Theory Seminar: Quantum reference frames and quantum general covariance

 

Philipp Höhn (Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) Wien)
Reference frames (or, more generally, systems) provide the vantage points from which to describe the remaining physics.

May 15, 2019

Philipp Höhn (Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) Wien)
Herbert-Walther Lecture Hall G0.25
Wed 15. May 2019, 11:30 am (MEZ)

Abstract:

Reference frames (or, more generally, systems) provide the vantage points from which to describe the remaining physics. Treating them fundamentally as quantum systems is inevitable in quantum gravity, where coordinates are a priori unavailable, but also in quantum foundations once accepting that all frames are physical systems. Both fields thus face the question of how to describe physics from the perspective of quantum reference systems and how the descriptions relative to different such choices are related. I will summarize a recent systematic method for such switches, which works in analogy to coordinate changes on a manifold, except that these `quantum coordinate changes' proceed between different Hilbert spaces. This method employs a symmetry principle, sets the stage for a quantum version of general covariance and applies to both temporal and spatial reference systems. Strikingly, it shows that quantum correlations and superposition become quantum frame dependent.

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