Two-spinors, oscillator algebras, and qubits: aspects of manifestly covariant approach to relativistic quantum information (Q972451)

The author considers several aspects of relativistic quantum information theory. Large parts of the material presented here are, basically, not new but rediscussed (partly in an unusual way) in a new context (i.e., within quantum information theory). The first part starts with a short review of known relations between two-spinors and Minkowski space, which are applied then to a discussion of the first quantized Dirac equation. Based on the idea to realize qubits in terms of the spin degree of freedom, several ways to define the spin relativistically are considered in this context. This concerns in particular the Pauli-Lubanski vector. Other, related topics are an unorthodox approach to unitary representations of the Poincaré group, which are regarded as passive versions of active spinor representations, and a discussion of the Peres-Scudo-Terno problem (i.e., the observation that entropy defined in terms of reduced spin density matrices; [cf. \textit{A. Peres, P. F. Scudo} and \textit{D. R. Terno}, Quantum entropy and special relativity, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 230402 (2002)]). The second part deals with the second quantized electromagnetic field. Here an unusual quantization approach in terms of reducible representations of harmonic oszillator Lie algebras is used [cf. the author and \textit{K. Wrzask}, Int. J. Theor. Phys. 48, No. 9, 2511--2549 (2009; Zbl 1252.81137)]. The setup derived so far is then used to discuss EPR states and EPR correlations. In this context it is shown in particular that the reducible representations used for quantization predict essentially the same formula for EPR averages as the usual formalism.