Talks

The ideas of no-signalling, nonlocality, Bell inequalities, and quantum correlations can all be understood as implications of a presumed causal structure. In particular, the causal structure of the Bell scenario implies the Bell inequalities whenever the shared resource is presumed to act like a classical hidden random variable. If the shared resource in the scenario is a quantum system, however, then the quantum causal structure can give rise to a larger set of correlations, including probability distributions which violate Bell inequalities up to Tsirelson's bound. It is hard to generically distinguish between the classical and quantum correlations, though, because the standard method for computing Bell inequalities cannot be generalized to general causal scenarios. We therefore introduce a method (the "Inflation DAG" technique) to heuristically constrain the set of correlations compatible with a given classical causal structure, and we demonstrate how it may be used to derive explicit inequalities in terms of probabilities. We also discuss deriving physics-independent constraints, i.e. non-trivial inequalities which are nevertheless satisfied even by all quantum correlations, thereby quantifying some absolute limits as to what the universe allows.

[Unpublished results of E.W., Rob Spekkens, Tobias Fritz]

The Aharonov-Bergmann-Lebowitz Rule for weak and strong Measurements; The Quantum Pigeonhole Effect; Superoscillations and conservation of energy;  Conservation of energy and tunneling between space-like separated points.

In this talk I will go over the recent paper by Daniela Frauchiger and Renato Renner, "Single-world interpretations of quantum theory cannot be self-consistent" (arXiv:1604.07422).

The paper introduces an extended Wigner's friend thought experiment, which makes use of Hardy's paradox to show that agents will necessarily reach contradictory conclusions - unless they take into account that they themselves may be in a superposition, and that their subjective experience of observing an outcome is not the whole story.

Frauchiger and Renner then put this experiment in context within a general framework to analyse physical theories. This leads to a theorem saying that a theory cannot be simultaneously (1) compliant with quantum theory, including at the macroscopic level, (2) single-world, and (3) self-consistent across different agents.

In this talk I will (1) describe the experiment and its immediate consequences, (2) quickly review how different interpretations react to it, (3) explain the framework and theorem in more detail.


 

Certain superposition states of the 1-D infinite square well have transient zeros at locations other than the nodes of the eigenstates that comprise them. It is shown that if an infinite potential barrier is suddenly raised at some or all of these zeros, the well can be split into multiple adjacent infinite square wells without affecting the wavefunction. While the average energy of the state was unchanged, this splitting effects a change of the energy eigenbasis of the state to a basis that does not commute with the original, and a subsequent measurement of the energy now reveals a completely different spectrum, which we call the interference energy spectrum of the state. Numerical simulations were used to verify that a barrier can be rapidly raised at a zero of the wavefunction without significantly affecting it. The concept of state inherent energy spectra is further explored as it relates to quantum state time evolution, probability theory, and weak value measurements. Of particular interest, this procedure can result in measurable energies that are greater than the energy of the highest mode in the original superposition, raising questions about the conservation of energy akin to those that have been raised in the study of superoscillations.