Abstract
Researches in the field of quantum information and quantum computation have naturally stimulated new debates about foundational and philosophical problems of quantum theory. “Information interpretations” according to which quantum theory should be mainly regarded as a “revolutionary information theory” have been opposed to more traditional “realistic” assumptions, according to which the pure states of the quantumtheoretic formalism shall always “mirror” objective properties of physical systems that exist (or may exist) in the real world. We analyze some different point of views that have been proposed and discussed in these debates.
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Notes
- 1.
See [24].
- 2.
An “extreme” form of informational approach to quantum theory has been proposed by the so called “Quantum Bayesianism” (briefly, “QBism”), developed on the lines of a subjectivistic interpretation of probability theory (Ramsey, de Finetti). The basic idea of “quantum bayesianists” is that quantum states have to be interpreted as “belief-degrees” of particular epistemic agents. See, for instance, [9].
- 3.
- 4.
See, for instance, [25].
- 5.
For an interesting discussion about the possibility of “realistic” interpretations of quantum theory see, for instance, [21].
- 6.
It is worth-while noticing that this definition of deterministic theory corresponds to a form of determinism that is sometimes called “static”. By “dynamic determinism” one usually means the idea according to which the dynamic equations of the theory under consideration determine for any pure state \({\mathbf {s}}(t)\) (representing the state of a system \({\mathbf {S}}\) at time t) the pure state \({\mathbf {s}}(t')\) of \({\mathbf {S}}\) at any other time \(t'\) (where \(t < t'\) or \(t' < t\)). In this sense one can say that Schrödinger’s equation guarantees a form of probabilistic dynamic determinism for quantum theory.
- 7.
See [8].
- 8.
- 9.
The first no-go theorem has been proved by von Neumann. His proof, however, is based on some general assumptions that have later been considered too strong.
- 10.
- 11.
For the concept of partial Boolean algebra see Definition 10.9 (in the Mathematical Survey of Chap. 10).
- 12.
See [13].
- 13.
- 14.
See [7].
- 15.
One can recognize some significant similarities between the many-worlds interpretations and the consistent-histories approaches to quantum mechanics. These latter theories, however, are not necessarily bound to the strong ontological assumptions that characterize the many-worlds interpretations. See, for instance, [14, 15].
- 16.
- 17.
- 18.
As is well known, the concept of isolated physical system is an approximated concept: all physical systems are, in fact, embedded in an environment and the borders between a system and its environment cannot be generally determined in a sharp way. The approximation involved in this particular case depends on the choice of the relevant parameters and by the resolving power of the instruments used in the measurement-procedures.
- 19.
See [18].
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Dalla Chiara, M.L., Giuntini, R., Leporini, R., Sergioli, G. (2018). Quantum Information in the Foundational and Philosophical Debates About Quantum Theory. In: Quantum Computation and Logic. Trends in Logic, vol 48. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04471-8_9
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