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Pointlike systems coupled to quantum fields are often employed as toy models for measurements in quantum field theory. In this paper, we identify the field observables recorded by such models. We show that in models that work in the strong coupling regime, the apparatus is correlated with smeared field amplitudes, while in models that work in weak coupling the apparatus records particle aspects of the field, such as the existence of a particle-like time of arrival and resonant absorption. Then, we develop an improved field-detector interaction model, adapting the formalism of Quantum Brownian motion, that is exactly solvable. This model confirms the association of field and particle properties in the strong and weak coupling regimes, respectively. Further, it can also describe the intermediate regime, in which the field-particle characteristics `merge’. In contrast to standard perturbation techniques, this model also recovers the relativistic Breit-Wigner resonant behavior in the weak coupling regime. The modulation of field-particle-duality by a single tunable parameter is a novel feature that is, in principle, experimentally accessible.

Arguments by Sorkin arXiv:gr-qc/9302018 and Borsten, Jubb, and Kells arXiv:1912.06141 establish that a natural extension of quantum measurement theory from non-relativistic quantum mechanics to relativistic quantum theory leads to the unacceptable consequence that expectation values in one region depend on which unitary operation is performed in a spacelike separated region. Sorkin labels such scenarios “impossible measurements”. We explicitly present these arguments as a no-go result with the logical form of a reductio argument and investigate the consequences for measurement in quantum field theory (QFT). Sorkin-type impossible measurement scenarios clearly illustrate the moral that Microcausality is not by itself sufficient to rule out superluminal signalling in relativistic quantum theories that use Lüders’ rule. We review three different approaches to formulating an account of measurement for QFT and analyze their responses to the “impossible measurements” problem. Two of the approaches are: a measurement theory based on detector models proposed in Polo-Gómez, Garay, and Martín-MartÍnez arXiv:2108.02793 and a measurement framework for algebraic QFT proposed in Fewster and Verch arXiv:1810.06512. Of particular interest for foundations of QFT is that they share common features that may hold general morals about how to represent measurement in QFT. These morals are about the role that dynamics plays in eliminating “impossible measurements”, the abandonment of the operational interpretation of local algebras as representing possible operations carried out in a region, and the interpretation of state update rules. Finally, we examine the form that the “impossible measurements” problem takes in histories-based approaches and we discuss the remaining challenges.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is currently based largely on black-box machine learning models which lack interpretability. The field of eXplainable AI (XAI) strives to address this major concern, being critical in high-stakes areas such as the finance, legal and health sectors. We present an approach to defining AI models and their interpretability based on category theory. For this we employ the notion of a compositional model, which sees a model in terms of formal string diagrams which capture its abstract structure together with its concrete implementation. This comprehensive view incorporates deterministic, probabilistic and quantum models. We compare a wide range of AI models as compositional models, including linear and rule-based models, (recurrent) neural networks, transformers, VAEs, and causal and DisCoCirc models. Next we give a definition of interpretation of a model in terms of its compositional structure, demonstrating how to analyse the interpretability of a model, and using this to clarify common themes in XAI. We find that what makes the standard ‘intrinsically interpretable’ models so transparent is brought out most clearly diagrammatically. This leads us to the more general notion of compositionally-interpretable (CI) models, which additionally include, for instance, causal, conceptual space, and DisCoCirc models. We next demonstrate the explainability benefits of CI models. Firstly, their compositional structure may allow the computation of other quantities of interest, and may facilitate inference from the model to the modelled phenomenon by matching its structure. Secondly, they allow for diagrammatic explanations for their behaviour, based on influence constraints, diagram surgery and rewrite explanations. Finally, we discuss many future directions for the approach, raising the question of how to learn such meaningfully structured models in practice.

The no-go theorems of Bell and Kochen and Specker could be interpreted as implying that the notions of system and experimental context are fundamentally inseparable. In this interpretation, statements such as “spin is ‘up’ along direction $x$” are relational statements about the configurations of macroscopic devices which are mediated by the spin and not about any intrinsic properties of the spin. The operational meaning of these statements is provided by the practically infinite resources of macroscopic devices that serve to define the notion of a direction in three-dimensional space. This is the subject of “textbook quantum mechanics”: The description of quantum systems in relation to an experimental context.. Can one go beyond that? Relational quantum mechanics endeavors to provide a relational description between any quantum systems without the necessity of involving macroscopic devices. However, by applying “textbook quantum mechanics” in such situations, it implicitly assumes infinite resources, even for simple quantum systems such as spins, which have no capacity to define an experimental context. This leads to conceptual difficulties. We analyse Penrose’s spin network proposal as a potential formalisation of quantum theory that goes beyond the textbook framework: A description in presence of finite resources, which is inherently relational and inseparable in the system-context entity.

We study extensions of the mappings arising in usual Channel-State duality to the case of Hilbert spaces with a direct sum structure. This setting arises in representations of algebras with centers, which are commonly associated with constraints, and it has many physical applications from quantum many-body theory to holography and quantum gravity. We establish that there is a general relationship between non-separability of the state and the isometric properties of the induced channel. We also provide a generalisation of our approach to algebras of trace-class operators on infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces.

Trends of genuine entanglement in Haar uniformly generated multimode pure Gaussian states with fixed average energy per mode are explored. A distance-based metric known as the generalized geometric measure (GGM) is used to quantify genuine entanglement. The GGM of a state is defined as its minimum distance from the set of all non-genuinely entangled states. To begin with, we derive an expression for the Haar averaged value of any function defined on the set of energy-constrained states. Subsequently, we investigate states with a large number of modes and provide a closed-form expression for the Haar averaged GGM in terms of the average energy per mode. Furthermore, we demonstrate that typical states closely approximate their Haar averaged GGM value, with deviation probabilities bounded by an exponentially suppressed limit. We then analyze the GGM content of typical states with a finite number of modes and present the distribution of GGM. Our findings indicate that as the number of modes increases, the distribution shifts towards higher entanglement values and becomes more concentrated. We quantify these features by computing the Haar averaged GGM and the standard deviation of the GGM distribution, revealing that the former increases while the latter decreases with the number of modes.

In quantum gravity, it has been argued that a proper accounting of the role played by an observer promotes the von Neumann algebra of observables in a given spacetime subregion from Type III to Type II. While this allows for a mathematically precise definition of its entropy, we show that this procedure depends on which observer is employed. We make this precise by considering a setup in which many possible observers are present; by generalising previous approaches, we derive density operators for the subregion relative to different observers (and relative to arbitrary collections of observers), and we compute the associated entropies in a semiclassical regime, as well as in some specific examples that go beyond this regime. We find that the entropies seen by distinct observers can drastically differ. Our work makes extensive use of the formalism of quantum reference frames (QRF); indeed, as we point out, the ‘observers’ considered here and in the previous works are nothing but QRFs. In the process, we demonstrate that the description of physical states and observables invoked by Chandrasekaran et al. [arXiv:2206.10780] is equivalent to the Page-Wootters formalism, leading to the informal slogan “PW=CLPW”. It is our hope that this paper will help motivate a long overdue union between the QRF and quantum gravity communities. Further details will appear in a companion paper.

Multiphoton indistinguishability is a central resource for quantum enhancement in sensing and computation. Developing and certifying large scale photonic devices requires reliable and accurate characterization of this resource, preferably using methods that are robust against experimental errors. Here, we propose a set of methods for the characterization of multiphoton indistinguishability, based on measurements of bunching and photon number variance. Our methods are robust in a semi-device independent way, in the sense of being effective even when the interferometers are incorrectly dialled. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach using an advanced photonic platform comprising a quantum-dot single-photon source and a universal fully-programmable integrated photonic processor. Our results show the practical usefulness of our methods, providing robust certification tools that can be scaled up to larger systems.

We develop a systematic framework to compute the primordial power spectrum up to next-to-next-to-next to leading order (N3LO) in the Hubble-flow parameters for a large class of effective theories of inflation. We assume that the quadratic action for perturbations is characterized by two functions of time, the kinetic amplitude and the speed of sound, that are independent of the Fourier mode $k$. Using the Green’s function method introduced by Stewart $&$ Gong and developed by Auclair $&$ Ringeval, we determine the primordial power spectrum, including its amplitude, spectral indices, their running and running of their running, starting from a given generic action for perturbations. As a check, we reproduce the state-of-the-art results for scalar and the tensor power spectrum of the simplest “vanilla” models of single-field inflation. The framework applies to Weinberg’s effective field theory of inflation (with the condition of no parity violation) and to effective theory of spontaneous de Sitter-symmetry breaking. As a concrete application, we provide the expression for the N3LO power spectrum of $R+R^2$ Starobinsky inflation, without a field redefinition. All expressions are provided in terms of an expansion in one single parameter, the number of inflationary e-foldings $N_*$. Surprisingly we find that, compared to previous leading-order calculations, for $N_* = 55$ the N3LO correction results in a $7%$ decrease of the predicted tensor-to-scalar ratio, in addition to a deviation from the consistency relation. These results provide precise theoretical predictions for the next generation of CMB observations.

In this note, we provide some categorical perspectives on the relativization construction arising from quantum measurement theory in the presence of symmetries and occupying a central place in the operational approach to quantum reference frames. This construction provides, for any quantum system, a quantum channel from the system’s algebra to the invariant algebra on the composite system also encompassing the chosen reference, contingent upon a choice of the pointer observable. These maps are understood as relativizing observables on systems upon the specification of a quantum reference frame. We begin by extending the construction to systems modelled on subspaces of algebras of operators to then define a functor taking a pair consisting of a reference frame and a system and assigning to them a subspace of relative operators defined in terms of an image of the corresponding relativization map. When a single frame and equivariant channels are considered, the relativization maps can be understood as a natural transformation. Upon fixing a system, the functor provides a novel kind of frame transformation that we call external. Results achieved provide a deeper structural understanding of the framework of interest and point towards its categorification and potential application to local systems of algebraic quantum field theories.