Developing the Deutsch–Hayden approach to quantum mechanics

Abstract

The formalism of Deutsch and Hayden is a useful tool for describing quantum mechanics explicitly as local and unitary, and therefore quantum information theory as concerning a ‘flow’ of information between systems. In this paper we show that these physical descriptions of flow are unique, and develop the approach further to include the measurement interaction and mixed states. We then give an analysis of entanglement swapping in this approach, showing that it does not in fact contain either nonlocal effects or any form of superluminal signalling.