Quanta and information

J. Acácio de Barros

Aleksandar Perisic

We develop an epistemological backbone for the blur programme: a picture in which quanta are not optional microscopic details but structural consequences of finite information and fixed blur. The starting point is a three-layer view: an unreachable Blank (reality in full), channels with native blur (resolution, bandwidth, memory), and the histories we reconstruct from blurred data. Once a blur structure and an information budget are fixed, every physically accessible configuration decomposes into quanta: discrete information grains that can be organised into countable families. This quantization persists as blur is refined and survives even in the formal "blur $=0$" limit used in continuum models. We formulate this as a Quanta Representation Principle: in any quantum universe-a universe where finite systems cannot leak infinite information-every observable channel has a discrete, blur-stable basis of quanta. Continuous descriptions (fields, densities, wavefunctions) are then seen as emergent summaries of these grains, not competitors to them. A blackbody-style inverse argument shows that if such quanta did not exist, finite systems would be able to encode arbitrarily many bits into arbitrarily small energetic deviations, violating no-free-information constraints. We conclude with a universe-level distinction: either one works in wild universes where finite systems can carry infinite information (and blur collapses), or in quantum universes where quanta are unavoidable and survive every reasonable limit, including blur $\rightarrow 0$ in PDE models.

Maria Mannone, Davide Rocchesso

George Jaroszkiewicz

John Rarity

Could we send information encoded in single photons possibly exploiting the wave particle duality inherent in quanta? Could we even build arbitrary processors using single quanta to encode bits of information? Within this talk I would hope to introduce you to the area of quantum information which is largely a theoretical preserve at the moment. There are however various experimental in-roads into this area, the most notable being secure key exchange using quantum cryptography.