Transformation & Uncertainty. Some Thoughts on Quantum Probability Theory, Quantum Statistics, and Natural Bundles

Abstract

This PHD thesis is concerned with uncertainty relations in quantum probability theory, state estimation in quantum stochastics, and natural bundles in differential geometry. After some comments on the nature and necessity of decoherence in open systems and its absence in closed ones, we prove sharp, state-independent inequalities reflecting the Heisenberg principle, the necessity of decoherence and the impossibility of perfect joint measurement. These bounds are used to judge how far a particular measurement is removed from the optimal one. We do this for a qubit interacting with the quantized EM field, continually probed using homodyne detection. We calculate to which extent this joint measurement is optimal. We then propose a two-step strategy to determine the (possibly mixed) state of n identically prepared qubits, and prove that it is asymptotically optimal in a local minimax sense, using `Quantum Local Asymptotic Normality' for qubits. We propose a physical implementation of QLAN, based on interaction with the quantized EM field. In differential geometry, a bundle is called `natural' if diffeomorphisms of the base lift to automorphisms of the bundle. We slightly extend this notion to `infinitesimal naturality', requiring only vector fields (infinitesimal diffeomorphisms) to lift. We classify these bundles. Physical fields that transform under (infinitesimal) space-time transformations must be described in terms of (infinitesimally) natural bundles. All spin structures are infinitesimally natural. Our framework thus encompasses Fermionic fields, for which the notion of a natural bundle is too restrictive. Interestingly, generalized spin structures (e.g. spin-c structures) are not always infinitesimally natural. We classify the ones that are. Depending on the gauge group at hand, this can significantly reduce the number of allowed space-time topologies.