Feb 16, 2015 06:13 AM
http://www.fqxi.org/community/articles/display/199
EXCERPT: ... [Giulio] Chiribella, now a quantum physicist at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, studied physics and mathematics and quickly got hooked. The search for deeper foundations have now led him and his colleagues, Giacomo Mauro D’Ariano and Paolo Perinotti at the University of Pavia, in Italy, to rewrite the rules at the core of theoretical physics. They have identified five fundamental principles common to both the ‘classical physics’ that governs everyday objects that we see around us and the bizarre quantum rules that control the behavior of particles in the subatomic realm. It is a feat that is akin to finding a basic set of musical tunes from which any elaborate symphony can be composed.
According to this model, the difference between the quantum and classical worlds comes down to one simple extra feature, which they dub the "purification principle"—an axiom that brings the information content of quantum systems to centre stage. With this in place, they are able to explain many of the other strange properties that we see in quantum experiments and why our quantum equations work so well. Their findings could help us understand the origin of time’s arrow and may even have implications for physicists developing algorithms for quantum computers, which are expected to outperform today’s standard machines....
EXCERPT: ... [Giulio] Chiribella, now a quantum physicist at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, studied physics and mathematics and quickly got hooked. The search for deeper foundations have now led him and his colleagues, Giacomo Mauro D’Ariano and Paolo Perinotti at the University of Pavia, in Italy, to rewrite the rules at the core of theoretical physics. They have identified five fundamental principles common to both the ‘classical physics’ that governs everyday objects that we see around us and the bizarre quantum rules that control the behavior of particles in the subatomic realm. It is a feat that is akin to finding a basic set of musical tunes from which any elaborate symphony can be composed.
According to this model, the difference between the quantum and classical worlds comes down to one simple extra feature, which they dub the "purification principle"—an axiom that brings the information content of quantum systems to centre stage. With this in place, they are able to explain many of the other strange properties that we see in quantum experiments and why our quantum equations work so well. Their findings could help us understand the origin of time’s arrow and may even have implications for physicists developing algorithms for quantum computers, which are expected to outperform today’s standard machines....