English

Particle exchange in post-quantum theories

Quantum Physics 2013-11-05 v2

Abstract

In quantum theory, particles in three spatial dimensions come in two different types: bosons or fermions, which exhibit sharply contrasting behaviours due to their different exchange statistics. Could more general forms of probabilistic theories admit more exotic types of particles? Here, we propose a thought experiment to identify more exotic particles in general post-quantum theories. We consider how in quantum theory the phase introduced by swapping indistinguishable particles can be measured. We generalise this to post-quantum scenarios whilst imposing indistinguishability and locality principles. We show that our ability to witness exotic particle exchange statistics depends on which symmetries are admitted within a theory. These exotic particles can manifest unusual behaviour, such as non-abelianicity even in topologically simple three-dimensional space.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1307.2529,
  title  = {Particle exchange in post-quantum theories},
  author = {Oscar C. O. Dahlsten and Andrew J. P. Garner and Jayne Thompson and Mile Gu and Vlatko Vedral},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1307.2529},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

4 pages + 1 page appendix, 2 figures. Comments welcome

R2 v1 2026-06-22T00:48:24.743Z