This is an expanded and revised text for a fifteen minute talk given at the University of Queensland Physics Camp, September 2000. The focus is on the goals and motivations for studying quantum information theory, rather than on technical results.
Quantum physics is believed to be the fundamental theory underlying our understanding of the physical universe. However, it is based on concepts and principles that have always been difficult to understand and controversial in their interpretation. This book aims to explain these issues using a minimum of technical language and mathematics. After a brief introduction to the ideas of quantum physics, the problems of interpretation are identified and explained. The rest of the book surveys, describes and criticises a range of suggestions that have been made with the aim of resolving these problems; these include the traditional, or 'Copenhagen' interpretation, the possible role of the conscious mind in measurement, and the postulate of parallel universes. This new edition has been revised throughout to take into account developments in this field over the past fifteen years, including the idea of 'consistent histories' to which a completely new chapter is devoted.
Quantum physics is believed to be the fundamental theory underlying our understanding of the physical universe. However, it is based on concepts and principles that have always been difficult to understand and controversial in their interpretation. This book aims to explain these issues using a minimum of technical language and mathematics. After a brief introduction to the ideas of quantum physics, the problems of interpretation are identified and explained. The rest of the book surveys, describes and criticises a range of suggestions that have been made with the aim of resolving these problems; these include the traditional, or 'Copenhagen' interpretation, the possible role of the conscious mind in measurement and the postulate of parallel universes. This new edition has been revised throughout to take into account developments in this field over the past fifteen years, including the idea of 'consistent histories' to which a completely new chapter is devoted.
This volume represents the talks given at the Conference on Interactions between Representation Theory, Quantum Field Theory, Category Theory, Mathematical Physics, and Quantum Information Theory, held in September 2007 at the University of Texas at Tyler. The papers in this volume, written by top experts in the field, address physical aspects, mathematical aspects, and foundational issues of quantum computation. This volume will benefit researchers interested in advances in quantum computation and communication, as well as graduate students who wish to enter the field of quantum computation.