Making Sense of Quantum Mechanics Per Its Information-Theoretic Reconstructions

Quantum information theorists have created axiomatic reconstructions of quantum mechanics (QM) that are very successful at identifying precisely what distinguishes quantum probability theory from classical and more general probability theories in terms of information-theoretic principles.

In this talk, I will show how one such principle, Information Invariance & Continuity, at the foundation of those axiomatic reconstructions maps to "no preferred reference frame" (NPRF, aka "the relativity principle") as it pertains to the invariant measurement of Planck's constant h for Stern-Gerlach (SG) spin measurements. This is in exact analogy to the relativity principle as it pertains to the invariant measurement of the speed of light c at the foundation of special relativity (SR). Essentially, quantum information theorists have extended Einstein's use of NPRF from the boost invariance of measurements of c to include the SO(3) invariance of measurements of h between different reference frames of mutually complementary spin measurements via the principle of Information Invariance & Continuity. Consequently, the "mystery" of Bell state entanglement is understood to result from conservation per Information Invariance & Continuity between different reference frames of mutually complementary qubit measurements, and this maps to conservation per NPRF in spacetime. I will show how this "average-only" conservation represented by the Bell states rules out the no-signalling, "superquantum" Popescu-Rohrlich joint probabilities using Bub's "Quasino" guessing game. Thus, the axiomatic reconstructions of QM have succeeded in producing a principle account of QM that is every bit as compelling as the postulates of SR.