Alternative Set Theory In Quantum Modeling.

Satoko Titani, Haruhiko Kozawa

André Ranchin

Abstraction is an important driving force in theoretical physics. New insights often accompany the creation of physical frameworks which are both comprehensive and parsimonious. In particular, the analysis of alternative sets of theories which exhibit similar structural features as quantum theory has yielded important new results and physical understanding. An important task is to undertake a thorough analysis and classification of quantum-like theories. In this thesis, we take a step in this direction, moving towards a synthetic description of alternative theories in quantum foundations. After a brief philosophical introduction, we give a presentation of the mathematical concepts underpinning the foundations of physics, followed by an introduction to the foundations of quantum mechanics. The core of the thesis consists of three results chapters based on the articles in the author’s publications page. Chapter 4 analyses the logic of stabilizer quantum mechanics and provides a complete set of circuit equations for this sub-theory of quantum mechanics. Chapter 5 describes how quantum-like theories can be classified in a periodic table of theories. A pictorial calculus for alternative physical theories, called the ZX calculus for qudits, is then introduced and used as a tool to depict particular examples of quantum-like theories, including qudit stabilizer quantum mechanics and the SpekkensSchreiber toy theory. Chapter 6 presents an alternative set of quantum-like theories, called quantum collapse models. A novel quantum collapse model, where the rate of collapse depends on the Quantum Integrated Information of a physical system, is introduced and discussed in some detail. We then conclude with a brief summary of the main results.

Benavides, J.

Based on the Sheaf Logic approach to set theoretic forcing, a hierarchy of Quantum Variable Sets is constructed which generalizes and simplifies the analogous construction developed by Takeuti on boolean valued models of set theory. Over this model two alternative proofs of Takeuti's correspondence, between self adjoint operators and the real numbers of the model, are given. This approach results to be more constructive showing a direct relation with the Gelfand representation theorem, revealing also the importance of these results with respect to the interpretation of Quantum Mechanics in close connection with the Deutsch-Everett multiversal interpretation. Finally, it is shown how in this context the notion of genericity and the corresponding generic model theorem can help to explain the emergence of classicality also in connection with the Deutsch- Everett perspective.

Newton C. A. da Costa, Décio Krause

William J. Zeng

We construct abstract models of blackbox quantum algorithms using a model of quantum computation in sets and relations, a setting that is usually considered for nondeterministic classical computation. This alternative model of quantum computation (QCRel), though unphysical, nevertheless faithfully models its computational structure. Our main results are models of the Deutsch-Jozsa, single-shot Grovers, and GroupHomID algorithms in QCRel. These results provide new tools to analyze the semantics of quantum computation and improve our understanding of the relationship between computational speedups and the structure of physical theories. They also exemplify a method of extending physical/computational intuition into new mathematical settings.

Ernesto Rodríguez