Quantum foundations concerns the conceptual and mathematical underpinnings of quantum theory. In particular, we search for novel quantum effects, consider how to interpret the formalism, ask where the formalism comes from, and how we might modify it. Research at Perimeter Institute is particularly concerned with reconstructing quantum theory from more natural postulates and reformulating the theory in ways that elucidate its conceptual structure. Research in the foundations of quantum theory naturally interfaces with research in quantum information and quantum gravity.
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The Conceptual Development of Early Quantum Theory
A. Douglas Stone
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Hertha Sponer, Maven of Quantum Spectroscopy
Elise Crull
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Formal reasoning with a computer assistant: A quantitative solution to Hilbert's Tenth Problem
Marco David - University of California, Berkeley
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Metainformation Enhancing Incompatibility Witnessing and Hybrid Computation
Teiko Heinosaari - University of Jyväskylä
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Varieties of Rigour: Charting the Landscape of Reformulation Programmes in 1950 Quantum Field Theory
James Fraser
Historians and philosophers of quantum field theory (QFT) face a distinctive challenge: the existence of multiple, mathematically and conceptually divergent formulations of the theory. Discussions of this issue in the extant literature often contrast the mainstream perturbative formalism—empirically… -
Wigner's Friends and Relations
Matt Leifer
"Wigner's Friend is a variant of the Schrödinger's cat experiment in which the cat is replaced by a Friend, the difference being that the Friend is unambiguously a conscious agent who experiences definite measurement outcomes. It has received renewed attention in recent years due to the development… -
The Conceptual Development of Early Quantum Theory
A. Douglas Stone
I will review conceptual advances which paved the way for the emergence of the mature form of quantum theory (quantum mechanics) in 1925-27, focusing on the contributions of Albert Einstein [1,2]. I argue that Einstein’s 1905 paper on light quanta was motivated by his firm belief that equipartition… -
Hertha Sponer, Maven of Quantum Spectroscopy
Elise Crull
As is well known to historians, in the early days of quantum theory James Franck frequently reported fresh experimental results to Bohr and others, on the basis of which major theoretical advances were made. These data – and indeed, the design and execution of the ground-breaking experimental work… -
From Bose-Einstein statistics to photon statistics: the statistical style of scientific reasoning in the genesis of quantum optics.
Daniela Monaldi
My research investigates the role of Bose-Einstein statistics in the genesis of quantum optics. It explores key developments following the emergence of quantum statistics in the late 1920s, which eventually led to the classification of elementary entities as bosons and fermions in 1945. Additionally… -
Schrödinger, Szilard and the prehistory of the EPR argument
Jos Uffink
Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen’s “Can quantum mechanical description of reality be considered complete?”(1935) and Schrödinger’s “Die gegenwärtige Situation in derQuantenmechanik” (1936) are commonly accepted as the seminal papers for the modern study of quantum mechanical entanglement. However, not… -
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Formal reasoning with a computer assistant: A quantitative solution to Hilbert's Tenth Problem
Marco David - University of California, Berkeley
This talk explores the development of mathematical proofs with the assistance of interactive theorem provers. We exemplify this through bounding the complexity of Diophantine equations over the integers, which provides a quantitative negative solution to Hilbert’s Tenth Problem (H10). H10 asks about… -
Metainformation Enhancing Incompatibility Witnessing and Hybrid Computation
Teiko Heinosaari - University of Jyväskylä
Quantum guessing games provide a framework for analyzing how information encoded in quantum states can be optimally extracted through measurement. Beyond the standard role of side information, we introduce the concept of metainformation: knowledge that further side information of a certain type will… -
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