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What Information Theory Can Tell Us About Quantum Reality

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Quantum Computing and Quantum Communications (QCQC 1998)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1509))

Abstract

An investigation of Einstein’s “physical“ reality and the concept of quantum reality in terms of information theory suggests a solution to quantum paradoxes such as the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) and the Schrödinger-cat paradoxes. Quantum reality, the picture based on unitarily evolving wavefunctions, is complete, but appears incomplete from the observer’s point of view for fundamental reasons arising from the quantum information theory of measurement. Physical reality, the picture based on classically accessible observables is, in the worst case of EPR experiments, unrelated to the quantum reality it purports to reflect. Thus, quantum information theory implies that only correlations, not the correlata, are physically accessible: the mantra of the Ithaca interpretation of quantum mechanics.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. W. K. Kellogg Radiation Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, 91125, USA

    C. Adami & N. J. Cerf

Authors
  1. C. Adami
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  2. N. J. Cerf
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology Quantum Algorithms and Technologies Group Information and Computing Technologies Research Section, Mail Stop 126-347, Pasadena, CA, 91109-8099, USA

    Colin P. Williams

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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Adami, C., Cerf, N.J. (1999). What Information Theory Can Tell Us About Quantum Reality. In: Williams, C.P. (eds) Quantum Computing and Quantum Communications. QCQC 1998. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1509. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-49208-9_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-49208-9_22

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-65514-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-49208-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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