September 2023

Networks of quantum devices with coherent control over their configuration offer promising advantages in quantum information processing. So far, the investigation of these advantages assumed that the control system was initially uncorrelated with the data processed by the network. Here, we explore the power of quantum correlations between data and control, showing two communication tasks that can be accomplished with information-erasing channels if and only if the sender shares prior entanglement with a third party (the “controller”) controlling the network configuration. The first task is to transmit classical messages without leaking information to the controller. The second task is to establish bipartite entanglement with a receiver, or, more generally, to establish multipartite entanglement with a number of spatially separated receivers.

We propose terminology to classify interpretations of quantum mechanics and models that modify or complete quantum mechanics. Our focus is on models which have previously been referred to as superdeterministic (strong or weak), retrocausal (with or without signalling, dynamical or non-dynamical), future-input-dependent, atemporal and all-at-once, not always with the same meaning or context. Sometimes these models are assumed to be deterministic, sometimes not, the word deterministic has been given different meanings, and different notions of causality have been used when classifying them. This has created much confusion in the literature, and we hope that the terms proposed here will help to clarify the nomenclature. The general model framework that we will propose may also be useful to classify other interpretations and modifications of quantum mechanics. This document grew out of the discussions at the 2022 Bonn Workshop on Superdeterminism and Retrocausality.

Probing quantum entanglement with macroscopic objects allows to test quantum mechanics in new regimes. One way to realize such behavior is to couple a macroscopic mechanical oscillator to a continuous light field via radiation pressure. In view of this, the system that is discussed comprises an optomechanical cavity driven by a coherent optical field in the unresolved sideband regime where we assume Gaussian states and dynamics. We develop a framework to quantify the amount of entanglement in the system numerically. Different from previous work, we treat non-Markovian noise and take into account both the continuous optical field and the cavity mode. We apply our framework to the case of the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Advanced LIGO) and discuss the parameter regimes where entanglement exists, even in the presence of quantum and classical noises.

Quantum theory is compatible with scenarios in which the order of operations is indefinite. Experimental investigations of such scenarios, all of which have been based on a process known as the quantum switch, have provided demonstrations of indefinite causal order conditioned on assumptions on the devices used in the laboratory. But is a device-independent certification possible, similar to the certification of Bell nonlocality through the violation of Bell inequalities? Previous results have shown that the answer is negative if the switch is considered in isolation. Here, however, we present an inequality that can be used to device-independently certify indefinite causal order in the quantum switch in the presence of an additional spacelike-separated observer under an assumption asserting the impossibility of superluminal and retrocausal influences.

Choice can be defined in thermodynamical terms and be shown to have a thermodynamic cost: choosing between a binary alternative at temperature T dissipates an energy E > kT ln 2.

We point out the theoretical possibility of detecting purely gravitationally interacting dark matter using the very high sensitivity of gravitationally mediated quantum phase shift.

Finite-dimensional quantum theory serves as the theoretical foundation for quantum information and computation based on 2-dimensional qubits, d-dimensional qudits, and their interactions. The qufinite ZX calculus has been used as a framework for mixed-dimensional quantum computing; however, it lacked the crucial property of completeness, which ensures that the calculus incorporates a set of rules rich enough to prove any equation. The ZXW calculus is a complete language for qudit quantum computing with applications previously unreachable solely with the ZX or ZW calculus. In this paper, we introduce the qufinite ZXW calculus, a unification of all qudit ZXW calculi in a single framework for mixed-dimensional quantum computing. We provide a set of rewrite rules and a unique normal form that make the calculus complete for finite-dimensional quantum theory. This work paves the way for the optimization of mixed dimensional circuits and tensor networks appearing in different areas of quantum computing including quantum chemistry, compilation, and quantum many-body systems.

Quantum theory admits ensembles of quantum nonlocality without entanglement (QNLWE). These ensembles consist of seemingly classical states (they are perfectly distinguishable and non-entangled) that cannot be perfectly discriminated with local operations and classical communication (LOCC). Here, we analyze QNLWE from a causal perspective, and show how to perfectly discriminate some of these ensembles using local operations and classical communication without definite causal order. Specifically, three parties with access to an instance of indefinite causal order-the AF/BW process-can perfectly discriminate the states in a QNLWE ensemble–the SHIFT ensemble–with local operations. Hence, this type of quantum nonlocality disappears at the expense of definite causal order while retaining classical communication. Our results thereby leverage the fact that LOCC is a conjunction of three constraints: local operations, classical communication, and definite causal order. Moreover, we show how multipartite generalizations of the AF/BW process are transformed into multiqubit ensembles that exhibit QNLWE. Such ensembles are of independent interest for cryptographic protocols and for the study of separable quantum operations unachievable with LOCC.

Carlo Rovelli UWO London Preprint: – Journal: Perspectivas 8 (2023) 282-295

Recently there have emerged an assortment of theorems relating to the ‘absoluteness of emerged events,’ and these results have sometimes been used to argue that quantum mechanics may involve some kind of metaphysically radical non-absoluteness, such as relationalism or perspectivalism. However, in our view a close examination of these theorems fails to convincingly support such possibilities. In this paper we argue that the Wigner’s friend paradox, the theorem of Bong et al and the theorem of Lawrence et al are all best understood as demonstrating that if quantum mechanics is universal, and if certain auxiliary assumptions hold, then the world inevitably includes various forms of ‘disaccord,’ but this need not be interpreted in a metaphysically radical way; meanwhile, the theorem of Ormrod and Barrett is best understood either as an argument for an interpretation allowing multiple outcomes per observer, such as the Everett approach, or as a proof that quantum mechanics cannot be universal in the sense relevant for this theorem. We also argue that these theorems taken together suggest interesting possibilities for a different kind of relational approach in which dynamical states are relativized whilst observed events are absolute, and we show that although something like ‘retrocausality’ might be needed to make such an approach work, this would be a very special kind of retrocausality which would evade a number of common objections against retrocausality. We conclude that the non-absoluteness theorems may have a significant role to play in helping converge towards an acceptable solution to the measurement problem.