arXiv subjects

Joseph Schindler

Publications and source records attributed to Joseph Schindler.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Shearing Off the Tree: Emerging Branch Structure and Born's Rule in an Equilibrated Multiverse

Within the many worlds interpretation (MWI) it is believed that, as time passes on, the linearity of the Schrödinger equation together with decoherence generate an exponentially growing tree of branches where "everything happens", provided the branches are defined for a decohering basis. By studying an example, using exact numerical diagonalization of the Schrödinger equation to compute the decoherent histories functional, we find that this picture needs revision. Our example shows decoherence for histories defined at a few times, but a significant fraction (often the vast majority) of branches shows strong interference effects for histories of many times. In a sense made precise below, the histories independently sample an equilibrated quantum process, and, remarkably, we find that only histories that sample frequencies in accordance with Born's rule remain decoherent. Our results suggest that there is more structure in the many worlds tree than previously anticipated, influencing arguments of both proponents and opponents of the MWI.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Approximate Decoherence, Recoherence and Records in Isolated Quantum Systems

Using the framework of decoherent histories, we study which past events leave detectable records in isolated quantum systems under the realistic assumption that decoherence is approximate and not perfect. In the first part we establish -- asymptotically for a large class of (pseudo-)random histories -- that the number of reliable records can be much smaller than the number of possible events, depending on the degree of decoherence. In the second part we reveal a clear decoherence structure for long histories based on a numerically exact solution of a random matrix model that, as we argue, captures generic aspects of decoherence. We observe recoherence between histories with a small Hamming distance, for localized histories admitting a high purity Petz recovery state, and for maverick histories that are statistical outliers with respect to Born's rule. From the perspective of the Many Worlds Interpretation, the first part -- which views the self-location problem as a coherent version of quantum state discrimination -- reveals a "branch selection problem", and the second part sheds light on the emergence of Born's rule and the theory confirmation problem.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Observational entropy of quantum correlations and entanglement

The use of coarse graining to connect physical and information theoretic entropies has recently been given a precise formulation in terms of ``observational entropy'', describing entropy for observers with respect to a measurement. Here we consider observers with various locality restrictions, including local measurements (LO), measurements based on local operations with classical communication (LOCC), and separable measurements (SEP), with the idea that the ``entropy gap'' between the minimum locally measured observational entropy and the von Neumann entropy quantifies quantum correlations in a given state. After introducing entropy gaps for general classes of measurements and deriving their general properties, we specialize to LO, LOCC, SEP and other measurement classes related to the locality of subsystems. For those, we show that the entropy gap can be related to well-known measures of entanglement or non-classicality of the state (even though we point out that they are not entanglement monotones themselves). In particular, for bipartite pure states, all of the ``local'' entropy gaps reproduce the entanglement entropy, and for general multipartite states they are lower-bounded by the relative entropy of entanglement. The entropy gaps of the different measurement classes are ordered, and we show that in general (mixed and multipartite states) they are all different.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Typical Positivity of Nonequilibrium Entropy Production for Pure States

We establish that the nonequilibrium dynamics of most pure states gives rise to the same entropy production as that of the corresponding ensemble, provided the effective dimension of the ensemble is large enough. This establishes the positivity of entropy production under a wide variety of nonequilibrium situations. Our results follow from dynamical typicality and suitable continuity properties alone, without relying on non-integrability, and they complement other recent efforts to establish "pure state second laws". An explicit comparison with the distinctively different two-point measurement scheme is also provided.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2025

Unification of observational entropy with maximum entropy principles

We introduce a definition of coarse-grained entropy that unifies measurement-based (observational entropy) and max-entropy-based (Jaynes) approaches to coarse-graining, by identifying physical constraints with information theoretic priors. The definition is shown to include as special cases most other entropies of interest in physics. We then consider second laws, showing that the definition admits new entropy increase theorems and connections to thermodynamics. We survey mathematical properties of the definition, and show it resolves some pathologies of the traditional observational entropy in infinite dimensions. Finally, we study the dynamics of this entropy in a quantum random matrix model and a classical hard sphere gas. Together the results suggest that this generalized observational entropy can form the basis of a highly general approach to statistical mechanics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Entropic partial orderings of quantum measurements

We investigate four partial orderings on the space of quantum measurements (i.e on POVMs or positive operator valued measures), describing four notions of coarse/fine-ness of measurement. These are the partial orderings induced by: (1) classical post-processing, (2) measured relative entropy, (3) observational entropy, and (4) linear relation of POVMs. The orderings form a hierarchy of implication, where e.g. post-processing relation implies all the others. We show that this hierarchy is strict for general POVMs, with examples showing that all four orderings are strictly inequivalent. Restricted to projective measurements, all are equivalent. Finally we show that observational entropy equality $S_M = S_N$ (for all $ρ$) holds if and only if $M \equiv N$ are post-processing equivalent, which shows that the first three orderings induce identical equivalence classes.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

First Principles Numerical Demonstration of Emergent Decoherent Histories

Within the histories formalism the decoherence functional is a formal tool to investigate the emergence of classicality in isolated quantum systems, yet an explicit evaluation of it from first principles has not been reported. We provide such an evaluation for up to five-time histories based on exact numerical diagonalization of the Schrödinger equation. We find a robust emergence of decoherence for slow and coarse observables of a generic random matrix model and extract a finite size scaling law by varying the Hilbert space dimension over four orders of magnitude. Specifically, we conjecture and observe an exponential suppression of coherent effects as a function of the particle number of the system. This suggests a solution to the preferred basis problem of the many worlds interpretation (or the set selection problem of the histories formalism) within a minimal theoretical framework -- without relying on environmentally induced decoherence, quantum Darwinism, Markov approximations, low-entropy initial states or ensemble averages.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Observational entropy with general quantum priors

Observational entropy captures both the intrinsic uncertainty of a thermodynamic state and the lack of knowledge due to coarse-graining. We demonstrate two interpretations of observational entropy, one as the statistical deficiency resulting from a measurement, the other as the difficulty of inferring the input state from the measurement statistics by quantum Bayesian retrodiction. These interpretations show that the observational entropy implicitly includes a uniform reference prior. Since the uniform prior cannot be used when the system is infinite-dimensional or otherwise energy-constrained, we propose generalizations by replacing the uniform prior with arbitrary quantum states that may not even commute with the state of the system. We propose three candidates for this generalization, discuss their properties, and show that one of them gives a unified expression that relates both interpretations.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Comparative Microscopic Study of Entropies and their Production

We study the time evolution of eleven microscopic entropy definitions (of Boltzmann-surface, Gibbs-volume, canonical, coarse-grained-observational, entanglement and diagonal type) and three microscopic temperature definitions (based on Boltzmann, Gibbs or canonical entropy). This is done for the archetypal nonequilibrium setup of two systems exchanging energy, modeled here with random matrix theory, based on numerical integration of the Schroedinger equation. We consider three types of pure initial states (local energy eigenstates, decorrelated and entangled microcanonical states) and three classes of systems: (A) two normal systems, (B) a normal and a negative temperature system and (C) a normal and a negative heat capacity system. We find: (1) All types of initial states give rise to the same macroscopic dynamics. (2) Entanglement and diagonal entropy sensitively depend on the microstate, in contrast to all other entropies. (3) For class B and C, Gibbs-volume entropies can violate the second law and the associated temperature becomes meaningless. (4) For class C, Boltzmann-surface entropies can violate the second law and the associated temperature becomes meaningless. (5) Canonical entropy has a tendency to remain almost constant. (6) For a Haar random initial state, entanglement or diagonal entropy behave similar or identical to coarse-grained-observational entropy.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2023

Continuity bounds on observational entropy and measured relative entropies

We derive a measurement-independent asymptotic continuity bound on the observational entropy for general POVM measurements, making essential use of its property of bounded concavity. The same insight is used to obtain continuity bounds for other entropic quantities, including the measured relative entropy distance to a convex a set of states under a general set of measurements. As a special case, we define and study conditional observational entropy, which is an observational entropy in one (measured) subsystem conditioned on the quantum state in another (unmeasured) subsystem. We also study continuity of relative entropy with respect to a jointly applied channel, finding that observational entropy is uniformly continuous as a function of the measurement. But we show by means of an example that this continuity under measurements cannot have the form of a concrete asymptotic bound.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Observational entropy, coarse quantum states, and Petz recovery: information-theoretic properties and bounds

Observational entropy provides a general notion of quantum entropy that appropriately interpolates between Boltzmann's and Gibbs' entropies, and has recently been argued to provide a useful measure of out-of-equilibrium thermodynamic entropy. Here we study the mathematical properties of observational entropy from an information-theoretic viewpoint, making use of recently strengthened forms of the monotonicity property of quantum relative entropy. We present new bounds on observational entropy applying in general, as well as bounds and identities related to sequential and post-processed measurements. A central role in this work is played by what we call the ``coarse-grained'' state, which emerges from the measurement's statistics by Bayesian retrodiction, without presuming any knowledge about the ``true'' underlying state being measured. The degree of distinguishability between such a coarse-grained state and the true (but generally unobservable) one is shown to provide upper and lower bounds on the difference between observational and von Neumann entropies.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

A brief introduction to observational entropy

In the past several years, observational entropy has been developed as both a (time-dependent) quantum generalization of Boltzmann entropy, and as a rather general framework to encompass classical and quantum equilibrium and non-equilibrium coarse-grained entropy. In this paper we review the construction, interpretation, most important properties, and some applications of this framework. The treatment is self-contained and relatively pedagogical, aimed at a broad class of researchers.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Unitarity and the information problem in an explicit model of black hole evaporation

We consider the black hole information problem in an explicitly defined spacetime modelling black hole evaporation. Using this context we review basic aspects of the problem, with a particular effort to be unambiguous about subtle topics, for instance precisely what is meant by entropy in various circumstances. We then focus on questions of unitarity, and argue that commonly invoked semiclassical statements of long term, evaporation time, and Page time "unitarity" may all be violated even if physics is fundamentally unitary. This suggests that there is no horizon firewall. We discuss how the picture is modified for regular (nonsingular) evaporation models. We also compare our conclusions to recent holographic studies, and argue that they are mutually compatible.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Quantum correlation entropy

We study quantum coarse-grained entropy and demonstrate that the gap in entropy between local and global coarse-grainings is a natural generalization of entanglement entropy to mixed states and multipartite systems. This "quantum correlation entropy" $S^{\rm QC}$ is additive over independent systems, is invariant under local unitary operations, measures total nonclassical correlations (vanishing on states with strictly classical correlation), and reduces to the entanglement entropy for bipartite pure states. It quantifies how well a quantum system can be understood via local measurements, and ties directly to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, including representing a lower bound on the quantum part of thermodynamic entropy production. We discuss two other measures of nonclassical correlation to which this entropy is equivalent, and argue that together they provide a unique thermodynamically distinguished measure.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Basics of observational entropy

These notes provide a brief primer on the basic aspects of "observational entropy" (also known as "quantum coarse-grained entropy"), a general framework for applying the concept of coarse-graining to quantum systems. We review the basic formalism, survey applications to thermodynamics, make a connection to quantum correlations and entanglement entropy, compare to the corresponding classical theory, and discuss a generalization based on POVM measurements.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Experimental observation of the dual behavior of ${\cal PT}$-symmetric scattering

We investigate experimentally parity-time (${\cal PT}$) symmetric scattering using $LRC$ circuits in an inductively coupled ${\cal PT}$- symmetric pair connected to transmission line leads. In the single-lead case, the ${\cal PT}$-symmetric circuit acts as a simple dual device - an amplifier or an absorber depending on the orientation of the lead. When a second lead is attached, the system exhibits unidirectional transparency for some characteristic frequencies. This non-reciprocal behavior is a consequence of generalized (non-unitary) conservation relations satisfied by the scattering matrix.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Experimental Study of Active LRC Circuits with PT-Symmetries

Mutually coupled modes of a pair of active LRC circuits, one with amplification and another with an equivalent amount of attenuation, provide an experimental realization of a wide class of systems where gain/loss mechanisms break the Hermiticity while preserving parity-time PT symmetry. For a value PT of the gain/loss strength parameter the eigen-frequencies undergo a spontaneous phase transition from real to complex values, while the normal modes coalesce acquiring a definite chirality. The consequences of the phase-transition in the spatiotemporal energy evolution are also presented.

cond-mat.other↗