14 research outputs found
Entanglement without nonlocality
We consider the characterization of entanglement from the perspective of a
Heisenberg formalism. We derive an original two-party generalized separability
criteria, and from this describe a novel physical understanding of
entanglement. We find that entanglement may be considered as fundamentally a
local effect, and therefore as a separable computational resource from
nonlocality. We show how entanglement differs from correlation physically, and
explore the implications of this new conception of entanglement for the notion
of classicality. We find that this understanding of entanglement extends
naturally to multipartite cases.Comment: 9 pages. Expanded introduction and sections on physical entanglement
and localit
Developing the Deutsch-Hayden approach to quantum mechanics
The formalism of Deutsch and Hayden is a useful tool for describing quantum
mechanics explicitly as local and unitary, and therefore quantum information
theory as concerning a "flow" of information between systems. In this paper we
show that these physical descriptions of flow are unique, and develop the
approach further to include the measurement interaction and mixed states. We
then give an analysis of entanglement swapping in this approach, showing that
it does not in fact contain non-local effects or some form of superluminal
signalling.Comment: 14 pages. Added section on entanglement swappin
Information-flux approach to multiple-spin dynamics
We introduce and formalize the concept of information flux in a many-body
register as the influence that the dynamics of a specific element receive from
any other element of the register. By quantifying the information flux in a
protocol, we can design the most appropriate initial state of the system and,
noticeably, the distribution of coupling strengths among the parts of the
register itself. The intuitive nature of this tool and its flexibility, which
allow for easily manageable numerical approaches when analytic expressions are
not straightforward, are greatly useful in interacting many-body systems such
as quantum spin chains. We illustrate the use of this concept in quantum
cloning and quantum state transfer and we also sketch its extension to
non-unitary dynamics.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, RevTeX
Observers and Locality in Everett Quantum Field Theory
A model for measurement in collapse-free nonrelativistic fermionic quantum
field theory is presented. In addition to local propagation and
effectively-local interactions, the model incorporates explicit representations
of localized observers, thus extending an earlier model of entanglement
generation in Everett quantum field theory [M. A. Rubin, Found. Phys. 32,
1495-1523 (2002)]. Transformations of the field operators from the Heisenberg
picture to the Deutsch-Hayden picture, involving fictitious auxiliary fields,
establish the locality of the model. The model is applied to manifestly-local
calculations of the results of measurements, using a type of sudden
approximation and in the limit of massive systems in narrow-wavepacket states.
Detection of the presence of a spin-1/2 system in a given spin state by a
freely-moving two-state observer illustrates the features of the model and the
nonperturbative computational methodology. With the help of perturbation theory
the model is applied to a calculation of the quintessential "nonlocal" quantum
phenomenon, spin correlations in the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm experiment.Comment: Some changes to introduction and discussion sections, typos
corrected, conclusions unchanged. To appear in Foundations of Physic
Reality construction in cognitive agents through processes of info-computation
What is reality for an agent? What is minimal cognition? How does the morphology of a cognitive agent affect cognition? These are still open questions among scientists and philosophers. In this chapter we propose the idea of info-computational nature as a framework for answering those questions. Within the info-computational framework, information is defined as a structure (for an agent), and computation as the dynamics of information (information processing). To an agent, nature therefore appears as an informational structure with computational dynamics. Both information and computation in this context have broader meaning than in everyday use, and both are necessarily grounded in physical implementation. Evolution of increasingly complex living agents is understood as a process of morphological (physical, embodied) computation driven by agents’ interactions with the environment. It is a process much more complex than random variation; instead the mechanisms of change are morphological computational processes of self-organisation (and re-organisation). Reality for an agent emerges as a result of interactions with the environment together with internal information processing. Following Maturana and Varela, we take cognition to be the process of living of an organism, and thus it appears on different levels of complexity, from cellular via organismic to social. The simpler the agent, the simpler its “reality” defined by the network of networks of info-computational processes, which constitute its cognition. The debated topic of consciousness takes its natural place in this framework, as a process of information integration that we suggest naturally evolved in organisms with a nervous system. Computing nature/pancomputationalism is sometimes confused with panpsychism or claimed to necessarily imply panpsychism, which we show is not the case. Even though we focus on natural systems in this chapter, the info-computational approach is general and can be used to model both biological and artifactual cognitive agents