We examine evaluations of the contributions of Matrix Mechanics and Max Born to the formulation of quantum mechanics from Heisenberg’s Helgoland paper of 1925 to Born’s Nobel Prize of 1954. We point out that the process of evaluation is continuing in the light of recent interpretations of the theory that deemphasize the importance of the wave function.
Causal inequalities are device-independent constraints on correlations realizable via local operations under the assumption of definite causal order between these operations. While causal inequalities in the bipartite scenario require nonclassical resources within the process-matrix framework for their violation, there exist tripartite causal inequalities that admit violations with classical resources. The tripartite case puts into question the status of a causal inequality violation as a witness of nonclassicality, i.e., there is no a priori reason to believe that quantum effects are in general necessary for a causal inequality violation. Here we propose a notion of classicality for correlations–termed deterministic consistency–that goes beyond causal inequalities. We refer to the failure of deterministic consistency for a correlation as its antinomicity, which serves as our notion of nonclassicality. Deterministic consistency is motivated by a careful consideration of the appropriate generalization of Bell inequalities–which serve as witnesses of nonclassicality for non-signalling correlations–to the case of correlations without any non-signalling constraints. This naturally leads us to the classical deterministic limit of the process matrix framework as the appropriate analogue of a local hidden variable model. We then define a hierarchy of sets of correlations–from the classical to the most nonclassical–and prove strict inclusions between them. We also propose a measure for the antinomicity of correlations–termed ‘robustness of antinomy’–and apply our framework in bipartite and tripartite scenarios. A key contribution of this work is an explicit nonclassicality witness that goes beyond causal inequalities, inspired by a modification of the Guess Your Neighbour’s Input (GYNI) game that we term the Guess Your Neighbour’s Input or NOT (GYNIN) game.
In this work, we present a generic approach to transform CSS codes by building upon their equivalence to phase-free ZX diagrams. Using the ZX calculus, we demonstrate diagrammatic transformations between encoding maps associated with different codes. As a motivating example, we give explicit transformations between the Steane code and the quantum Reed-Muller code, since by switching between these two codes, one can obtain a fault-tolerant universal gate set. To this end, we propose a bidirectional rewrite rule to find a (not necessarily transversal) physical implementation for any logical ZX diagram in any CSS code. We then focus on two code transformation techniques: $textit{code morphing}$, a procedure that transforms a code while retaining its fault-tolerant gates, and $textit{gauge fixing}$, where complimentary codes can be obtained from a common subsystem code (e.g., the Steane and the quantum Reed-Muller codes from the [[15,1,3,3]] code). We provide explicit graphical derivations for these techniques and show how ZX and graphical encoder maps relate several equivalent perspectives on these code transforming operations.
Universal and complete graphical languages have been successfully designed for pure state quantum mechanics, corresponding to linear maps between Hilbert spaces, and mixed states quantum mechanics, corresponding to completely positive superoperators. In this paper, we go one step further and present a universal and complete graphical language for Hermiticity-preserving superoperators. Such a language opens the possibility of diagrammatic compositional investigations of antilinear transformations featured in various physical situations, such as the Choi-Jamio{l}kowski isomorphism, spin-flip, or entanglement witnesses. Our construction relies on an extension of the ZW-calculus exhibiting a normal form for Hermitian matrices.
Lawrence et al. have presented an argument purporting to show that “relative facts do not exist” and, consequently, “Relational Quantum Mechanics is incompatible with quantum mechanics”. The argument is based on a GHZ-like contradiction between constraints satisfied by measurement outcomes in an extended Wigner’s friend scenario. Here we present a strengthened version of the argument, and show why, contrary to the claim by Lawrence et al., these arguments do not contradict the consistency of a theory of relative facts. Rather, considering this argument helps clarify how one should not think about a theory of relative facts, like RQM.
Entropy bounds have played an important role in the development of holography as an approach to quantum gravity, so in this article we seek to gain a better understanding of the covariant entropy bound. We observe that there is a possible way of thinking about the covariant entropy bound which would suggest that it encodes an epistemic limitation rather than an objective count of the true number of degrees of freedom on a light-sheet; thus we distinguish between ontological and epistemic interpretations of the covariant bound. We consider the consequences that these interpretations might have for physics and we discuss what each approach has to say about gravitational phenomena. Our aim is not to advocate for either the ontological or epistemic approach in particular, but rather to articulate both possibilities clearly and explore some arguments for and against them.
We present an exhaustive classification of the 2644 causally complete spaces of input histories on 3 events with binary inputs, together with the algorithm used to find them. This paper forms the supplementary material for a trilogy of works: spaces of input histories, our dynamical generalisation of causal orders, are introduced in “The Combinatorics of Causality”; the sheaf-theoretic treatment of causal distributions is detailed in “The Topology of Causality”; the polytopes formed by the associated empirical models are studied in “The Geometry of Causality”.
We provide a unified operational framework for the study of causality, non-locality and contextuality, in a fully device-independent and theory-independent setting. We define causaltopes, our chosen portmanteau of “causal polytopes”, for arbitrary spaces of input histories and arbitrary choices of input contexts. We show that causaltopes are obtained by slicing simpler polytopes of conditional probability distributions with a set of causality equations, which we fully characterise. We provide efficient linear programs to compute the maximal component of an empirical model supported by any given sub-causaltope, as well as the associated causal fraction. We introduce a notion of causal separability relative to arbitrary causal constraints. We provide efficient linear programs to compute the maximal causally separable component of an empirical model, and hence its causally separable fraction, as the component jointly supported by certain sub-causaltopes. We study causal fractions and causal separability for several novel examples, including a selection of quantum switches with entangled or contextual control. In the process, we demonstrate the existence of “causal contextuality”, a phenomenon where causal inseparability is clearly correlated to, or even directly implied by, non-locality and contextuality.
We provide a unified operational framework for the study of causality, non-locality and contextuality, in a fully device-independent and theory-independent setting. Our work has its roots in the sheaf-theoretic framework for contextuality by Abramsky and Brandenburger, which it extends to include arbitrary causal orders (be they definite, dynamical or indefinite). We define a notion of causal function for arbitrary spaces of input histories, and we show that the explicit imposition of causal constraints on joint outputs is equivalent to the free assignment of local outputs to the tip events of input histories. We prove factorisation results for causal functions over parallel, sequential, and conditional sequential compositions of the underlying spaces. We prove that causality is equivalent to continuity with respect to the lowerset topology on the underlying spaces, and we show that partial causal functions defined on open sub-spaces can be bundled into a presheaf. In a striking departure from the Abramsky-Brandenburger setting, however, we show that causal functions fail, under certain circumstances, to form a sheaf. We define empirical models as compatible families in the presheaf of probability distributions on causal functions, for arbitrary open covers of the underlying space of input histories. We show the existence of causally-induced contextuality, a phenomenon arising when the causal constraints themselves become context-dependent, and we prove a no-go result for non-locality on total orders, both static and dynamical.
We give a conceptual exposition of aspects of gravitational radiation, especially in relation to energy. Our motive for doing so is that the strong analogies with electromagnetic radiation seem not to be widely enough appreciated. In particular, we reply to some recent papers in the philosophy of physics literature that seem to deny that gravitational waves carry energy. Our argument is based on two points: (i) that for both electromagnetism and gravity, in the presence of material sources, radiation is an effective concept, unambiguously emerging only in certain regimes or solutions of the theory; and (ii) similarly, energy conservation is only unambiguous in certain regimes or solutions of general relativity. Crucially, the domain of (i), in which radiation is meaningful, has a significant overlap with the domain of (ii), in which energy conservation is meaningful. Conceptually, the overlap of regimes is no coincidence: the long-standing question about the existence of gravitational waves was settled precisely by finding a consistent way to articulate their energy and momentum.
