Related papers: Phase groups and the origin of non-locality for qu…
Spekkens has introduced a toy theory [Phys. Rev. A, 75, 032110 (2007)] in order to argue for an epistemic view of quantum states. I describe a notation for the theory (excluding certain joint measurements) which makes its similarities and…
While quantum theory cannot be described by a local hidden variable model, it is nevertheless possible to construct such models that exhibit features commonly associated with quantum mechanics. These models are also used to explore the…
In order to better understand a complex theory like quantum mechanics, it is sometimes useful to take a step back and create alternative theories, with more intuitive foundations, and examine which features of quantum mechanics can be…
Spekkens' toy theory is a non-contextual hidden variable model with an epistemic restriction, a constraint on what the observer can know about the reality. It has been shown in [3] that for qudits of odd dimensions it is operationally…
We provide two mathematical descriptions of Spekkens's toy qubit theory, an inductively one in terms of a small set of generators, as well as an explicit closed form description. It is a subcategory MSpek of the category of finite sets,…
We investigate the strengths and limitations of the Spekkens toy model, which is a local hidden variable model that replicates many important properties of quantum dynamics. First, we present a set of five axioms that fully encapsulate…
Spekkens' toy model is a non-contextual hidden variable model with an epistemic restriction, a constraint on what an observer can know about reality. The aim of the model, developed for continuous and discrete prime degrees of freedom, is…
The framework of generalized probabilistic theories (GPTs) is a popular approach for studying the physical foundations of quantum theory. The standard framework assumes the no-restriction hypothesis, in which the state space of a physical…
A century after the advent of Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity, both theories enjoy incredible empirical success, constituting the cornerstones of modern physics. Yet, paradoxically, they suffer from deep-rooted, so-far intractable,…
We apply the geometric quantization procedure via symplectic groupoids proposed by E. Hawkins to the setting of epistemically restricted toy theories formalized by Spekkens. In the continuous degrees of freedom, this produces the algebraic…
We map Spekkens' toy model to a quantum mechanics defined over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_5$. This allows us to define arbitrary linear combinations of the epistemic states in the model. For Spekkens' elementary system with only $2^2=4$…
We classify, up to local unitary equivalence, the set of $n$-qubit states that is stabilized by the diagonal subgroup of the local unitary group. We exhibit a basis for this set, parameterized by diagrams of nonintersecting chords…
We develop the quantum component of Algebraic Phase Theory by showing that quantum phase, Weyl noncommutativity, and stabiliser codes arise as unavoidable algebraic consequences of Frobenius duality. Working over finite commutative…
Topologically-ordered phases are stable to local perturbations, and topological quantum error-correcting codes enjoy thresholds to local errors. We connect the two notions of stability by constructing classical statistical mechanics models…
We show that Rob Spekken's toy quantum theory arises as an instance of our categorical approach to quantum axiomatics, as a (proper) subcategory of the dagger compact category FRel of finite sets and relations with the cartesian product as…
What can we learn about quantum gravity from a simple toy model, without actually quantizing it? The toy model consists of a finite number of point particles, coupled to three dimensional Einstein gravity. It has finitely many physical…
In all local realistic theories worked out till now, locality is considered as a basic assumption. Most people in the field consider the inconsistency between local realistic theories and quantum mechanics to be a result of non-local nature…
The toy model used by Spekkens [R. Spekkens, Phys. Rev. A 75, 032110 (2007)] to argue in favor of an epistemic view of quantum mechanics is extended by generalizing his definition of pure states (i.e. states of maximal knowledge) and by…
In this paper we study the conjectural relation between confinement in a quantum field theory and the presence of a phase transition in its corresponding entanglement entropy. We determine the sufficient conditions for the latter and…
The characterization of an infinite-order quantum phase transition (QPT) by entanglement measures is analyzed. To this aim, we consider two closely related solvable spin-1/2 chains, namely, the Ashkin-Teller and the staggered XXZ models.…