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Complex processes often arise from sequences of simpler interactions involving a few particles at a time. These interactions, however, may not be directly accessible to experiments. Here we develop the first efficient method for unravelling…
Investigating the role of causal order in quantum mechanics has recently revealed that the causal distribution of events may not be a-priori well-defined in quantum theory. While this has triggered a growing interest on the theoretical…
It is well known that many operations in quantum information processing depend largely on a special kind of quantum correlation, that is, entanglement. However, there are also quantum tasks that display the quantum advantage without…
When transforming pairs of independent quantum operations according to the fundamental rules of quantum theory, an intriguing phenomenon emerges: some such higher-order operations may act on the input operations in an indefinite causal…
We study how macroscopic observational constraints restrict admissible microscopic explanatory structures when no intrinsic order or dynamics is assumed a priori. Starting from an unordered collection of measurement outcomes, we formulate…
We argue that the quantum probability law follows, in the large N limit, from the compatibility of quantum mechanics with classical-like properties of macroscopic objects. For a finite sample, we find that likely and unlikely measurement…
The problem of using observed correlations to infer causal relations is relevant to a wide variety of scientific disciplines. Yet given correlations between just two classical variables, it is impossible to determine whether they arose from…
This article may be seen as a summary and a final discussion of the work that the author has done in recent years on the foundation of quantum theory. It is shown that quantum mechanics as a model follows under certain specific conditions…
Measurement uncertainty is an important topic in the undergraduate laboratory curriculum. Previous research on student thinking about experimental measurement uncertainty has focused primarily on introductory-level students' procedural…
Consecutive quantum measurements performed on the same system can reveal fundamental insights into quantum theory's causal structure, and probe different aspects of the quantum measurement problem. According to the Copenhagen…
In any known description of nature, two physical systems are considered independent of each other if any action on one of the systems does not change the other system. From our classical intuitions about the world, we further conclude that…
It is often claimed that the fundamental laws of physics are deterministic and time-symmetric and that therefore our experience of the passage of time is an illusion. This paper will critically discuss these claims and show that they are…
I argue that conventional estimates of the criterion for classical behavior of a macroscopic body are incorrect in most circumstances,because they do not take into account the locality of interactions, which characterizes the behavior of…
Quantum electrodynamics under conditions of distinguishability of interacting matter entities, and of controlled actions and back-actions between them, is considered. Such "mesoscopic quantum electrodynamics" is shown to share its dynamical…
State transformations in quantum mechanics are described by completely positive maps which are constructed from quantum channels. We call a finest sharp quantum channel a context. The result of a measurement depends on the context under…
We propose an exercise in which one attempts to deduce the formalism of quantum mechanics solely from phenomenological observations. The only assumed inputs are obtained through sequential probing of quantum systems; no presuppositions…
Quantum process tomography, the standard procedure to characterize any quantum channel in nature, is affected by a circular argument: in order to characterize the channel, the tomographic preparation and measurement need in turn to be…
Quantum supermaps are transformations that map quantum operations to quantum operations. It is known that quantum supermaps which respect a definite, predefined causal order between their input operations correspond to fixed-order quantum…
Unlike classical information, quantum knowledge is restricted to the outcome of measurements of maximal observables corresponding to single contexts.
Measurements take a singular role in quantum theory. While they are often idealized as an instantaneous process, this is in conflict with all other physical processes in nature. In this Letter, we adopt a standpoint where the interaction…