Connecting quantum contextuality and nonlocality

Jianqi Sheng

1,2,*

Dongkai Zhang

1,*

Lixiang Chen

1,*

*Correspondence to: Jianqi Sheng, Department of Physics, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, Fujian, China; Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. E-mail: sheng.jq@city.edu.hk
Dongkai Zhang, Department of Physics, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, Fujian, China. E-mail: zhangdk@hqu.edu.cn
Lixiang Chen, Department of Physics, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, Fujian, China. E-mail: chenlx@xmu.edu.cn

Light Manip Appl. 2026;1:202608. 10.70401/lma.2026.0017

Received: March 14, 2026Accepted: July 28, 2026Published: July 28, 2026

This manuscript is made available in its unedited form to allow early access to the reported findings. Further editing will be completed before final publication. As such, the content may include errors, and standard legal disclaimers are applicable.

Abstract

Quantum theory departs from classical physics in its treatment of correlations, most prominently through the phenomena of contextuality and nonlocality. Once regarded primarily as foundational curiosities, these efects are now understood as key operational resources for quantum computation, communication, and simulation. Although traditionally investigated in distinct settings, recent theoretical and experimental advances have revealed deep conceptual, mathematical, and operational connections between them. This review presents a unified perspective on these developments based on sheaf-theoretic and graph-theoretic frameworks, which provide theory-independent characterizations of statistical correlations. These approaches clarify the structural relationship between contextuality and nonlocality, facilitate the formulation of experimentally testable inequalities, and guide implementations in realistic physical platforms, with particular emphasis on photonic systems. By bridging abstract theoretical structures and concrete experimental realizations, this review sheds light on the nonclassical foundations of quantum correlations and their emerging role in quantum technologies.

Keywords

Quantum correlations, quantum structured light, nonlocality, contextuality

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