Graph-theoretic approach to dimension witnessing

Abstract A fundamental problem in quantum computation and quantum information is finding the minimum quantum dimension needed for a task. For tasks involving state preparation and measurements, this problem can be addressed using only the input–output correlations. This has been applied to Bell, prepare-and-measure, and Kochen–Specker contextuality scenarios. Here, we introduce a novel approach to quantum dimension witnessing for scenarios with one preparation and several measurements, which uses the graphs of mutual exclusivity between sets of measurement events. We present the concepts and tools needed for graph-theoretic quantum dimension witnessing and illustrate their use by identifying novel quantum dimension witnesses, including a family that can certify arbitrarily high quantum dimensions with few events.