Fall 2005
Professors: Hans Halvorson and Bas van Fraassen
Description: Recent work on the relationship between information theory and the foundations of quantum mechanics. Topics will include: the relationship between folk and scientific concepts of information; the claim that information is physical; proposals to replace traditional physical ontology (e.g., particles, fields) with information-theoretic concepts; information transmission in quantum teleportation; quantum computation and the physical Church-Turing thesis; information-theoretic axiomatizations of quantum mechanics.
Textbook: Chris Timpson, Quantum Information Theory and the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics (Oxford DPhil Thesis, 2004)
Prerequisites: This seminar is open to graduate students, and to advanced undergraduate concentrators in philosophy or physics.