Indistinguishability and the origins of contextuality in physics

Abstract

In this work we discuss a formal way of dealing with properties of contextual systems. Our approach is to assume that properties describing the same physical quantity, but belonging to different measurement contexts, are indistinguishable in a strong sense. To construct the formal theoretical structure, we develop a description using quasi-set theory, which is a set-theoretical framework built to describe collections of elements that violate Leibnitz's principle of identity of indiscernibles. This allows us to consider a new ontology in order to study properties of quantum systems.