A local and operational framework for the foundations of physics

Understand

We discuss a novel framework for physical theories that is based on the principles of locality and operationalism.

• It generalizes and unifies previous frameworks, including the standard formulation of quantum theory, the convex operational framework and Segal's approach to quantum field theory.
• It is capable of encoding both classical and quantum (field) theories, implements spacetime locality in a manifest way and contains the complete modern notion of measurement in the quantum case.
• Its mathematical content can be condensed into a set of axioms that are similar to those of Atiyah and Segal.