Narrow Results

In this paper we consider theories in which reality is described by some underlying variables, λ. Each value these variables can take represents an ontic state (a particular state of reality). The preparation of a quantum state corresponds to a distribution over the ontic states, λ. If we make three basic assumptions, we can show that the distributions over ontic states corresponding to distinct pure states are nonoverlapping. This means that we can deduce the quantum state from a knowledge of the ontic state. Hence, if these assumptions are correct, we can claim that the quantum state is a real thing (it is written into the underlying variables that describe reality). The key assumption we use in this proof is ontic indifference — that quantum transformations that do not affect a given pure quantum state can be implemented in such a way that they do not affect the ontic states in the support of that state. In fact this assumption is violated in the Spekkens toy model (which captures many aspects of quantum theory and in which different pure states of the model have overlapping distributions over ontic states). This paper proves that ontic indifference must be violated in any model reproducing quantum theory in which the quantum state is not a real thing. The argument presented in this paper is different from that given in a recent paper by Pusey, Barrett and Rudolph. It uses a different key assumption and it pertains to a single copy of the system in question.

In this paper, we carry out a theoretical calculation of quantum state and quantum energy structure in carbon nanotube embedded semiconductor surface. In this theoretical model, the electrons in the carbon nanotube are considered as in a two-dimensional cylindrical surface. Their motion, therefore, can be described by the Dirac equation. We solve the equation and find that the energy levels are quantized and are linearly dependent on the wave vectors along the $z$-direction that is along the direction of the nanotube. This type of energy structure may have potential application for fabricating high efficiency solar cell or quantum bit in computer chips.

We present two optimal quantum anti-cloning machines for real state in two dimensions, i.e., input state lying in the x–z equator. The first anti-cloning machine produces two outputs which are orthogonal to the input, and the second one produces two anti-parallel outputs for a single input state. The optimal fidelities are also derived.

Within the spirit of five-dimensional gravity in the Randall-Sundrum scenario, in this paper we consider cosmological and gravitational implications induced by forcing the spacetime metric to satisfy a Misner-like symmetry. We first show that in the resulting Misner-brane framework the Friedmann metric for a radiation dominated flat universe and the Schwarzschild or anti-de Sitter black hole metrics are exact solutions on the branes, but the model cannot accommodate any inflationary solution. The horizon and flatness problems can however be solved in Misner-brane cosmology by causal and noncausal communications through the extra dimension between distant regions which are outside the horizon. Based on a semiclassical approximation to the path-integral approach, we have calculated the quantum state of the Misner-brane universe and the quantum perturbations induced on its metric by brane propagation along the fifth direction. We have then considered testable predictions from our model. These include a scale-invariant spectrum of density perturbations whose amplitude can be naturally accommodated to the required value 10^-5-10^-6, and a power spectrum of CMB anisotropies whose acoustic peaks are at the same sky angles as those predicted by inflationary models, but having much smaller secondary-peak intensities. These predictions seem to be compatible with COBE and recent Boomerang and Maxima measurements.

Multiplying a likelihood function with a positive number makes no difference in Bayesian statistical inference, therefore after normalization the likelihood function in many cases can be considered as probability distribution. This idea led Aitchison to define a vector space structure on the probability simplex in 1986. Pawlowsky-Glahn and Egozcue gave a statistically relevant scalar product on this space in 2001, endowing the probability simplex with a Hilbert space structure. In this paper, we present the noncommutative counterpart of this geometry. We introduce a real Hilbert space structure on the quantum mechanical finite dimensional state space. We show that the scalar product in quantum setting respects the tensor product structure and can be expressed in terms of modular operators and Hamilton operators. Using the quantum analogue of the log-ratio transformation, it turns out that all the newly introduced operations emerge naturally in the language of Gibbs states. We show an orthonormal basis in the state space and study the introduced geometry on the space of qubits in details.

In this paper, we give an experimentally feasible scheme for the remote state preparation by the prior share of an entangled state in cavity QED. The whole process of the remote state preparation for a single-atom state and a two-atom entangled state is shown. We find that only one classical bit and one single-atom state measurement is needed for the remote state preparation of a multi-atom entangled state.

We present a criterion to establish the local continuity of the relative entropy of resource, i.e. the relative entropy distance to the set of free states, in any quantum resource theory. Several basic corollaries of this criterion are presented. Applications to the relative entropy of entanglement in multipartite quantum systems are considered. It is shown, in particular, that local continuity of any relative entropy of multipartite entanglement follows from local continuity of the quantum mutual information.

We review some recent results on the mathematical foundations of a quantum theory over a scalar field that is a quadratic extension of the non-Archimedean field of $p$-adic numbers. In our approach, we are inspired by the idea — first postulated in [I. V. Volovich, $p$-adic string, Class. Quantum Grav. 4 (1987) L83–L87] — that space, below a suitably small scale, does not behave as a continuum and, accordingly, should be modeled as a totally disconnected metrizable topological space, ruled by a metric satisfying the strong triangle inequality. The first step of our construction is a suitable definition of a $p$-adic Hilbert space. Next, after introducing all necessary mathematical tools — in particular, various classes of linear operators in a $p$-adic Hilbert space — we consider an algebraic definition of physical states in $p$-adic quantum mechanics. The corresponding observables, whose definition completes the statistical interpretation of the theory, are introduced as SOVMs, a $p$-adic counterpart of the POVMs associated with a standard quantum system over the complex numbers. Interestingly, it turns out that the typical convex geometry of the space of states of a standard quantum system is replaced, in the $p$-adic setting, with an affine geometry; therefore, a symmetry transformation of a $p$-adic quantum system may be defined as a map preserving this affine geometry. We argue that, as a consequence, the group of all symmetry transformations of a $p$-adic quantum system has a richer structure with respect to the case of standard quantum mechanics over the complex numbers.