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Quantum Information Theory and the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics

Online ISBN:
9780191741791
Print ISBN:
9780199296460
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Quantum Information Theory and the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics

Christopher G. Timpson
Christopher G. Timpson
Brasenose College, Oxford
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Published online:
26 September 2013
Published in print:
25 April 2013
Online ISBN:
9780191741791
Print ISBN:
9780199296460
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book is a conceptual analysis of quantum information theory and the questions it raises for our understanding of the quantum world. Beginning from a detailed analysis of the concepts of information in the everyday and classical (Shannon) information-theory settings, an ontologically deflationary account of the nature of quantum information is developed. The account provided sheds light on the nature of nonlocality and information flow in the presence of entanglement and, in particular, dissolves puzzles surrounding the process of quantum teleportation. In addition, it permits a clear view of what the ontological and methodological lessons provided by quantum information theory are; lessons which bear on the gripping question of what role a concept like information has to play in fundamental physics. With a clear grasp of the concept of information in hand, attention turns to the pressing question whether advances in quantum information theory pave the way for the resolution of the traditional conceptual problems of quantum mechanics: the deep problems which loom over measurement, nonlocality and the general nature of quantum ontology. A number of common pitfalls are marked-out to be avoided before some concrete proposals are analysed in detail, including the radical quantum Bayesian programme of Caves, Fuchs and Schack. One central moral which is drawn is that, for all the interest that the quantum information-inspired approaches hold, no cheap resolutions to the traditional problems of quantum mechanics are to be had.

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