Raymond Lal

No psi−epistemic model can fully explain the indistinguishability of quantum states

According to a recent no-go theorem [M. Pusey, J. Barrett and T. Rudolph, Nat. Phys. 8, 475 (2012)], models in which quantum states correspond to probability distributions over the values of some underlying physical variables must have the following feature: the distributions corresponding to distinct quantum states do not overlap. In such a model, it cannot coherently be maintained that the quantum state merely encodes information about underlying physical variables. The theorem, however, considers only models in which the physical variables corresponding to independently prepared systems are independent, and this has been used to challenge the conclusions of that work. Here we consider models that are defined for a single quantum system of dimension d, such that the independence condition does not arise, and derive an upper bound on the extent to which the probability distributions can overlap. In particular, models in which the quantum overlap between pure states is equal to the classical overlap between the corresponding probability distributions cannot reproduce the quantum predictions in any dimension d ≥ 3. Thus any ontological model for quantum theory must postulate some extra principle, such as a limitation on the measurability of physical variables, to explain the indistinguishability of quantum states. Moreover, we show that as d→∞, the ratio of classical and quantum overlaps goes to zero for a class of states. The result is noise tolerant, and an experiment is motivated to distinguish the class of models ruled out from quantum theory.

On modifications of Reichenbachʼs principle of common cause in light of Bellʼs theorem

Bell?s 1964 theorem causes a severe problem for the notion that correlations require explanation, encapsulated in Reichenbach?s principle of common cause. Despite being a hallmark of scientific thought, dropping the principle has been widely regarded as much less bitter medicine than the perceived alternative?dropping relativistic causality. Recently, however, some authors have proposed that modified forms of Reichenbach?s principle could be maintained even with relativistic causality. Here we break down Reichenbach?s principle into two independent assumptions?the principle of common cause proper and factorization of probabilities. We show how Bell?s theorem can be derived from these two assumptions plus relativistic causality and the law of total probability for actual events, and we review proposals to drop each of these assumptions in light of the theorem. In particular, we show that the non-commutative common causes of Hofer-Szab? and Vecserny?s fail to have an analogue of the notion that the common causes can explain the observed correlations. Moreover, we show that their definition can be satisfied trivially by any quantum product state for any quantum correlations. We also discuss how the conditional states approach of Leifer and Spekkens fares in this regard.This article is part of a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical devoted to ?50 years of Bell?s theorem?.

Causal Categories: Relativistically Interacting Processes

A symmetric monoidal category naturally arises as the mathematical structure that organizes physical systems, processes, and composition thereof, both sequentially and in parallel. This structure admits a purely graphical calculus. This paper is concerned with the encoding of a fixed causal structure within a symmetric monoidal category: causal dependencies will correspond to topological connectedness in the graphical language. We show that correlations, either classical or quantum, force terminality of the tensor unit. We also show that well-definedness of the concept of a global state forces the monoidal product to be only partially defined, which in turn results in a relativistic covariance theorem. Except for these assumptions, at no stage do we assume anything more than purely compositional symmetric-monoidal categorical structure. We cast these two structural results in terms of a mathematical entity, which we call a causal category. We provide methods of constructing causal categories, and we study the consequences of these methods for the general framework of categorical quantum mechanics.

Time asymmetry of probabilities versus relativistic causal structure: an arrow of time.

There is an incompatibility between the symmetries of causal structure in relativity theory and the signaling abilities of probabilistic devices with inputs and outputs: while time reversal in relativity will not introduce the ability to signal between spacelike separated regions, this is not the case for probabilistic devices with spacelike separated input-output pairs. We explicitly describe a nonsignaling device which becomes a perfect signaling device under time reversal, where time reversal can be conceptualized as playing backwards a videotape of an agent manipulating the device. This leads to an arrow of time that is identifiable when studying the correlations of events for spacelike separated regions. Somewhat surprisingly, although the time reversal of Popescu-Rohrlich boxes also allows agents to signal, it does not yield a perfect signaling device. Finally, we realize time reversal using postselection, which could to lead experimental implementation.

Possibilities determine the combinatorial structure of probability polytopes

Abstract We study the set of no-signalling empirical models on a measurement scenario, and show that the combinatorial structure of the no-signalling polytope is completely determined by the possibilistic information given by the support of the models. This is a special case of a general result which applies to all polytopes presented in a standard form, given by linear equations together with non-negativity constraints on the variables.

Non-locality in theories without the no-restriction hypothesis

The framework of generalized probabilistic theories (GPT) is a widely-used approach for studying the physical foundations of quantum theory. The standard GPT framework assumes the no-restriction hypothesis, in which the state space of a physical theory determines the set of measurements. However, this assumption is not physically motivated. In Janotta and Lal [Phys. Rev. A 87, 052131 (2013)], it was shown how this assumption can be relaxed, and how such an approach can be used to describe new classes of probabilistic theories. This involves introducing a new, more general, definition of maximal joint state spaces, which we call the generalised maximal tensor product. Here we show that the generalised maximal tensor product recovers the standard maximal tensor product when at least one of the systems in a bipartite scenario obeys the no-restriction hypothesis. We also show that, under certain conditions, relaxing the no-restriction hypothesis for a given state space does not allow for stronger non-locality, although the generalized maximal tensor product may allow new joint states.