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Three Slit Experiments and the Structure of Quantum Theory

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Abstract

In spite of the interference manifested in the double-slit experiment, quantum theory predicts that a measure of interference defined by Sorkin and involving various outcome probabilities from an experiment with three slits, is identically zero. We adapt Sorkin’s measure into a general operational probabilistic framework for physical theories, and then study its relationship to the structure of quantum theory. In particular, we characterize the class of probabilistic theories for which the interference measure is zero as ones in which it is possible to fully determine the state of a system via specific sets of ‘two-slit’ experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada

    Cozmin Ududec & Joseph Emerson

  2. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline St. N., Waterloo, Canada

    Howard Barnum

Authors
  1. Cozmin Ududec
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  2. Howard Barnum
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  3. Joseph Emerson
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Correspondence to Cozmin Ududec.

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Ududec, C., Barnum, H. & Emerson, J. Three Slit Experiments and the Structure of Quantum Theory. Found Phys 41, 396–405 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-010-9429-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-010-9429-z

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