Colloquium: an introduction to consistent quantum theory

DOI10.1103/REVMODPHYS.82.2835MaRDI QIDQ2900974zbMATHFDO

Authors Pierre C. Hohenberg

Publication date 27 July 2012

Published in Reviews of Modern Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0909.2359

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to quantum theory (81-01) Foundations, quantum information and its processing, quantum axioms, and philosophy (81Pxx)

Abstract: This paper presents an elementary introduction to Consistent Quantum Theory (CQT), as developed by Griffiths and others over the past 25 years. The theory is a version of orthodox(Copenhagen) quantum mechanics, based on the notion that the unique and mysterious feature of quantum, as opposed to classical, systems is the simultaneous existence of multiple incompatible representations of reality, referred to as "frameworks". A framework is a maximal set of properties of a system for which probabilities can be consistently defined. This notion is expressed by saying that a framework provides an exhaustive set of exclusive alternatives (ESEA), but no single framework suffices to fully characterize a quantum system. Indeed, the existence of multiple incompatible frameworks is the hallmark of quantum mechanical behavior. Any prediction of the theory must be confined to a single framework and combining elements from different frameworks leads to quantum mechanically meaningless statements. This "single framework rule" is the precise mathematical statement of Bohr's complementarity. It is shown that if the microscopic description is assumed to incorporate these elements in a local setting, then distant entanglements, macroscopic measurements, wave function collapse and other mysterious features of quantum behavior follow in a logical manner. The essential elements of the theory are first explained using the simplest quantum system, a single spin-1/2 degree of freedom at one time.

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Cites work

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Cited in

(10)

• Relational quantum mechanics and probability
• Timeless configuration space and the emergence of classical behavior
• Quantum locality
• Quantum counterfactuals and locality
• Simultaneous elements of reality for incompatible properties by exploiting locality
• On the consistency of the consistent histories approach to quantum mechanics
• Understanding quantum measurement from the solution of dynamical models
• Quantum image processing: the pros and cons of the techniques for the internal representation of the image. A reply to: ``A comment on: ``Quantum image processing?'
• Measurements according to consistent histories
• Wavefunction collapse through backaction of counting weakly interacting photons

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