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PERIMETER INSTITUTE RECORDED SEMINAR ARCHIVE

Displaying all lectures given by: William Wootters


Symmetric informationally complete measurements: Can we make big ones out of small ones?
Speaker(s): William Wootters
Abstract: For a quantum system with a d-dimensional Hilbert space, a symmetric informationally complete measurement (SIC) can be thought of as a set of d^2 pure states all having the same overlap. Constructions of SICs for composite systems usually do not make use of the composite structure but treat the syst... read more
Date: 01/12/2009 - 4:00 pm

Why Does Nature Like the Square Root of Negative One?
Speaker(s): William Wootters
Abstract: Is there a theory yet to be discovered that underlies quantum theory and explains its structure? If there is such a theory, one of the features it will have to explain is the central role of complex numbers as probability amplitudes. In this talk I explore the physical meaning of the statement “pr... read more
Date: 18/11/2009 - 2:00 pm
Series: Colloquium

Quantum Mechanics as a Real-Vector-Space Theory with a Universal Auxiliary Rebit
Speaker(s): William Wootters
Abstract: In a 1960 paper, E. C. G. Stueckelberg showed how one can obtain the familiar complex-vector-space structure of quantum mechanics by starting with a real-vector-space theory and imposing a superselection rule. In this talk I interpret Stueckelberg’s construction in terms of a single auxili... read more
Date: 11/08/2009 - 2:30 pm

Discrete Phase Space and Minimum-Uncertainty States
Speaker(s): William Wootters
Abstract: Consider a discrete quantum system with a d-dimensional state space. For certain values of d, there is an elegant information-theoretic uncertainty principle expressing the limitation on one's ability to simultaneously predict the outcome of each of d+1 mutually unbiased--or mutually conjugate--ort... read more
Date: 28/03/2007 - 4:00 pm

Discrete phase space based on finite fields
Speaker(s): William Wootters
Abstract:
Date: 20/07/2005 - 10:15 am
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