Convex operational theories form a class of physical theories that are built on the operational mixing of states of the system resulting in convex state spaces. Following the operational approach to describe physical experiments, the other operational concepts, such as measurements and state transformations, rise from the properties of the state space. In addition to quantum theory, the convex operational theories include but are not restricted to classical theories and quantum theory of processes. In the light of recent deep interest in quantum information theory, convex operational theories serve as means to consider information-theoretic principles in a more abstract framework. This allows to compare different types of theories against each other and further study the nature of these principles. Some of these principles can then even be used for different axiomatizations of quantum theory. This thesis serves to introduce the mathematical concepts related to convex operational theories and then use them to construct this class of theories in the ordered vector space formalism. We use the constructed class of theories to consider the most important aspects of the theories with applications in physical theories such as quantum theory. We study some of the most important non-classical properties of quantum theory in the more abstract framework of convex operational theories including original research on one of these features.
Convex operational theories form a class of physical theories that are built on the operational mixing of states of the system resulting in convex state spaces. Following the operational approach to describe physical experiments, the other operational concepts, such as measurements and state transformations, rise from the properties of the state space. In addition to quantum theory, the convex operational theories include but are not restricted to classical theories and quantum theory of processes. In the light of recent deep interest in quantum information theory, convex operational theories serve as means to consider information-theoretic principles in a more abstract framework. This allows to compare different types of theories against each other and further study the nature of these principles. Some of these principles can then even be used for different axiomatizations of quantum theory. This thesis serves to introduce the mathematical concepts related to convex operational theories and then use them to construct this class of theories in the ordered vector space formalism. We use the constructed class of theories to consider the most important aspects of the theories with applications in physical theories such as quantum theory. We study some of the most important non-classical properties of quantum theory in the more abstract framework of convex operational theories including original research on one of these features.
Convex operational theories form a class of physical theories that are built on the operational mixing of states of the system resulting in convex state spaces. Following the operational approach to describe physical experiments, the other operational concepts, such as measurements and state transformations, rise from the properties of the state space. In addition to quantum theory, the convex operational theories include but are not restricted to classical theories and quantum theory of processes. In the light of recent deep interest in quantum information theory, convex operational theories serve as means to consider information-theoretic principles in a more abstract framework. This allows to compare different types of theories against each other and further study the nature of these principles. Some of these principles can then even be used for different axiomatizations of quantum theory. This thesis serves to introduce the mathematical concepts related to convex operational theories and then use them to construct this class of theories in the ordered vector space formalism. We use the constructed class of theories to consider the most important aspects of the theories with applications in physical theories such as quantum theory. We study some of the most important non-classical properties of quantum theory in the more abstract framework of convex operational theories including original research on one of these features.
It is not surprising that our language should be incapable of describing processes occurring within atoms, for, as has been remarked, it was invented to describe the experiences of daily life, … Fortunately, mathematics is not subject to this limitation, and it has been possible to invent a mathematical scheme–the quantum theory–which seems entirely adequate for the treatment of atomic processes. Werner Heisenberg, The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory (1930) In this chapter we introduce the mathematical structure of quantum theory, for a finite number of systems and finite dimension, starting from three simple Hilbert-space postulates, and based on the intuitive notions of state, transformation, and effect, within a causal context. Such notions will be formalized in a general non-causal context in Chapter 3, which is devoted to the informational framework. We will assume the reader has a basic knowledge of matrix analysis and of operators over Hilbert spaces. Comments about the extension to infinite dimensions, continuous outcome-spaces, and infinitely many systems can be found in the notes at the end of the chapter. From the three simple Hilbert-space postulates, the present chapter extracts six principles, which will become the postulates for quantum theory in the axiomatic derivation presented in Part III of the book. In addition, we will take the opportunity to present and explore many relevant features of the theory – including its convex and causal structure, the Choi–Jamiołkowski isomorphism, and relevant notions, such as those of POVM, complete positivity of maps, quantum operation and channels, entangled states, state discrimination, tomography of states, and transformations. The purification principle will open the stage to the dilation theorems of the theory of quantum open systems, along with other consequences, such as the existence of faithful and steering states, the theorem of no information without disturbance, quantum teleportation, and more. We will review the quantum no-cloning and no-programming theorems, and finally provide a thorough derivation of the theory of quantum channel inversion, which is the backbone of the general theory of quantum error correction in quantum information. Additional interesting topics will be classical information theory as a restriction of quantum information theory, and a critical reconsideration of the von Neumann postulate and the notion of observable.
In this thesis, we consider the properties of measurements in quantum theory and other operational theories. After having introduced the framework of operational theories, we consider a communication scheme based on an experimental prepare-and-measure scenario and demonstrate this with different communication tasks. This gives us context for how the different communication tasks can be implemented in different theories, in doing so establishing quantum theory intuitively as an operational theory among other theories. The main property of measurements we focus on in this work is the simulation of measurements, which consists of manipulating the inputs and outputs of the measurement devices. We study how using this process on existing measurement devices can be used to operationally imitate new devices, and what kind of structure the simulation process induces on measurements. We also consider applications of simulability. Firstly, we consider operational restrictions imposed upon measurements. We argue that the restricted set of physical measurements must be closed with respect to the simulation process since the simulation of physical devices must lead to other physically feasible devices. We demonstrate different types of restrictions by classifying them. As a second application we see how the simulation of measurements relates to compatibility of measurements and how it can be viewed as a generalisation of it. This allows us to present an operational principle previously known to quantum theory, the no-free-information principle, according to which any measurement that is compatible with all other measurement must not provide any useful, and therefore free, information about the system. Whilst this principle holds in quantum theory, there are non-classical theories for which it is violated, and so enforcing this principle may be considered a way to exclude some unphysical theories.
This thesis explores various perspectives on quantum phenomena, and how our understanding of these phenomena is informed by the study of general probabilistic theories. Particular attention is given to quantum nonlocality, and its interaction with areas of physical and mathematical interest such as entropy, reversible dynamics, information-based games and the idea of negative probability. We begin with a review of non-signaling distributions and convex operational theories, including “black box” descriptions of experiments and the mathematics of convex vector spaces. In Chapter 3 we derive various classical and quantum-like quasiprobabilistic representations of arbitrary non-signaling distributions. Previously, results in which the density operator is allowed to become non-positive [1] have proved useful in derivations of quantum theory from physical requirements [2]; we derive a dual result in which the measurement operators instead are allowed to become non-positive, and show that the generation of any non-signaling distribution is possible using a fixed separable state with negligible correlation. We also derive two distinct “quasi-local” models of non-signaling correlations. Chapter 4 investigates non-local games, in particular the game known as Information Causality. By analysing the probability of success in this game, we prove the conjectured tightness of a bound given in [3] concerning how well entanglement allows us to perform the task of random access coding, and introduce a quadratic bias bound which seems to capture a great deal of information about the set of quantum-achievable correlations. By reformulating Information Causality in terms of entropies, we find that a sensible measure of entropy precludes many general probabilistic theories whose non-locality is stronger than that of quantum theory. Chapter 5 explores the role that reversible transitivity (the principle that any two pure states are joined by a reversible transformation) plays as a characteristic feature of quantum theory. It has previously been shown that in Boxworld, the theory allowing for the full set of non-signaling correlations, any reversible transformation on a restricted class of composite systems is merely a composition of relabellings of measurement choices and outcomes, and permutations of subsystems [4]. We develop a tabular description of Boxworld states and effects first introduced in [5], and use this to extend this reversibility result to any composite Boxworld system in which none of the subsystems are classical.
We give an introduction to research associated with the generalised probabilistic theories framework, also known as the convex framework. States are real vectors representing lists of probabilities of measurement outcomes. Convex combinations of the vectors represent probabilistic combinations of different state preparations. Transformations are real matrices. Measurement outcomes are represented by functionals of the states, inner products of the state with a real vector, whose values are the probability of the measurement outcome in question. The framework generalises quantum theory. We describe the operational meaning of the framework, and how the concepts can be defined in terms of cones of states and measurement outcome vectors. We describe how the classical and quantum probability theories are represented in the framework. We describe Bell non-locality and the theory with super-quantum non-locality known as box world. We discuss generalised Hamiltonian mechanics in the discrete case and in continuous phase space, including the role of negativity of the phase space density in contextuality and tunnelling.
Convexity arises naturally in the study of quantum information. As a result, many useful tools from convex analysis can be used to give important results regarding aspects of quantum information. This thesis builds up methods using core concepts from convex analysis, including convex optimization problems, convex roof constructions, and conic programming, to study mathematical problems related to quantum entanglement. In this thesis, I develop a method for solving convex optimization problems that arise in quantum information theory by analyzing the corresponding converse problem. That is, given an element in a convex set, I determine a family of convex functions that are minimized at this point. This method is used find explicit formulas for the relative entropy of entanglement, as well as other important quantities used to quantify entanglement, and allows one to show important relationships between them. I also construct a practical algorithm that can be used to compute these quantities. This thesis also presents a method to compute convex roofs of arbitrary entanglement measures evaluated on highly symmetric bipartite states. I also establish a framework for completely characterizing quantum resource theories that are convex. For resource theories with a simple mathematical structure, this gives rise to a complete set of resource monotones that can be computed in practice using semidefinite programs. This has applications to the study of entanglement transformations.