Course curriculum

  • 1

    Introduction

    • Course details

    • Further reading

    • Perusall

    • Course content
  • 2

    Week 1

    • Notes for lecture 1

    • Lecture 1: Operationalism versus realism and the measurement problem.

    • Notes for lecture 2

    • Lecture 2: Operational formulation of quantum theory (Introduction)

    • Notes for lecture 3

    • Lecture 3: Operational formulation of quantum theory I

    • Notes for lecture 4

    • Lecture 4: Operational formulation of quantum theory II

    • Tutorial 1: Density operators, steering and teleportation

    • Tutorial 1 Zoom link

    • Tutorial 1 submission (only if you did not attend)

    • Homework 1: Generalized Measurements and Steering

    • No-cloning theorem and superluminal signalling

    • Myths about no-cloning

    • Tutorial 1: solutions
  • 3

    Week 2

    • Lecture 5: notes

    • Lecture 5: Operational axiomatizations of quantum theory.

    • Discussion (Tuesday 19th January)

    • Notes for lecture 6

    • Lecture 6: Hidden variable models and the distinction between psi-ontic and psi-epistemic models.

    • Notes for lecture 7

    • Lecture 7: Hidden variable models based on an epistemic restriction.

    • Tutorial 2: Quantum bomb testing in the restricted theory of statistical bits.

    • Homework 2: Universal NOT and correlations in the restricted theory of statistical bits

    • Tutorial 2 solutions: Quantum bomb testing in the restricted theory of statistical bits.
  • 4

    Week 3

    • Notes for lecture 8

    • Lecture 8: Bell’s theorem and locality.

    • Notes for lecture 9

    • Lecture 9: Bell’s theorem and locality (continued).

    • Notes for lecture 10

    • Lecture 10: The Kochen-Specker theorem and noncontextuality.

    • Tutorial 3: PBR theorem

    • Quantum foundations course survey

    • Homework 3: Homework 3: Simple hidden variable models and Mermin’s version of Bell’s Theorem
  • 5

    Week 4

    • Notes for lecture 11

    • Lecture 11: The Kochen-Specker theorem and noncontextuality (continued).

    • Notes for lecture 12

    • Lecture 12: The DeBroglie-Bohm interpretation

    • Notes for lecture 13

    • Lecture 13: The DeBroglie-Bohm interpretation (continued)

    • Tutorial 4: Constructing correlations that do not admit of a non-contextual hidden variable model

    • Homework 1 solutions q1

    • Homework 1 solutions q2
  • 6

    Week 5

    • Notes for lecture 14

    • Lecture 14: Dynamical collapse models.

    • Notes for lecture 15

    • Lecture 15: The Everett interpretation "Many worlds".