Finding quantitative aspects of quantum phenomena which cannot be explained
by any classical model has foundational importance for understanding the
boundary between classical and quantum theory. It also has practical
significance for identifying information processing tasks for which those
phenomena provide a quantum advantage. Using the framework of generalized
noncontextuality as our notion of classicality, we find one such nonclassical
feature within the phenomenology of quantum minimum error state discrimination.
Namely, we identify quantitative limits on the success probability for minimum
error state discrimination in any experiment described by a noncontextual
ontological model. These constraints constitute noncontextuality inequalities
that are violated by quantum theory, and this violation implies a quantum
advantage for state discrimination relative to noncontextual models.
Furthermore, our noncontextuality inequalities are robust to noise and are
operationally formulated, so that any experimental violation of the
inequalities is a witness of contextuality, independently of the validity of
quantum theory. Along the way, we introduce new methods for analyzing
noncontextuality scenarios, and demonstrate a tight connection between our
minimum error state discrimination scenario and a Bell scenario.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure