Characterizing Entropy in Statistical Physics and in Quantum Information Theory

This thesis investigates the connection between quantum theory, thermodynamics and information theory. Theories with structure similar to that of quantum theory are considered, mathematically described by the framework of "Generalized Probabilistic Theories". For these theories, a thought experiment by von Neumann is adapted to obtain a natural thermodynamic entropy definition, following a proposal by J. Barrett. Mathematical properties of this entropy are compared to physica...

The expression for entropy sometimes appears mysterious - as it often is asserted without justification. This short manuscript contains a discussion of the underlying assumptions behind entropy as well as simple derivation of this ubiquitous quantity.

Conventional wisdom holds that the von Neumann entropy corresponds to thermodynamic entropy, but Hemmo and Shenker (2006) have recently argued against this view by attacking von Neumann (1955) and his argument. I argue that Hemmo and Shenker's arguments fail due to several misunderstandings: about statistical-mechanical and thermodynamic domains of applicability, about the nature of mixed states, and about the role of approximations in physics. As a result, their arguments fa...

A pedagogical derivation of statistical mechanics from quantum mechanics is provided, by means of open quantum systems. Besides, a new definition of Boltzmann entropy for a quantum closed system is also given to count microstates in a way consistent with the superposition principle. In particular, this new Boltzmann entropy is a constant that depends only on the dimension of the system's relevant Hilbert subspace. Finally, thermodynamics for quantum systems is investigated fo...

We have presented a new axiomatic derivation of Shannon Entropy for a discrete probability distribution on the basis of the postulates of additivity and concavity of the entropy function.We have then modified shannon entropy to take account of observational uncertainty.The modified entropy reduces, in the limiting case, to the form of Shannon differential entropy. As an application we have derived the expression for classical entropy of statistical mechanics from the quantize...

We present an axiomatic framework for thermodynamics that incorporates information as a fundamental concept. The axioms describe both ordinary thermodynamic processes and those in which information is acquired, used and erased, as in the operation of Maxwell's demon. This system, like previous axiomatic systems for thermodynamics, supports the construction of conserved quantities and an entropy function governing state changes. Here, however, the entropy exhibits both informa...

From a new rigorous formulation of the general axiomatic foundations of thermodynamics we derive an operational definition of entropy that responds to the emergent need in many technological frameworks to understand and deploy thermodynamic entropy well beyond the traditional realm of equilibrium states of macroscopic systems. The new definition is achieved by avoiding to resort to the traditional concepts of "heat" (which restricts $a$ $priori$ the traditional definitions of...

The present work is an introductory study about entropy its properties and its role in quantum information theory. In a next work, we will use these results to the analysis of a quantum game described by a density operator and with its entropy equal to von Neumann's.

Baez, Fritz, and Leinster derived a method for characterizing Shannon entropy in classical systems. In this method, they considered a functor from a certain category to the monoid of non-negative real numbers with addition as a map from measure-preserving functions to non-negative real numbers, and derived Shannon entropy by imposing several simple conditions. We propose a method for characterizing von Neumann entropy by extending their results to quantum systems.

Information-theoretic derivations of the formalism of quantum theory have recently attracted much attention. We analyze the axioms underlying a few such derivations and propose a conceptual framework in which, by combining several approaches, one can retrieve more of the conventional quantum formalism.