Quantum Theory, namely the pure and reversible theory of information

Abstract

After more than a century since its birth, Quantum Theory still eludes our understanding. If asked to describe it, we have to resort to abstract and ad hoc principles about complex Hilbert spaces. How is it possible that a fundamental physical theory cannot be described using the ordinary language of Physics? Here we offer a contribution to the problem from the angle of Quantum Information, providing a short non-technical presentation of a recent derivation of Quantum Theory from information-theoretic principles. The broad picture emerging from the principles is that Quantum Theory is the only standard theory of information compatible with the purity and reversibility of physical processes.

arXiv comment20 pages, 3 figures, contribution to the Special Issue: Selected Papers from Symposium on Natural/Unconventional Computing and Its Philosophical Significance. This paper is meant to be an introduction for non-specialists to the main results of arXiv:1011.6451 and arXiv:0908.1583

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Cited by in corpus (20)

• Quantum from principles
• The completeness of quantum theory for predicting measurement outcomes
• Quasi-quantization: classical statistical theories with an epistemic restriction
• Introduction to the book "Quantum Theory: Informational Foundations and Foils"
• Reasonable fermionic quantum information theories require relativity
• Entanglement and thermodynamics in general probabilistic theories
• Dilation of states and processes in operational-probabilistic theories
• Categorical Probabilistic Theories
• Bridging the gap between general probabilistic theories and the device-independent framework for nonlocality and contextuality
• Operational axioms for diagonalizing states
• Device-independent test of causal order and relations to fixed-points
• Building the Observer into the System: Toward a Realistic Description of Human Interaction with the World
• Interferometric computation beyond quantum theory
• Agents, subsystems, and the conservation of information
• Reversibility and the structure of the local state space
• Reversible Dynamics in Strongly Non-Local Boxworld Systems
• Conservation of information and the foundations of quantum mechanics
• Process tomography in general physical theories
• Generalized Probabilistic Theories in a New Light
• Information-theoretic derivation of energy, speed bounds, and quantum theory