English

Bounded information as a foundation for quantum theory

Quantum Physics 2025-07-04 v2

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to formalize the concept that best synthesizes our intuitive understanding of quantum mechanics -- that the information carried by a system is limited -- and, from this principle, to construct the foundations of quantum theory. In our discussion, we also introduce a second important hypothesis: if a measurement closely approximates an ideal one in terms of experimental precision, the information it provides about a physical system is independent of the measurement method and, specifically, of the system's physical quantities being measured. This principle can be expressed in terms of metric properties of a manifold whose points represent the state of the system. These and other reasonable hypotheses provide the foundation for a framework of quantum reconstruction. The theory presented in this paper is based on a description of physical systems in terms of their statistical properties, specifically statistical parameters, and focuses on the study of estimators for these parameters. To achieve the goal of quantum reconstruction, a divide-and-conquer approach is employed, wherein the space of two discrete conjugate Hamiltonian variables is partitioned into a binary tree of nested sets. This approach naturally leads to the reconstruction of the linear and probabilistic structure of quantum mechanics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.18549,
  title  = {Bounded information as a foundation for quantum theory},
  author = {Paolo Ferro},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.18549},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

73 pages, 11 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T03:29:17.292Z