1307.2529 (Oscar C. O. Dahlsten et al.)

Particle exchange in post-quantum theories    [PDF]

Oscar C. O. Dahlsten, Andrew J. P. Garner, Jayne Thompson, Mile Gu, Vlatko Vedral

Indistinguishable quantum particles come in different types defined by their exchange statistics: fermions, bosons and, more generally, anyons. We here consider what types could exist if it turns out quantum theory requires further generalization or modification, so that the particles are only assumed to be described by a convex probabilistic theory. We formulate an idealised experiment to determine the effect of swapping a pair of indistinguishable particles. We impose certain natural restrictions on how the total state of the particles and a reference system can change during the swap. We show that what remains is the possibility of having one particle type for each element of a phase group of a binary measurement.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.2529