Contextuality and dichotomizations of random variables

DOI10.1007/S10701-021-00527-9zbMATH Open1485.81007arXiv2105.03718OpenAlexW4205274713MaRDI QIDQ2076331FDOQ2076331

Authors: Janne V. Kujala, Ehtibar N. Dzhafarov 

Publication date: 16 February 2022

Published in: Foundations of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The Contextuality-by-Default approach to determining and measuring the (non)contextuality of a system of random variables requires that every random variable in the system be represented by an equivalent set of dichotomous random variables. In this paper we present general principles that justify the use of dichotomizations and determine their choice. The main idea in choosing dichotomizations is that if the set of possible values of a random variable is endowed with a pre-topology (V-space), then the allowable dichotomizations split the space of possible values into two linked subsets ("linkednes" being a weak form of pre-topological connectedness). We primarily focus on two types of random variables most often encountered in practice: categorical and real-valued ones (including continuous random variables, greatly underrepresented in the contextuality literature). A categorical variable (one with a finite number of unordered values) is represented by all of its possible dichotomizations. If the values of a random variable are real numbers, then they are dichotomized by intervals above and below a variable cut point.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.03718

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zbMATH Keywords

random variablescontextualitydisturbancedichotomizationpre-topology

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Dichotomy, trichotomy of solutions to ordinary differential equations (34D09) Perturbations in context of PDEs (35B20) Contextuality in quantum theory (81P13) Quantum measurement theory, state operations, state preparations (81P15) Selfadjoint operator theory in quantum theory, including spectral analysis (81Q10)

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Cited In (3)

• Negative probabilities and contextuality
• On Hysteresis of Value Assignments to Observables during Changes of Context
• Contextuality in canonical systems of random variables

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