Causal structures and causal boundaries

We give an up-to-date perspective with a general overview of the theory of causal properties, the derived causal structures, their classification and applications, and the definition and construction of causal boundaries and of causal symmetries, mostly for Lorentzian manifolds but also in more abstract settings.Comment: Final version. To appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Causal spaces and the application of critical point theory to general relativity

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Topological properties of Wazewski dendrite groups

Homeomorphism groups of generalized Wa\.zewski dendrites act on the infinite countable set of branch points of the dendrite and thus have a nice Polish topology. In this paper, we study them in the light of this Polish topology. The group of the universal Wa\.zewski dendrite $D_\infty$ is more characteristic than the others because it is the unique one with a dense conjugacy class. For this group $G_\infty$, we show some of its topological properties like existence of a comeager conjugacy class, the Steinhaus property, automatic continuity and the small index subgroup property. Moreover, we identify the universal minimal flow of $G_\infty$. This allows us to prove that point-stabilizers in $G_\infty$ are amenable and to describe the universal Furstenberg boundary of $G_\infty$.Comment: Slight modifications about the expositio

The Differential Scheme and Quantum Computation

It is well-known that standard models of computation are representable as simple dynamical systems that evolve in discrete time, and that systems that evolve in continuous time are often representable by dynamical systems governed by ordinary differential equations. In many applications, e.g., molecular networks and hybrid Fermi-Pasta-Ulam systems, one must work with dynamical systems comprising both discrete and continuous components. Reasoning about and verifying the properties of the evolving state of such systems is currently a piecemeal affair that depends on the nature of major components of a system: e.g., discrete vs. continuous components of state, discrete vs. continuous time, local vs. distributed clocks, classical vs. quantum states and state evolution. We present the Differential Scheme as a unifying framework for reasoning about and verifying the properties of the evolving state of a system, whether the system in question evolves in discrete time, as for standard models of computation, or continuous time, or a combination of both. We show how instances of the differential scheme can accommodate classical computation. We also generalize a relatively new model of quantum computation, the quantum cellular automaton, with an eye towards extending the differential scheme to accommodate quantum computation and hybrid classical/quantum computation. All the components of a specific instance of the differential scheme are Convergence Spaces. Convergence spaces generalize notions of continuity and convergence. The category of convergence spaces, Conv, subsumes both simple discrete structures (e.g., digraphs), and complex continuous structures (e.g., topological spaces, domains, and the standard fields of analysis: R and C). We present novel uses for convergence spaces, and extend their theory by defining differential calculi on Conv. It is to the use of convergence spaces that the differential scheme owes its generality and flexibility

INTERMEDIATE LOGICS AND POLYHEDRA

Polyhedra enjoy a peculiar property: every geometric shape with a certain \u201cregularity\u201d \u2013 in specific terms, certain classes of (closed) topological manifolds \u2013 can be captured by a polyhedron via triangulation, that is, by subdividing the geometric shapes into appropriate \u201ctriangles\u201d, called simplices (which, in the 1- and 0-dimensional case, are simply edges and vertices, respectively). Therefore, one might well wonder: what is the intermediate logic of the class of triangulable topological manifolds of a given dimension d? The main result of the present work is to give the answer to this question in the case of 1-dimensional manifolds, that is, the circle and the closed interval

Contextuality in foundations and quantum computation

Contextuality is a key concept in quantum theory. We reveal just how important it is by demonstrating that quantum theory builds on contextuality in a fundamental way: a number of key theorems in quantum foundations can be given a unifi ed presentation in the topos approach to quantum theory, which is based on contextuality as the common underlying principle. We review existing results and complement them by providing contextual reformulations for Stinespring's and Bell's theorem. Both have a number of consequences that go far beyond the evident confirmation of the unifying character of contextuality in quantum theory. Complete positivity of quantum channels is already encoded in contexts, nonlocality arises from a notion of composition of contexts, and quantum states can be singled out among more general non-signalling correlations over the composite context structure by a notion of time orientation in subsystems, thus solving a much discussed open problem in quantum information theory. We also discuss nonlocal correlations under the generalisation to orthomodular lattices and provide generalised Bell inequalities in this setting. The dominant role of contextuality in quantum foundations further supports a recent hypothesis in quantum computation, which identifi es contextuality as the resource for the supposed quantum advantage over classical computers. In particular, within the architecture of measurement-based quantum computation, the resource character of nonlocality and contextuality exhibits rather clearly. We study contextuality in this framework and generalise the strong link between contextuality and computation observed in the qubit case to qudit systems. More precisely, we provide new proofs of contextuality as well as a universal implementation of computation in this setting, while emphasising the crucial role played by phase relations between measurement eigenstates. Finally, we suggest a fine-grained measure for contextuality in the form of the number of qubits required for implementation in the non-adaptive, deterministic case.Open Acces

Entropic gradient flow structure of quantum Markov semigroups

Gegenstand der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Konstruktion einer nichtkommutativen Transportmetrik, die es erlaubt, spursymmetrische vollständig Markovsche Halbgruppen als Gradientenfluss eines Entropiefunktionals aufzufassen. Eine vollständig Markovsche Halbgruppe ist eine Halbgruppe von unitalen, vollständig positiven Operatoren auf einer von Neumann algebra mit gewissen Stetigkeitseigenschaften. Ein Gradientenfluss eines Funktionals auf einem metrischen Raum ist eine Kurve, die zu jedem Zeitpunkt in die Richtung des steilsten Abstieges fließt. Es ist in einer Reihe von Fällen bekannt, dass man die Gradientenflüsse der Boltzmann-Entropie oder ihres nichtkommutativen Analogons, der von Neumann-Entropie, bezüglich geeigneter Transportmetriken als Lösungen von linearen Evolutionsgleichungen charakterisieren kann, zum Beispiel der Wärmeleitungsgleichung oder der Lindblad Master Equation. In dieser Arbeit wird gezeigt, dass das gemeinsame zugrundeliegende Prinzip in all diesen Fällen die Markoveigenschaft der linearen Evolutionsgleichung ist. Dazu wird für eine gegebene spursymmetrische vollständig Markovsche Halbgruppe eine Transportmetrik auf dem Raum der Dichteoperatoren konstruiert, die die Metriken in den oben genannten Fällen verallgemeinert. Es wird bewiesen, dass unter geeigneten Voraussetzungen die gegebene Halbgruppe der eindeutige Gradientenfluss der von Neumann-Entropie ist. Als Konsequenzen werden Semikonvexität der Entropie entlang von Geodäten und Funktionalungleichungenfür die Halbgruppe diskutiert

The Structure of a General Type of Inverse Problem in Metrology

Inverse problems are ubiquitous in science. The theory and techniques of inverse problems play important roles in metrology owing to the close relation between inverse problems and indirect measurements. However, the essential connection between the concepts of inverse problems and measurement has not been deeply discussed before. This thesis is focused on a general type of inverse problem in metrology that arises naturally in indirect measurements, called the inverse problem of measurement (IPM). Based on the representational theory of measurement, a deterministic model of indirect measurements is developed, which shows that the IPM can be taken as an inference process of an indirect measurement and defined as the inference of the values of the measurand from the observations of some other quantity(s). The desired properties of solving the IPMs are listed and investigated in detail. The importance of estimating empirical relations is emphasised. Based on the desired properties, some structural properties of the IPMs are derived using category theory and order theory. Thereby, it is demonstrated that the structure of the IPMs can be characterised by a notion in order theory, called ‘Galois connection’. The deterministic model of indirect measurements is generalised to a probabilistic model by considering the effects of measurement uncertainty and intrinsic uncertainty. The propagation of uncertainty from the observed data to the values of measurands is investigated using a method of covariance matrices and a Bayesian method. The methods of estimating empirical relations with probability assigned using the solutions of IPM are discussed in two different approaches: the coverage interval approach and the random variable approach. For estimating empirical relations and determining the conformity of measurement results in indirect measurements, a strategy of estimating the empirical relations with high resolution is developed which significantly reduced the effect of measurement uncertainty; a method of estimating specification uncertainty is proposed for evaluating the intrinsic uncertainties of measurands; the impact of model resolution on the specifications of the indirectly measured quantities is discussed via a contradiction in the specifications of surface profiles