2,636 research outputs found
A Non-Probabilistic Model of Relativised Predictability in Physics
Little effort has been devoted to studying generalised notions or models of
(un)predictability, yet is an important concept throughout physics and plays a
central role in quantum information theory, where key results rely on the
supposed inherent unpredictability of measurement outcomes. In this paper we
continue the programme started in [1] developing a general, non-probabilistic
model of (un)predictability in physics. We present a more refined model that is
capable of studying different degrees of "relativised" unpredictability. This
model is based on the ability for an agent, acting via uniform, effective
means, to predict correctly and reproducibly the outcome of an experiment using
finite information extracted from the environment. We use this model to study
further the degree of unpredictability certified by different quantum
phenomena, showing that quantum complementarity guarantees a form of
relativised unpredictability that is weaker than that guaranteed by
Kochen-Specker-type value indefiniteness. We exemplify further the difference
between certification by complementarity and value indefiniteness by showing
that, unlike value indefiniteness, complementarity is compatible with the
production of computable sequences of bits.Comment: 10 page
Quantum cellular automata and free quantum field theory
In a series of recent papers it has been shown how free quantum field theory
can be derived without using mechanical primitives (including space-time,
special relativity, quantization rules, etc.), but only considering the easiest
quantum algorithm encompassing a countable set of quantum systems whose network
of interactions satisfies the simple principles of unitarity, homogeneity,
locality, and isotropy. This has opened the route to extending the axiomatic
information-theoretic derivation of the quantum theory of abstract systems to
include quantum field theory. The inherent discrete nature of the informational
axiomatization leads to an extension of quantum field theory to a quantum
cellular automata theory, where the usual field theory is recovered in a regime
where the discrete structure of the automata cannot be probed. A simple
heuristic argument sets the scale of discreteness to the Planck scale, and the
customary physical regime where discreteness is not visible is the relativistic
one of small wavevectors. In this paper we provide a thorough derivation from
principles that in the most general case the graph of the quantum cellular
automaton is the Cayley graph of a finitely presented group, and showing how
for the case corresponding to Euclidean emergent space (where the group resorts
to an Abelian one) the automata leads to Weyl, Dirac and Maxwell field dynamics
in the relativistic limit. We conclude with some perspectives towards the more
general scenario of non-linear automata for interacting quantum field theory.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, revtex style. arXiv admin note: substantial text
overlap with arXiv:1601.0483
Intrinsically universal one-dimensional quantum cellular automata in two flavours
We give a one-dimensional quantum cellular automaton (QCA) capable of
simulating all others. By this we mean that the initial configuration and the
local transition rule of any one-dimensional QCA can be encoded within the
initial configuration of the universal QCA. Several steps of the universal QCA
will then correspond to one step of the simulated QCA. The simulation preserves
the topology in the sense that each cell of the simulated QCA is encoded as a
group of adjacent cells in the universal QCA. The encoding is linear and hence
does not carry any of the cost of the computation. We do this in two flavours:
a weak one which requires an infinite but periodic initial configuration and a
strong one which needs only a finite initial configuration. KEYWORDS: Quantum
cellular automata, Intrinsic universality, Quantum computation.Comment: 27 pages, revtex, 23 figures. V3: The results of V1-V2 are better
explained and formalized, and a novel result about intrinsic universality
with only finite initial configurations is give
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