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The Applicability of Shannon Information in Quantum Mechanics and Zeilinger's Foundational Principle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Christopher G. Timpson
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Abstract

Recently, Brukner and Zeilinger have presented a number of arguments suggesting that the Shannon information is not well defined as a measure of information in quantum mechanics. If established, this result would be highly significant, as the Shannon information is fundamental to the way we think about information not only in classical but also in quantum information theory. On consideration, however, these arguments are found unsuccessful; I go on to suggest how they might be arising as a consequence of Zeilinger's proposed foundational principle for quantum mechanics.

Type
Topics in Philosophy of Physics
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 70 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2002 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers , December 2003 , pp. 1233 - 1244
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

Thanks are due to Harvey Brown for useful discussion. This work was supported by a studentship from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Board.

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