dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaA Computational Model for Quantum Measurement
| Authors | R. Srikanth |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0302160 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0302160 |
| DOI | 10.1023/B:QINP.0000004123.82268.f4 |
| Journal | Quantum Information Processing 2 (3), 153-199 (2003) |
Abstract
Is the dynamical evolution of physical systems objectively a manifestation of information processing by the universe? We find that an affirmative answer has important consequences for the measurement problem. In particular, we calculate the amount of quantum information processing involved in the evolution of physical systems, assuming a finite degree of fine-graining of Hilbert space. This assumption is shown to imply that there is a finite capacity to sustain the immense entanglement that measurement entails. When this capacity is overwhelmed, the system's unitary evolution becomes computationally unstable and the system suffers an information transition (`collapse'). Classical behaviour arises from the rapid cycles of unitary evolution and information transitions. Thus, the fine-graining of Hilbert space determines the location of the `Heisenberg cut', the mesoscopic threshold separating the microscopic, quantum system from the macroscopic, classical environment. The model can be viewed as a probablistic complement to decoherence, that completes the measurement process by turning decohered improper mixtures of states into proper mixtures. It is shown to provide a natural resolution to the measurement problem and the basis problem.
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"abstract": "Is the dynamical evolution of physical systems objectively a manifestation of\ninformation processing by the universe? We find that an affirmative answer has\nimportant consequences for the measurement problem. In particular, we calculate\nthe amount of quantum information processing involved in the evolution of\nphysical systems, assuming a finite degree of fine-graining of Hilbert space.\nThis assumption is shown to imply that there is a finite capacity to sustain\nthe immense entanglement that measurement entails. When this capacity is\noverwhelmed, the system\u0027s unitary evolution becomes computationally unstable\nand the system suffers an information transition (`collapse\u0027). Classical\nbehaviour arises from the rapid cycles of unitary evolution and information\ntransitions.\n Thus, the fine-graining of Hilbert space determines the location of the\n`Heisenberg cut\u0027, the mesoscopic threshold separating the microscopic, quantum\nsystem from the macroscopic, classical environment. The model can be viewed as\na probablistic complement to decoherence, that completes the measurement\nprocess by turning decohered improper mixtures of states into proper mixtures.\nIt is shown to provide a natural resolution to the measurement problem and the\nbasis problem.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0302160",
"authors": [
"R. Srikanth"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1023/B:QINP.0000004123.82268.f4",
"journal_ref": "Quantum Information Processing 2 (3), 153-199 (2003)",
"title": "A Computational Model for Quantum Measurement",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0302160"
},
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