PERIMETER INSTITUTE RECORDED SEMINAR ARCHIVE
 | PIRSA:09080020
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Demarcating probability theories by their degree of agent-dependency Speaker(s): Jochen Rau
Abstract: Recent advances in quantum computation and quantum information theory have led to revived interest in, and cross-fertilisation with, foundational issues of quantum theory. In particular, it has become apparent that quantum theory may be interpreted as but a variant of the classical theory of probability and information. While the two theories may at first sight appear widely different, they actually share a substantial core of common properties; and their divergence can be reduced to a single attribute only, their respective degree of agent-dependency. I propose a mathematical description for this ?degree of agent-dependency? and show how assuming different values allows one to derive the classical and the quantum case from their common core. Finally, I explore ? and eventually dismiss ? the possibility that beyond quantum theory there might be other variants of classical probability theory that are relevant to physics.
Date: 14/08/2009 - 2:30 pm
Collection: Reconstructing Quantum Theory
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