In this highly readable book, H.S. Green, a former student of Max Born and well known as an author in physics and in the philosophy of science, presents a timely analysis of theoretical physics and related fundamental problems.
Christopher G. Timpson provides the first full-length philosophical treatment of quantum information theory and the questions it raises for our understanding of the quantum world. He argues for an ontologically deflationary account of the nature of quantum information, which is grounded in a revisionary analysis of the concepts of information.
This concise and readable book addresses primarily readers with a background in classical statistical physics and introduces quantum mechanical notions as required. Conceived as a primer to bridge the gap between statistical physics and quantum information, it emphasizes concepts and thorough discussions of the fundamental notions and prepares the reader for deeper studies, not least through a selection of well chosen exercises.
The success of Newton's mechanic, Maxwell's electrodynamic, Einstein's theories of relativity, and quantum mechanics is a strong argument for the space-time continuum. Nevertheless, doubts have been expressed about the use of a continuum in a science squarely based on observation and measurement. An exact science requires that qualitative arguments must be reduced to quantitative statements. The observability of a continuum can be reduced from qualitative arguments to quantitative statements by means of information theory.Information theory was developed during the last decades within electrical communications, but it is almost unknown in physics. The closest approach to information theory in physics is the calculus of propositions, which has been used in books on the frontier of quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity. Principles of information theory are discussed in this book. The ability to think readily in terms of a finite number of discrete samples is developed over many years of using information theory and digital computers, just as the ability to think readily in terms of a continuum is developed by long use of differential calculus.
Developing many of the major, exciting, pre- and post-millennium developments from the ground up, this book is an ideal entry point for graduate students into quantum information theory. Significant attention is given to quantum mechanics for quantum information theory, and careful studies of the important protocols of teleportation, superdense coding, and entanglement distribution are presented. In this new edition, readers can expect to find over 100 pages of new material, including detailed discussions of Bell's theorem, the CHSH game, Tsirelson's theorem, the axiomatic approach to quantum channels, the definition of the diamond norm and its interpretation, and a proof of the Choi–Kraus theorem. Discussion of the importance of the quantum dynamic capacity formula has been completely revised, and many new exercises and references have been added. This new edition will be welcomed by the upcoming generation of quantum information theorists and the already established community of classical information theorists.
This book provides the reader with the mathematical framework required to fully explore the potential of small quantum information processing devices. As decoherence will continue to limit their size, it is essential to master the conceptual tools which make such investigations possible. A strong emphasis is given to information measures that are essential for the study of devices of finite size, including Rényi entropies and smooth entropies. The presentation is self-contained and includes rigorous and concise proofs of the most important properties of these measures. The first chapters will introduce the formalism of quantum mechanics, with particular emphasis on norms and metrics for quantum states. This is necessary to explore quantum generalizations of Rényi divergence and conditional entropy, information measures that lie at the core of information theory. The smooth entropy framework is discussed next and provides a natural means to lift many arguments from information theory to the quantum setting. Finally selected applications of the theory to statistics and cryptography are discussed. The book is aimed at graduate students in Physics and Information Theory. Mathematical fluency is necessary, but no prior knowledge of quantum theory is required.
This complete overview of classical and quantum information theory employs an informal yet accurate approach, for students, researchers and practitioners.