Quantum Mechanics as Quantum Information

[Jilang]

Is there a thread on this forum that discusses this paper?
http://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/0205039v1.pdf
It would suggest that the quantum wavefunction is a representation of our state of knowledge of a system. Is this an accepted view?

 

[atyy]

There are various proposals in this spirit.

One definition of an epistemic view is given by http://arxiv.org/abs/0706.2661 (Found. Phys. 40, 125 (2010)).

Explicit constructions of epistemic interpretations are given by
http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.6554 (Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 150404)
http://arxiv.org/abs/1303.2834 (Phys. Rev. A 88, 032111 )

Limitations on epistemic interpretations are found in
http://arxiv.org/abs/1111.3328 (Nature Physics 8, 475–478 (2012))
http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.5132 (Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 120401)

Regardless of interpretation issues, one version of the epistemic view led to a very nice way to prove the quantum de Finetti representation theorem.
http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0104088 (J. Math. Phys. 43, 4537 (2002))

There are several definition of "epistemic". In addition to Harrigan and Spekkens definition referred to above, other proposals are:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1301.3274 (Rev. Mod. Phys. 85, 1693) - this is closest to the paper in the OP
http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.5849 (Phys. Rev. A 88, 052130)

It is also interesting to see an "epistemic" argument applied to Bohmian mechanics
http://arxiv.org/abs/0706.2522 (New J. Phys. 9 165 (2007))

 

[Jilang]

Wow! That's going to keep me busy all weekend! Thanks.