One of the fundamental results in quantum foundations is the Kochen-Specker no-go theorem. For the quantum theory, the no-go theorem excludes the possibility of a class of hidden variable models where value attribution is context independent. Recently, the notion of contextuality has been generalized for different operational procedures and it has been shown that preparation contextuality of mixed quantum states can be a useful resource in an information-processing task called parityoblivious multiplexing. Here, we introduce a new class of information processing tasks, namely d-level parity oblivious random access codes and obtain bounds on the success probabilities of performing such tasks in any preparation noncontextual theory. These bounds constitute noncontextuality inequalities for any value of d. For d = 3, using a set of mutually asymmetric biased bases we show that the corresponding noncontextual bound is violated by quantum theory. We also show quantum violation of the inequalities for some other higher values of d. This reveals operational usefulness of preparation contextuality of higher level quantum systems.

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Nonlocal correlations are useful for device independent (DI) randomness certification [Nature (London) 464, 1021 (2010)]. The advantage of this DI protocol over the conventional quantum protocol is that randomness can be certified even when experimental apparatuses are not trusted. Quantum entanglement is the necessary physical source for the nonlocal correlation required for such DI task. However, nonlocality and entanglement are distinct concepts. There exist entangled states which produce no nonlocal correlation and hence are not useful for the DI randomness certification task. Here we introduce the measurement-device-independent randomness certification task where one has trusted quantum state preparation device but the mesurement devices are completely unspecified. Interestingly we show that there exist entangled states, with local description, that are useful resource in such task which otherwise are useless in corresponding DI scenario.

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The predictions of quantum theory resist generalised noncontextual explanations. In addition to the foundational relevance of this fact, the particular extent to which quantum theory violates noncontextuality limits available quantum advantage in communication and information processing. In the first part of this work, we formally define contextuality scenarios via prepare-and-measure experiments, along with the polytope of general contextual behaviours containing the set of quantum contextual behaviours. This framework allows us to recover several properties of set of quantum behaviours in these scenarios, including contextuality scenarios and associated noncontextuality inequalities that require for their violation the individual quantum preparation and measurement procedures to be mixed states and unsharp measurements. With the framework in place, we formulate novel semidefinite programming relaxations for bounding these sets of quantum contextual behaviours. Most significantly, to circumvent the inadequacy of pure states and projective measurements in contextuality scenarios, we present a novel unitary operator based semidefinite relaxation technique. We demonstrate the efficacy of these relaxations by obtaining tight upper bounds on the quantum violation of several noncontextuality inequalities and identifying novel maximally contextual quantum strategies. To further illustrate the versatility of these relaxations, we demonstrate monogamy of preparation contextuality in a tripartite setting, and present a secure semi-device independent quantum key distribution scheme powered by quantum advantage in parity oblivious random access codes.

Based on an intuitive generalization of the Leibniz principle of `the identity of indiscernibles', we introduce a novel ontological notion of classicality, called bounded ontological distinctness. Formulated as a principle, bounded ontological distinctness equates the distinguishability of a set of operational physical entities to the distinctness of their ontological counterparts. Employing three instances of two-dimensional quantum preparations, we demonstrate the violation of bounded ontological distinctness or excess ontological distinctness of quantum preparations, without invoking any additional assumptions. Moreover, our methodology enables the inference of tight lower bounds on the extent of excess ontological distinctness of quantum preparations. Similarly, we demonstrate excess ontological distinctness of quantum transformations, using three two-dimensional unitary transformations. However, to demonstrate excess ontological distinctness of quantum measurements, an additional assumption such as outcome determinism or bounded ontological distinctness of preparations is required. Moreover, we show that quantum violations of other well-known ontological principles implicate quantum excess ontological distinctness. Finally, to showcase the operational vitality of excess ontological distinctness, we introduce two distinct classes of communication tasks powered by excess ontological distinctness.

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We introduce a new feature of no-signaling (Bell) non-local theories, namely, when a system of multiple parties manifests genuine non-local correlation, then there cannot be arbitrarily high nonlocal correlation among any subset of the parties. We call this feature, complementarity of genuine multipartite non-locality. We use Svetlichny's criterion for genuine multipartite non-locality and nonlocal games to derive the complementarity relations under no-signaling constraints. We find that the complementarity relations are tightened for the much stricter quantum constraints. We compare this notion with the well-known notion of monogamy of non-locality. As a consequence, we obtain tighter non-trivial monogamy relations that take into account genuine multipartite non-locality. Furthermore, we provide numerical evidence showcasing this feature using a bipartite measure and several other well-known tripartite measures of non-locality. arXiv:1603.09120v4 [quant-ph]