Talks

No-go theorems (Bell, Kochen-Specker, …) formally show the departure of quantum theory from classical theory. These are formulated in the framework of ontological models and, if one accepts such framework, entail that quantum theory involves problematic (“fine-tuned”) properties. I will argue that the lesson to take from the no-go theorems is to abandon the framework of ontological models as the way to model reality. I will analyze what I believe to be the unnatural assumptions of such framework and I will propose a way to change it. The basic principle of the new notion of reality I propose is that for something to exist is for something to be recorded. I will motivate the principle and explore its consequences. In order to implement such proposal into a precise theory-independent mathematical framework I will make use of point-free topological spaces (locales). I will discuss why this new proposal should be promising for understanding quantum theory and I will present several open questions.

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/91292006884?pwd=V2EzaEw5Z3NRUGd4cVdSRnlOOWFVZz09

We present an approach for representing fermionic quantum many-body states using tensor networks, by introducing a change of basis with local unitary gates obtained via compressing fermionic Gaussian states into quantum circuits. These fermionic Gaussian circuits enable efficient disentangling of low-energy states and entanglement renormalization in matrix product states/operators, significantly reducing bond dimension and improving computational efficiency. As a demonstration, we apply this approach to the 1D single impurity Anderson model through suppression of entanglement in both ground states and time-evolved low-lying excited states. We also explore the use of hierarchical compression to generate Gaussian multi-scale entanglement renormalization ansatz (GMERA) circuits and study their emergent coarse-grained physical models in terms of entanglement properties and suitability for time evolution.

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/99677586832?pwd=ZGdIVGpac3pWcnhJYjlkNU16Wmlndz09

Abstract: TBD

Zoom Link: https://pitp.zoom.us/j/91979071868?pwd=Z0VWSFhJTEJFWkZRbzBtcWdtV0Ezdz09

Tom Leinster recently introduced a curious notion of entropy modulo p (https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.06961). While entropy has a certain meaning in information theory and physics, mathematically it is simply a function with certain properties. Stating these as axioms, the function is unique. Surprisingly, Leinster shows that a function obeying the same axioms can also be found for "probability distributions" over a finite field, and this function is unique too.

In quantum information, mutually unbiased bases is an important set of measurements and an example of a quantum design. While in odd prime power dimensions their construction is based on a finite field, in dimension 2^n it relies on an unpleasant Galois ring. I will replace this ring by length-2 Witt vectors whose arithmetic involves only finite field operations and Leinster's entropy mod 2. This expresses qubit mutually unbiased bases entirely in terms of a finite field and allows deriving an explicit unitary correspondence between them and the affine plane over this field.

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/94032116379?pwd=TTI1RnByQnFuVHp1MytFUlJxckM4Zz09