Information content of systems as a physical principle

L. Czekaj, M. Horodecki, P. Horodecki, and R. Horodecki
Phys. Rev. A 95, 022119 – Published 17 February 2017

Abstract

To explain the conceptual gap between classical and quantum and other, hypothetical descriptions of the world, several principles have been proposed. So far, all these principles have not explicitly included the uncertainty relation. Here we introduce an information content principle (ICP) which represents a constrained uncertainty principle. The principle, by taking into account the encoding and decoding properties of a single physical system, is capable of separation, both classicality and quanta from a number of potential physical theories, including hidden variable theories. The ICP, which is satisfied by both classical and quantum theory, states that the amount of nonredundant information which may be extracted from a given system is bounded by a perfectly decodable information content of the system. We show that ICP allows one to discriminate theories which do not allow for correlations stronger than Tsirelson's bound. We show also how to apply the principle to composite systems, ruling out some theories despite that their elementary constituents behave quantumly.

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  • Received 1 August 2016
  • Revised 25 October 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.95.022119

©2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

General PhysicsQuantum Information, Science & TechnologyInterdisciplinary Physics

Authors & Affiliations

L. Czekaj1, M. Horodecki1, P. Horodecki2,1, and R. Horodecki1

  • 1Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, National Quantum Information Centre, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics University of Gdańsk, 80-308 Gdańsk, Poland
  • 2Faculty of Applied Physics and Mathematics, Gdańsk University of Technology, 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland

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Issue

Vol. 95, Iss. 2 — February 2017

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