# Weekly Papers on Quantum Foundations (32)

This is a list of this week’s papers on quantum foundations published in the various journals or uploaded to the preprint servers such as arxiv.org and PhilSci Archive.

Local Realism in Quantum Many Worlds. (arXiv:1508.01335v1 [quant-ph])

on 2015-8-08 8:08am GMT

Fundamental principle of classical physics — local realism, means that freely chosen observations can be explained by a local (slower than light) real process. It is apparently violated in quantum mechanics as shown by Bell theorem. Despite extreme efforts experiments have not conclusively confirmed this violation due to loopholes. We propose a new postulate that the description of quantum processes must be consistent with local realism, It also assumes existence of many worlds/copies of the same system, interacting weakly microscopically but strongly macroscopically, whose number can be estimated experimentally.Bell theorem will never address a real experiment because its assumptions cannot be strictly fulfilled. By an appropriate generalization of quantum framework and measurement postulates, in particular taking into account freedom of choice, local realism agrees with quantum mechanics and the performed experiments, also involving single qubit coherence and a weaker version of the Bell test, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering.

Objectivity of Quantum Measurement in Many-Observer World. (arXiv:1508.01489v1 [quant-ph])

on 2015-8-08 8:08am GMT

Authors: Sheng-Wen LiC. Y. CaiX. F. LiuC. P. Sun

The objectivity of quantum measurement is treated as an emergent phenomenon with $N$ observers who can agree to the same result of measurement, and meanwhile, they can identify their records with each other. In this many-observer world (MOW), an objective quantum measurement is dealt with as a multipartite [$(N+1)$-body] quantum correlation among the measured system and $N$ observers when its bipartite reductions are the same classical correlations. With this conceptual clarification, we find that, an objective quantum measurement is implemented if and only if the MOW is initially factorized in a pure state and then the total system can evolve into a generalized GHZ state with respect to the orthogonal basis preferred by each observer. Especially, such objective quantum measurement is recast in ideal classical correlation when the observer world is macroscopic for $N\rightarrow\infty$.

Elementary test for non-classicality based on measurements of position and momentum. (arXiv:1508.00828v1 [quant-ph])

on 2015-8-05 8:49am GMT

We generalise a non-classicality test described by Kot et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 233601 (2010)], which can be used to rule out any classical description of a physical system. The test is based on measurements of quadrature operators and works by proving a contradiction with the classical description in terms of a probability distribution in phase space. As opposed to the previous work, we generalise the test to include states without rotational symmetry in phase space. Furthermore, we compare the performance of the non-classicality test with classical tomography methods based on the inverse Radon transform, which can also be used to establish the quantum nature of a physical system. In particular, we consider a non-classicality test based on the so-called filtered back-projection formula. We show that the general non-classicality test is conceptually simpler, requires less assumptions on the system and is statistically more reliable than the tests based on the filtered back-projection formula. As a specific example, we derive the optimal test for a quadrature squeezed single photon state and show that the efficiency of the test does not change with the degree of squeezing.

Quantum Logic and Geometric quantization. (arXiv:1508.00774v1 [math-ph])

on 2015-8-05 8:49am GMT

Authors: Simone Camosso

A study about possible connections between geometric quantization and quantum logic is presented.

Consistent quantum measurements

ScienceDirect Publication: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics

on 2015-8-05 3:35am GMT

Publication date: Available online 4 August 2015
Source:Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
Author(s): Robert B. Griffiths
In response to recent criticisms by Okon and Sudarsky, various aspects of the consistent histories (CH) resolution of the quantum measurement problem(s) are discussed using a simple Stern‐Gerlach device, and compared with the alternative approaches to the measurement problem provided by spontaneous localization (GRW), Bohmian mechanics, many worlds, and standard (textbook) quantum mechanics. Among these CH is unique in solving the second measurement problem: inferring from the measurement outcome a property of the measured system at a time before the measurement took place, as is done routinely by experimental physicists. The main respect in which CH differs from other quantum interpretations is in allowing multiple stochastic descriptions of a given measurement situation, from which one (or more) can be selected on the basis of its utility. This requires abandoning a principle (termed unicity), central to classical physics, that at any instant of time there is only a single correct description of the world.

Ideal clocks—a convenient fiction

Classical and Quantum Gravity – latest papers

on 2015-8-04 12:00am GMT

We show that no device built according to the rules of quantum field theory can measure proper time along its path. Highly accelerated quantum clocks experience the Unruh effect, which inevitably influences their time rate. This contradicts the concept of an ideal clock, whose rate should only depend on the instantaneous velocity.

Long-Time Asymptotics of a Bohmian Scalar Quantum Field in de Sitter Space-Time. (arXiv:1507.08542v1 [quant-ph])

on 2015-8-02 7:55am GMT

Authors: Roderich Tumulka

We consider a model quantum field theory with a scalar quantum field in de Sitter space-time in a Bohmian version with a field ontology, i.e., an actual field configuration $\varphi({\bf x},t)$ guided by a wave function on the space of field configurations. We analyze the asymptotics at late times ($t\to\infty$) and provide reason to believe that for more or less any wave function and initial field configuration, every Fourier coefficient $\varphi_{\bf k}(t)$ of the field is asymptotically of the form $c_{\bf k}\sqrt{1+{\bf k}^2 \exp(-2Ht)/H^2}$, where the limiting coefficients $c_{\bf k}=\varphi_{\bf k}(\infty)$ are independent of $t$ and $H$ is the Hubble constant quantifying the expansion rate of de Sitter space-time. In particular, every field mode $\varphi_{\bf k}$ possesses a limit as $t\to\infty$ and thus “freezes.” This result is relevant to the question whether Boltzmann brains form in the late universe according to this theory, and supports that they do not.

Non-local beables. (arXiv:1507.08576v1 [quant-ph])

on 2015-8-02 7:55am GMT

Authors: Lee Smolin

I discuss the idea that the beables underlying quantum physics are non-local and relational, and give an example of a dynamical theory of such beables based on a matrix model, which is the bosonic sector of the BFSS model. Given that the same model has been proposed as a description of M theory, this shows that quantum mechanics may be emergent from a theory of gravity from which space is also emergent.

The role of heuristic appraisal in conflicting assessments of string theory

ScienceDirect Publication: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics

on 2015-8-02 3:21am GMT

Publication date: August 2015
Source:Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, Volume 51
Author(s): Kristian Camilleri, Sophie Ritson
Over the last three decades, string theory has emerged as one of the leading hopes for a consistent theory of quantum gravity that unifies particle physics with general relativity. Despite the fact that string theory has been a thriving research program for the better part of three decades, it has been subjected to extensive criticism from a number of prominent physicists. The aim of this paper is to obtain a clearer picture of where the conflict lies in competing assessments of string theory, through a close reading of the argumentative strategies employed by protagonists on both sides. Although it has become commonplace to construe this debate as stemming from different attitudes to the absence of testable predictions, we argue that this presents an overly simplified view of the controversy, which ignores the critical role of heuristic appraisal. While string theorists and their defenders see the theoretical achievements of the string theory program as providing strong indication that it is ‘on the right track’, critics have challenged such claims, by calling into question the status of certain ‘solved problems’ and its purported ‘explanatory coherence’. The debates over string theory are therefore particularly instructive from a philosophical point of view, not only because they offer important insights into the nature of heuristic appraisal and theoretical progress, but also because they raise deep questions about what constitutes a solved problem and an explanation in fundamental physics.

Free Quantum Field Theory from Quantum Cellular Automata

Latest Results for Foundations of Physics

on 2015-8-02 12:00am GMT

Abstract

After leading to a new axiomatic derivation of quantum theory (see D’Ariano et al. in Found Phys, 2015), the new informational paradigm is entering the domain of quantum field theory, suggesting a quantum automata framework that can be regarded as an extension of quantum field theory to including an hypothetical Planck scale, and with the usual quantum field theory recovered in the relativistic limit of small wave-vectors. Being derived from simple principles (linearity, unitarity, locality, homogeneity, isotropy, and minimality of dimension), the automata theory is quantum ab-initio, and does not assume Lorentz covariance and mechanical notions. Being discrete it can describe localized states and measurements (unmanageable by quantum field theory), solving all the issues plaguing field theory originated from the continuum. These features make the theory an ideal framework for quantum gravity, with relativistic covariance and space-time emergent solely from the interactions, and not assumed a priori. The paper presents a synthetic derivation of the automata theory, showing how the principles lead to a description in terms of a quantum automaton over a Cayley graph of a group. Restricting to Abelian groups we show how the automata recover the Weyl, Dirac and Maxwell dynamics in the relativistic limit. We conclude with some new routes about the more general scenario of non-Abelian Cayley graphs. The phenomenology arising from the automata theory in the ultra-relativistic domain and the analysis of corresponding distorted Lorentz covariance is reviewed in Bisio et al. (Found Phys 2015, in this same issue).