Does Anti-Information Exist in Quantum Theory?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the concept of "anti-information" in the context of quantum theory and its potential relationship with anti-matter. Participants explore whether anti-information exists, how it might relate to the annihilation of matter and anti-matter, and the implications for information conservation in black holes.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions the existence of anti-information, suggesting it could be analogous to anti-matter carrying information that negates regular matter's information.
  • Another participant references the black hole information paradox, discussing whether information is lost when particles fall into black holes.
  • A participant reiterates the initial question about anti-information and proposes that the annihilation of matter and anti-matter releases energy that contains information, implying that information is conserved.
  • There is mention of famous debates within the physics community regarding information conservation, particularly in relation to black holes, highlighting differing views on whether information can be lost.
  • A participant introduces the "no-hiding theorem," which posits that quantum information cannot be hidden in correlations between systems, suggesting a fundamental principle regarding information transfer.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the existence and definition of anti-information, with no consensus reached on its implications or relationship to existing theories in quantum mechanics and black hole physics.

Contextual Notes

Participants note the complexity of defining "anti-information" and its potential implications for understanding physical observables and information conservation. The discussion also touches on unresolved aspects of the black hole information paradox and the implications of quantum information theory.

Jason White
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Is there any theory that says anti-information exists?

If there is anti-matter, would that matter carry information to annihilate the regular matter's information saying its a certain type of matter and turn it into energy? Could anti-matter just be regular matter with anti-information.
 
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Jason White said:
Is there any theory that says anti-information exists?

If there is anti-matter, would that matter carry information to annihilate the regular matter's information saying its a certain type of matter and turn it into energy? Could anti-matter just be regular matter with anti-information.

As you said, the matter/antimatter annihilation event releases energy in the form of photons. That energy contains information, so the information is not lost.

Here is a past PF discussion pertaining to that.
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/matter-antimatter-annihilation.224821/

But I'm sympathetic to your curiosity. There have been famous debates within the physics community about whether information can be lost through black holes (Hawking vs Susskind). Ultimately, it seems that information is a (the?) fundamental physical property that is always conserved.

I'm not even sure how you would define the concept of "anti-information". It would seem to me that it would simply refer to a lack of information regarding any objective entity/parameter. When you think about it, all physical observables and/or parameters are really information... position, momentum, mass, charge, color, spin, etc... all information about the physical state. But regardless of form, once information exists, it exists. You can't go back. You might look into the concepts of Von Neumann entropy and Shannon entropy.

There's a well known math/physics theorem originally derived by Emmy Noether (not surprisingly called Noether's Theorem) that relates conserved properties to fundamental symmetries. I've always been curious about what symmetry might be reflected by the conservation of information.
 
Last edited:
Do you know AK Pati's No hiding theorem?:

"Can we hide quantum information in same way like
classical information?
No. If the original information is missing then it must
move to somewhere else and it cannot be hidden in
the correlations between a pair of systems.
This we call the ‘no-hiding theorem’ (Braunstein and
Pati, PRL, 2007)."
 

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