A paradox about an atom and a photon

In this article we propose a new relativistic paradox concerning the absorption of a photon by a hydrogen atom. We show that the actual cause of the paradox is one of the hypotheses of Bohr model; therefore, in order to solve the paradox, we have to move away from Bohr model. Our analysis is carried out only in the special relativistic framework, so we are not interested in giving a full quantum mechanical treatment of the problem. We derive some expressions for emission and absorption of photons by atoms, which are in perfect agreement with special relativity, although comparable to the classical Bohr formula with an excellent degree of approximation. Quite interestingly, these expressions are no more invariant under a global shift of energy levels, showing a breaking of classical "gauge invariance" of energy. We stress that, to the best of our knowledge, the present approach has never been considered in literature. At the end we will be able to solve the proposed paradox.Comment: 10 pages, no figures. PACS number: 03.30.+p, 32.30.-r, 32.80.-tp Keywords: relativistic paradox, photon emission, photon absorptio

Information-theoretic foundations of thermodynamics in general probabilistic theories

We study the informational underpinnings of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, using an abstract framework, general probabilistic theories, capable of describing arbitrary physical theories. This allows one to abstract the informational content of a theory from the concrete details of its formalism. In this framework, we extend the treatment of microcanonical thermodynamics, namely the thermodynamics of systems with a well-defined energy, beyond the known cases of classical and quantum theory, formulating two necessary requirements for a well-defined thermodynamics. We adopt the recent approach of resource theories, where one studies the transitions between states that can be accomplished with a restricted set of physical operations. We formulate three different resource theories, differing in the choice of the restricted set of physical operations. To bridge the gap between the objective dynamics of particles and the subjective world of probabilities, one of the core issues in the foundations of statistical mechanics, we propose four information-theoretic axioms. They are satisfied by quantum theory and more exotic alternatives, including a suitable extension of classical theory where classical systems interact with each other creating entangled states. The axioms identify a class of theories where every mixed state can be modelled as the reduced state of a pure entangled state. In these theories it is possible to introduce well-behaved notions of majorisation, entropy, and Gibbs states, allowing for an information-theoretic derivation of Landauer's principle. The three resource theories define the same notion of resource if and only if, on top of the four axioms, the dynamics of the underlying theory satisfy a condition called "unrestricted reversibility". Under this condition we derive a duality between microcanonical thermodynamics and pure bipartite entanglement.Comment: DPhil (PhD) thesis, University of Oxford, October 2018. 230 pages, 11 figure

Reply to the Comment on `The operational foundations of PT-symmetric and quasi-Hermitian quantum theory'

This document is our reply to the Comment arXiv:2301.01215 on our recent work titled `The operational foundations of PT-symmetric and quasi-Hermitian quantum theory'. The original Comment consists of three addenda to our work. The first addendum claims that our work is ill-motivated as the motivating question, namely whether PT-symmetric quantum theory extends the standard quantum theory, was already answered in the literature. The second addendum points to some missing references in our work, and the third addendum suggests what constraints could lead to an extension of standard quantum theory. In our reply, we explain that the claim in the first addendum is a result of a misinterpretation of our motivating question. When interpreted correctly, the third addendum in the Comment in itself elaborates on why our motivating question is interesting and relevant. We also briefly comment on the prospects of an extension of standard quantum theory along the lines suggested in the third addendum. As our response to the second addendum, we explain our rationale behind citing certain references while leaving out others.Comment: 5 pages, reply to arXiv:2301.0121

Ruling out higher-order interference from purity principles

As first noted by Rafael Sorkin, there is a limit to quantum interference. The interference pattern formed in a multi-slit experiment is a function of the interference patterns formed between pairs of slits, there are no genuinely new features resulting from considering three slits instead of two. Sorkin has introduced a hierarchy of mathematically conceivable higher-order interference behaviours, where classical theory lies at the first level of this hierarchy and quantum theory theory at the second. Informally, the order in this hierarchy corresponds to the number of slits on which the interference pattern has an irreducible dependence. Many authors have wondered why quantum interference is limited to the second level of this hierarchy. Does the existence of higher-order interference violate some natural physical principle that we believe should be fundamental? In the current work we show that such principles can be found which limit interference behaviour to second-order, or "quantum-like", interference, but that do not restrict us to the entire quantum formalism. We work within the operational framework of generalised probabilistic theories, and prove that any theory satisfying Causality, Purity Preservation, Pure Sharpness, and Purification---four principles that formalise the fundamental character of purity in nature---exhibits at most second-order interference. Hence these theories are, at least conceptually, very "close" to quantum theory. Along the way we show that systems in such theories correspond to Euclidean Jordan algebras. Hence, they are self-dual and, moreover, multi-slit experiments in such theories are described by pure projectors.Comment: 18+8 pages. Comments welcome. v2: Minor correction to Lemma 5.1, main results are unchange

Quantum hypothesis testing between qubit states with parity

Quantum hypothesis testing (QHT) provides an effective method to discriminate between two quantum states using a two-outcome positive operator-valued measure (POVM). Two types of decision errors in a QHT can occur. In this paper we focus on the asymmetric setting of QHT, where the two types of decision errors are treated unequally, considering the operational limitations arising from the lack of a reference frame for chirality. This reference frame is associated with the group \bbZ_2 consisting of the identity transformation and the parity transformation. Thus, we have to discriminate between two qubit states by performing the \bbZ_2-invariant POVMs only. We start from the discrimination between two pure states. By solving the specific optimization problem we completely characterize the asymptotic behavior of the minimal probability of type-II error which occurs when the null hypothesis is accepted when it is false. Our results reveal that the minimal probability reduces to zero in a finite number of copies, if the \bbZ_2-twirlings of such two pure states are different. We further derive the critical number of copies such that the minimal probability reduces to zero. Finally, we replace one of the two pure states with a maximally mixed state, and similarly characterize the asymptotic behavior of the minimal probability of type-II error.Comment: minor revisions, one-column to two-colum