PIRSA:16060104

Everything you wanted to know about the reality of the quantum state, but were afraid to ask Matt Pusey

Leifer, M. (2016). Everything you wanted to know about the reality of the quantum state, but were afraid to ask Matt Pusey. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/16060104

Leifer, Matthew. Everything you wanted to know about the reality of the quantum state, but were afraid to ask Matt Pusey. Perimeter Institute, Jun. 17, 2016, https://pirsa.org/16060104 

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:16060104,
            doi = {10.48660/16060104},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/16060104},
            author = {Leifer, Matthew},
            keywords = {Quantum Foundations},
            language = {en},
            title = {Everything  you wanted to know about the reality of the quantum state, but were afraid to ask Matt Pusey},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2016},
            month = {jun},
            note = {PIRSA:16060104 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }

Matthew Leifer Chapman University

DOI 10.48660/16060104
Collection
Talk Type Scientific Series
Subject

Abstract

In this talk, I will outline the current state of the art in the study of the reality of the quantum state.  The main theme will be that, although you cannot derive the reality of the quantum state in an ontological model without additional assumptions, you can place constraints on the amount of overlap between probability measures that begin to make psi-epistemic theories look implausible.  These overlap bounds come from noncontextuality inequalities, and there are two types in the literature: those based on Cabello-Severini-Winter type inequalities and those based on Yu-Oh type inequalities.  The latter type of overlap bound was not originally derived from noncontextuality, but thinking of them this way yields a new proof of the Yu-Oh inequality and gives rise to family of related inequalities.  I will also explain why I think that most papers on ovelap bounds (including my own) have adopted sub-optimal measures, introduce better ones, and explain how this affects the choice of the best experimental protocol for demonstrating overlap bounds.