A complete classification of the existence of finite-dimensional quantum solutions to inconsistent linear constraint systems

Abstract

Linear constraint systems (LCS) provide a compact algebraic language for nonlocal games and state-independent contextuality. In the binary case the Mermin--Peres square shows that inconsistent LCS can be solved by promoting variables to local Pauli operators, whereas a series of no-go results excludes analogous Pauli-, Clifford- and monomial unitary-based constructions at odd prime modulus. We first isolate the reason for this difference: for tensor-product quantum solutions, the obstruction to a classical solution of a LCS over $\mathbb{Z}_n$ decomposes into obstruction classes carried by the individual factors. As a consequence, a genuinely global obstruction cannot arise solely by tensoring locally unobstructed systems. The argument is specific to odd modulus; at even modulus the reordering phase need not vanish, as in Pauli-based examples. Given this distinction, we instead associate LCS to finite arrangements of rank-one projectors and resolutions of the identity in finite-dimensional vector spaces. Quantum solvability for such LCS is automatic and the search for a quantum-classical gap rests entirely on proving classical unsatisfiability of the underlying modular incidence problem of the arrangement. By relating such LCS with group-valued frame functions, we identify a family of examples in the work of [Harding, Jager, and Smith, Int. J. Theor. Phys. 44, 539 (2005)]. To establish the (non)existence of classically unsatisfiable LCS over $\mathbb{Z}_n$ with quantum solutions in all dimensions $d$ and for all $n\in\mathbb{N}$, we further construct explicit examples for the cases $d=n$ prime. Our main result thus positively resolves the existence problem of such LCS beyond the binary case: such systems exist if and only if $d\geq 3$ and $\gcd(n,d)>1$. Moreover, we establish the existence of LCS with a quantum-classical gap over finite fields if and only if $d\geq 3$ and $p\mid d$.