ArXiv Preprint Outlines Qubit-Based Extension of RCC5 Mereology for Vague Part-Whole Relations

The preprint converts the five crisp RCC5 relations into a quantum formalism by treating each relation as a qubit state whose superposition captures boundary indeterminacy. Set partitions replace Hilbert-space vectors to keep the representation closer to classical logic while still allowing interference effects between part-whole assignments. Classical RCC5 emerges exactly when all qubits are measured in the computational basis, confirming the quantized version is a strict generalization.

Bittner shows that qubit entropy directly quantifies the degree of mereological vagueness, offering a measurable information-theoretic cost absent from earlier philosophical treatments. The approach mirrors canonical quantization in physics but stays inside qualitative reasoning, avoiding continuous geometry. This supplies a discrete bridge between AI spatial reasoning systems and quantum information tools.

The work remains purely formal; no empirical test or implementation in existing qualitative-reasoning engines is provided. Extension to richer calculi such as RCC8 or 3D mereotopology is asserted but not executed. A concrete next step would be embedding the qubit RCC5 relations inside a quantum circuit simulator and measuring query accuracy against noisy boundary data.

If validated, the framework could supply new primitives for quantum-gravity approaches that treat spacetime regions as fundamentally vague, yet the paper supplies no mapping to specific physical models.