Would the Existence of CTCs Allow for Nonlocal Signaling?

A recent paper from Brun et al. has argued that access to a closed timelike curve (CTC) would allow for the possibility of perfectly distinguishing nonorthogonal quantum states. This result can be used to develop a protocol for instantaneous nonlocal signaling. Several commenters have argued that no...

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Published in:Erkenntnis Vol. 84; no. 1; pp. 215 - 235
Main Author: Dunlap, Lucas
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Feb2019
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: Would the Existence of CTCs Allow for Nonlocal Signaling?
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        affil: Rotman Institute of Philosophy, University of Western Ontario, Stevenson Hall 2150, N6A 5B8, London, ON, Canada
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        Quantum states
        Quantum information theory
        Quantum mechanics
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          Quantum states
          Quantum information theory
          Quantum mechanics
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      ab: A recent paper from Brun et al. has argued that access to a closed timelike curve (CTC) would allow for the possibility of perfectly distinguishing nonorthogonal quantum states. This result can be used to develop a protocol for instantaneous nonlocal signaling. Several commenters have argued that nonlocal signaling must fail in this and in similar cases, often citing consistency with relativity as the justification. I argue that this objection fails to rule out nonlocal signaling in the presence of a CTC. I argue that the reason these authors are motivated to exclude the prediction of nonlocal signaling is because the No Signaling principle is considered to a fundamental part of the formulation of the quantum information approach. I draw out the relationship between nonlocal signaling, quantum information, and relativity, and argue that the principle theory formulation of quantum mechanics, which is at the foundation of the quantum information approach, is in tension with foundational assumptions of Deutsch's D-CTC model, on which this protocol is based.
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