1,113 research outputs found
Pacifying the Fermi-liquid: battling the devious fermion signs
The fermion sign problem is studied in the path integral formalism. The
standard picture of Fermi liquids is first critically analyzed, pointing out
some of its rather peculiar properties. The insightful work of Ceperley in
constructing fermionic path integrals in terms of constrained world-lines is
then reviewed. In this representation, the minus signs associated with
Fermi-Dirac statistics are self consistently translated into a geometrical
constraint structure (the {\em nodal hypersurface}) acting on an effective
bosonic dynamics. As an illustrative example we use this formalism to study
1+1-dimensional systems, where statistics are irrelevant, and hence the sign
problem can be circumvented. In this low-dimensional example, the structure of
the nodal constraints leads to a lucid picture of the entropic interaction
essential to one-dimensional physics. Working with the path integral in
momentum space, we then show that the Fermi gas can be understood by analogy to
a Mott insulator in a harmonic trap. Going back to real space, we discuss the
topological properties of the nodal cells, and suggest a new holographic
conjecture relating Fermi liquids in higher dimensions to soft-core bosons in
one dimension. We also discuss some possible connections between mixed
Bose/Fermi systems and supersymmetry.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figure
The Minimal Modal Interpretation of Quantum Theory
We introduce a realist, unextravagant interpretation of quantum theory that
builds on the existing physical structure of the theory and allows experiments
to have definite outcomes, but leaves the theory's basic dynamical content
essentially intact. Much as classical systems have specific states that evolve
along definite trajectories through configuration spaces, the traditional
formulation of quantum theory asserts that closed quantum systems have specific
states that evolve unitarily along definite trajectories through Hilbert
spaces, and our interpretation extends this intuitive picture of states and
Hilbert-space trajectories to the case of open quantum systems as well. We
provide independent justification for the partial-trace operation for density
matrices, reformulate wave-function collapse in terms of an underlying
interpolating dynamics, derive the Born rule from deeper principles, resolve
several open questions regarding ontological stability and dynamics, address a
number of familiar no-go theorems, and argue that our interpretation is
ultimately compatible with Lorentz invariance. Along the way, we also
investigate a number of unexplored features of quantum theory, including an
interesting geometrical structure---which we call subsystem space---that we
believe merits further study. We include an appendix that briefly reviews the
traditional Copenhagen interpretation and the measurement problem of quantum
theory, as well as the instrumentalist approach and a collection of
foundational theorems not otherwise discussed in the main text.Comment: 73 pages + references, 9 figures; cosmetic changes, added figure,
updated references, generalized conditional probabilities with attendant
changes to the sections on the EPR-Bohm thought experiment and Lorentz
invariance; for a concise summary, see the companion letter at
arXiv:1405.675
Analyzing three-player quantum games in an EPR type setup
We use the formalism of Clifford Geometric Algebra (GA) to develop an
analysis of quantum versions of three-player non-cooperative games. The quantum
games we explore are played in an Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) type setting.
In this setting, the players' strategy sets remain identical to the ones in the
mixed-strategy version of the classical game that is obtained as a proper
subset of the corresponding quantum game. Using GA we investigate the outcome
of a realization of the game by players sharing GHZ state, W state, and a
mixture of GHZ and W states. As a specific example, we study the game of
three-player Prisoners' Dilemma.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figure
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