitle = {24th EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science Logic (CSL 2015)},
pages = {211--228},
series = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
ISBN = {978-3-939897-90-3},
ISSN = {1868-8969},
year = {2015},
volume = {41},
editor = {Kreutzer, Stephan},
publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
address = {Dagstuhl, Germany},
URL = {https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CSL.2015.211},
URN = {urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-54166},
doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.CSL.2015.211},
annote = {Keywords: Quantum mechanics, contextuality, sheaf theory, cohomology, logical paradoxes}
}