Information-theoretic postulates for quantum theory

Understand

Why are the laws of physics formulated in terms of complex Hilbert spaces? Are there natural and consistent modifications of quantum theory that could be tested experimentally? This book chapter gives a self-contained and accessible summary of our paper [New J.

• Phys.
• 13, 063001, 2011] addressing these questions, presenting the main ideas, but dropping many technical details.
• We show that the formalism of quantum theory can be reconstructed from four natural postulates, which do not refer to the mathematical formalism, but only to the information-theoretic content of the physical theory.