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arXiv:1005.2448

Quantum Probabilities: An Information‐Theoretic Interpretation

Jeffrey Bub

Published Sep 1, 2011• 9 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract This chapter develops a realist information-theoretic interpretation of the nonclassical features of quantum probabilities. To make plain these nonclassical features, quantum games are analyzed in which a ‘no-signaling’ constraint has to be satisfied. It is further shown how the Lüders Rule may be seen as an instruction how to update probabilities following some measurement. As conditionalization following this rule leads to inevitable losses of information, it is argued that quantum theory implies new constraints on information. A parallel is drawn to the Special Theory of Relativity: The geometric structure of Hilbert spaces imposes new, but objective probabilistic constraints on correlations between events, just as the geometric structure of Minkowski space in special relativity imposes new spatio-temporal kinematic constraints on events.

DOI
10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577439.003.0009

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Abstract This chapter develops a realist information-theoretic interpretation of the nonclassical features of quantum probabilities. To make plain these nonclassical features, quantum games are analyzed in which a ‘no-signaling’ constraint has to be satisfied. It is further shown how the Lüders Rule may be seen as an instruction how to update probabilities following some measurement. As conditionalization following this rule leads to inevitable losses of information, it is argued that quantum theory implies new constraints on information. A parallel is drawn to the Special Theory of Relativity: The geometric structure of Hilbert spaces imposes new, but objective probabilistic constraints on correlations between events, just as the geometric structure of Minkowski space in special relativity imposes new spatio-temporal kinematic constraints on events.
We discuss new approach to mathematical foundations of quantum theory, which is completely independent of Hilbert spaces and measure spaces. New kinematics is defined by nonlinear geometry of spaces of integrals on abstract non-commutative algebras. New dynamics is defined by constrained maximisation of quantum relative entropy. We recover Hilbert space based approach (including unitary evolution and the von Neumann-Lüders rule) and measure theoretic approach to probability theory (including Bayes' rule) as special cases of our approach.
We have seen that there is an intimate relationship between probability and information. The values we assign to probabilities depend on the information available, and information is a function of probabilities. This connection makes it inevitable that information will be an important concept in any statistical theory, including thermodynamics and, of course, quantum physics. The probabilistic interpretation of quantum theory has probability amplitudes rather than probabilities as the fundamental quantities. This feature, together with the associated superposition principle, is responsible for intrinsically quantum phenomena and gives quantum information theory its distinctive flavour. We shall see that the quantum rules for dynamical evolution and measurement, together with the existence of entangled states, have important implications for quantum information. They also make it possible to perform tasks which are either impractical or impossible within the classical domain. In describing these we shall make extensive use of simple but fundamental ideas in quantum theory. This chapter introduces the mathematical description of quantum physics and the concepts which will be employed in our study of quantum information.
We analyze the structure of the so called non-signaling theories respecting relativistic causality but allowing correlations violating bounds imposed by quantum mechanics such as CHSH inequality. We discuss relations among such theories, quantum mechanics, and classical physics. In particular we reconstruct the probability theory adequate for the simplest instance of a non-signaling theory, the two non-signaling boxes world, and exhibit its differences in comparison with classical and quantum probabilities. We show that the question whether such a theory can be treated as a kind of "generalization" of the quantum theory of the two-qubit system cannot be answered positively. Some of its features put it closer to the quantum world, for example measurements must be destructive, on the other hand the Heisenberg uncertainty relations are not satisfied. Another interesting property contrasting it from quantum mechanics is that the subset of "classically correlated states," i.e.\ the states with only classical correlations, does not reproduce the classical world of two two-state systems. Our results establish a new link between quantum information theory and the well-developed theory of quantum logics and can shed new light on the problem why quantum mechanics is distinguished among non-signaling theories.
We analyze the structure of the so called non-signaling theories respecting relativistic causality but allowing correlations violating bounds imposed by quantum mechanics such as CHSH inequality. We discuss relations among such theories, quantum mechanics, and classical physics. In particular we reconstruct the probability theory adequate for the simplest instance of a non-signaling theory, the two non-signaling boxes world, and exhibit its differences in comparison with classical and quantum probabilities. We show that the question whether such a theory can be treated as a kind of "generalization" of the quantum theory of the two-qubit system cannot be answered positively. Some of its features put it closer to the quantum world, for example measurements must be destructive, on the other hand the Heisenberg uncertainty relations are not satisfied. Another interesting property contrasting it from quantum mechanics is that the subset of "classically correlated states," i.e.\ the states with only classical correlations, does not reproduce the classical world of two two-state systems. Our results establish a new link between quantum information theory and the well-developed theory of quantum logics and can shed new light on the problem why quantum mechanics is distinguished among non-signaling theories.
Abstract Some physicists but many philosophers believe that standard Hilbert space quantum mechanics faces a serious measurement problem, whose solution requires a new theory or at least a novel interpretation of standard quantum mechanics. Itamar Pitowsky did not. Instead, he argued in a major essay (Pitowsky 2006) that quantum mechanics offers a new theory of probability. In these and other respects, his views paralleled those of QBists (quantum Bayesians): but their views on the objectivity of measurement outcomes diverged radically. Indeed, Itamar’s view of quantum probability depended on his subtle treatment of the objectivity of outcomes as events whose collective structure underlay this new theory of probability. His thesis is puzzling—that quantum mechanics requires a new theory of probability, as distinct from new ways of calculating probabilities that play the same role as other probabilities in physics and daily life. This essay articulates sources of puzzlement.