A mathematical theory of resources

Many fields of science investigate states and processes as resources. Chemistry, thermodynamics, Shannon's theory of communication channels, and the theory of quantum entanglement are prominent examples. Questions addressed by these theories include: Which resources can be converted into which...

Celý popis

Uložené v:
Podrobná bibliografia
Vydané v:Information and computation Ročník 250; s. 59 - 86
Hlavní autori: Coecke, Bob, Fritz, Tobias, Spekkens, Robert W.
Médium: Journal Article
Jazyk:English
Vydavateľské údaje: Elsevier Inc 01.10.2016
ISSN:0890-5401, 1090-2651
On-line prístup:Získať plný text
Tagy: Pridať tag
Žiadne tagy, Buďte prvý, kto otaguje tento záznam!
Popis
Shrnutí:Many fields of science investigate states and processes as resources. Chemistry, thermodynamics, Shannon's theory of communication channels, and the theory of quantum entanglement are prominent examples. Questions addressed by these theories include: Which resources can be converted into which others? At what rate can many copies of one resource be converted into many copies of another? Can a catalyst enable a conversion? How to quantify a resource? We propose a general mathematical definition of resource theory. We prove general theorems about how resource theories can be constructed from theories of processes with a subclass of processes that are freely implementable. These define the means by which costly states and processes can be interconverted. We outline how various existing resource theories fit into our framework, which is a first step in a project of identifying universal features and principles of resource theories. We develop a few general results concerning resource convertibility.
ISSN:0890-5401
1090-2651
DOI:10.1016/j.ic.2016.02.008