Related papers: Are quantum states real?
Quantum mechanics is a cornerstone of our current understanding of nature and extremely successful in describing physics covering a huge range of scales. However, its interpretation remains controversial since the early days of quantum…
We consider a conception of reality that is the following: An object is 'real' if we know that if we would try to test whether this object is present, this test would give us the answer 'yes' with certainty. If we consider a conception of…
Departing from the usual paradigm of local operations and classical communication adopted in entanglement theory, here we study the interconversion of quantum states by means of local operations and shared randomness. A set of necessary and…
Based on a clear ontology of material individuals, we analyze in detail the factual semantics of quantum theory, and argue that the basic mathematical formalism of quantum theory is just okay with (a certain form of ) realism and that it is…
We present a new characterization of quantum theory in terms of simple physical principles that is different from previous ones in two important respects: first, it only refers to properties of single systems without any assumptions on the…
According to quantum theory, a scientist in a sealed laboratory cannot tell whether they are inside a superposition or not. Consequently, so long as they remain isolated, they can assume without inconsistency that their measurements result…
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…
Ryff's Comment raises the question of the meaning of the quantum state. We argue that the quantum state is just the representative of information available to a given observer. Then Ryff's interpretation of one of our experiments and our…
Does information play a significant role in the foundations of physics? Information is the abstraction that allows us to refer to the states of systems when we choose to ignore the systems themselves. This is only possible in very…
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 $2^2=4$…
Under the principle that quantum mechanical observables are invariant under relevant symmetry transformations, we explore how the usual, non-invariant quantities may capture measurement statistics. Using a relativisation mapping, viewed as…
We argue from the point of view of statistical inference that the quantum relative entropy is a good measure for distinguishing between two quantum states (or two classes of quantum states) described by density matrices. We extend this…
We derive a necessary condition for the existence of a completely-positive, linear, trace-preserving map which deterministically transforms one finite set of pure quantum states into another. This condition is also sufficient for…
The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen argument on quantum mechanics incompleteness is formulated in terms of elements of reality inferred from joint (as opposed to alternative) measurements, in two examples involving entangled states of three…
A theory of quantum measurement was introduced some time ago that was based on the notion of the so-called separation status. This separation status had a spatial, local character, so that the theory worked only in special cases.…
The recently established universal uncertainty principle revealed that two nowhere commuting observables can be measured simultaneously in some state, whereas they have no joint probability distribution in any state. Thus, one measuring…
We consider ontological models of a quantum system, assuming that not all probability distributions over the space $\Lambda$ of ontic states are preparable, only those belonging to a certain set C. We assume further that every POVM with a…
The paper investigates the epistemic conception of quantum states---the view that quantum states are not descriptions of quantum systems but rather reflect the assigning agents' epistemic relations to the systems. This idea, which can be…
A general quantum theory encompassing Mechanics, Thermodynamics and irreversible dynamics is presented in two parts. The first part is concerned exclusively with the description of the states of any individual physical system. It is based…
Taking into account the results that we have been obtained during the last decade in the foundations of quantum mechanic we put forward a view on reality that we call the 'creation discovery view'. In this view it is made explicit that a…