A Faster than light conversation snippet

From: Amara Graps (Amara.Graps@mpi-hd.mpg.de)
Date: Thu Sep 14 2000 - 06:41:17 MDT


Hi extropes,

I saw this thread on sci.physics.research and since this is a topic
often discussed before, thought I'd pass it on. I think that we've
even discussed these papers too.

(Is it OK, to pass usenet threads to this mailing list?)

Amara

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From: gregegan@netspace.zebra.net.au (Greg Egan)
Newsgroups: sci.physics.research
Subject: Re: Faster than light
Date: 11 Sep 2000 13:14:18 GMT

There's an interesting paper by David Deutsch at:

<http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/quant-ph/9906007>

Information Flow in Entangled Quantum Systems

Authors: David Deutsch, Patrick Hayden

All information in quantum systems is, notwithstanding Bell's theorem,
localised. Measuring or otherwise interacting with a quantum system S has
no effect on distant systems from which S is dynamically isolated, even if
they are entangled with S. Using the Heisenberg picture to analyse quantum
information processing makes this locality explicit, and reveals that
under some circumstances (in particular, in Einstein-Podolski-Rosen
experiments and in quantum teleportation) quantum information is
transmitted through 'classical' (i.e. decoherent) information channels.

--
Greg Egan

Email address (remove name of animal and add standard punctuation): gregegan netspace zebra net au

From: Hans Moravec <hpm@cmu.edu> Newsgroups: sci.physics.research Subject: Re: Faster than light Date: 12 Sep 2000 10:02:57 GMT Organization: Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

gregegan@netspace.zebra.net.au (Greg Egan): > There's an interesting paper by David Deutsch at: > <http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/quant-ph/9906007> > Information Flow in Entangled Quantum Systems > Authors: David Deutsch, Patrick Hayden

Very interesting! Quantum mechanics is realistic and local: Einstein, Bohr and Bell were led away from that conclusion by an incorrect premise: that measurement probabilities reflect stochastic variables, when in fact they arise from a more complex but deterministic mechanism describable essentially by hidden variables representable as Heisenberg matrices (and whose local nature is confusingly obscured in the more common Schrodinger state formulation).

It whets the appetite for the 1999 Deutsch paper (listed as Proc. R. Soc. to appear), which promises to explain the mystery of the Heisenberg mechanism (I would guess in the many worlds manner).

A lighter but less filling paper with the same slant is

<http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/quant-ph/0003146>

Does Quantum Nonlocality Exist? Bell's Theorem and the Many-Worlds Interpretation

Authors: Frank J. Tipler

Quantum nonlocality may be an artifact of the assumption that observers obey the laws of classical mechanics, while observed systems obey quantum mechanics. I show that, at least in the case of Bell's Theorem, locality is restored if observed and observer are both assumed to obey quantum mechanics, as in the Many-Worlds Interpretation. Using the MWI, I shall show that the apparently "non-local" expectation value for the product of the spins of two widely separated particles --- the "quantum" part of Bell's Theorem --- is really due to a series of three purely local measurements. Thus, experiments confirming "nonlocality" are actually confirming the MWI.

From: gregegan@netspace.zebra.net.au (Greg Egan) Newsgroups: sci.physics.research Subject: Re: Faster than light Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 07:15:22 +0800 Organization: None

In article <39BDCC7A.8EC6C2D6@cmu.edu>, Hans Moravec <hpm@cmu.edu> wrote:

> gregegan@netspace.zebra.net.au (Greg Egan): > > There's an interesting paper by David Deutsch at: > > <http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/quant-ph/9906007> > > Information Flow in Entangled Quantum Systems > > Authors: David Deutsch, Patrick Hayden

> Very interesting! Quantum mechanics is realistic > and local: Einstein, Bohr and Bell were led away > from that conclusion by an incorrect premise: > that measurement probabilities reflect > stochastic variables, when in fact they arise > from a more complex but deterministic mechanism > describable essentially by hidden variables > representable as Heisenberg matrices (and whose > local nature is confusingly obscured in the more > common Schrodinger state formulation). > > It whets the appetite for the 1999 Deutsch paper > (listed as Proc. R. Soc. to appear), which promises > to explain the mystery of the Heisenberg mechanism > (I would guess in the many worlds manner).

The reference to (Deutsch, 1999) doesn't give a title or preprint number, but I'm fairly sure it's this article, already on the preprint server:

<http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/quant-ph/9906015>

Quantum Theory of Probability and Decisions

Authors: David Deutsch

The probabilistic predictions of quantum theory are conventionally obtained from a special probabilistic axiom. But that is unnecessary because all the practical consequences of such predictions follow from the remaining, non-probabilistic, axioms of quantum theory, together with the non-probabilistic part of classical decision theory.

There's another paper on the server that takes issue with "Quantum Theory of Probability and Decisions", at <http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/quant-ph/9907024>, but as yet nothing that cites "Information Flow in Entangled Quantum Systems". FWIW, I found the latter extremely enlightening. Trying to see why the MWI gives a local account of EPR & teleportation is definitely much easier in the Heisenberg picture!

-- Greg Egan

Email address (remove name of animal and add standard punctuation): gregegan netspace zebra net au

--

*************************************************************** Amara Graps | Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik Interplanetary Dust Group | Saupfercheckweg 1 +49-6221-516-543 | 69117 Heidelberg, GERMANY Amara.Graps@mpi-hd.mpg.de * http://galileo.mpi-hd.mpg.de/~graps *************************************************************** "Never fight an inanimate object." - P. J. O'Rourke



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