In this work, the consequences of several modifications to quantum mechanics are examined. These modifications, motivated by string theory, fall into two categories: ones in which the canonical commutation relations between position and momentum are deformed and ones in which the space of states used are vector spaces over Galois fields instead of complex Hilbert spaces. The particular deformation of the canonical commutation relations used leads to a minimum value of the uncertainty in position which is interpreted as a minimum length scale. Both harmonic and anharmonic oscillators are studied in this framework with normalizable, positive energy eigenstates found in both cases. The quantum uncertainty relations and classical counterparts to these states are discussed. Creating modified quantum theories by replacing the Hilbert spaces of canonical quantum mechanics with vector spaces defined over several finite, Galois fields is accomplished. Correlation functions are calculated in these theories and the maximum values are shown to not behave as would be expected by the standard, Bell-like, bounding inequality theorems. The interpretations and implications of these theories are discussed. / Ph. D.

The field of quantum mechanics has revolutionised physics as a subject. Areas such as information theory, computer science and physical sensing have all been affected by the tremendous successes of various quantum protocols. In this thesis I present my contribution to the development of such non-classical protocols. In classical communication theory a message is always carried by physical particles that interact with a transmitter, after which they travel to a receiver. In this thesis I outline a quantum protocol which allows a receiver to obtain a message without receiving any physical object or particles that have interacted with the transmitter-that is, counterfactually. I build my protocol for counterfactual communication on the principles of interaction-free measurements, ensuring that information always propagates in the opposite direction to the protocol particles. The protocol shows how quantum mechanics breaks the previous premise of communication theory. From the perspective of local observers, it is a beautiful manifestation of the non-locality of interaction-free measurements. Furthermore, it is highly robust against experimental errors and external disturbances. The majority of this part of the thesis is based on my published article 'Quantum counterfactual communication without a weak trace' [Phys. Rev. A 94, 062303 (2016)]. Previous to my work, Salih et al. attempted to design a counterfactual communication protocol [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 170502 (2013)]. This protocol has been highly controversial. As counterfactual phenomena impose restrictions on the inter-measurement paths of quantum particles, and the physical reality of such paths lacks description in the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, an extension of current quantum theory is required to facilitate a discussion. In this thesis I present an operational and interpretation-independent methodology, enabling the discussion of inter-measurement paths of quantum particles. I start by considering the interferometers of counterfactual protocols, making the basic assumption that any quantum evolution naturally involves uncontrolled weak interactions. I then show how the Fisher information of these weak interactions, available at the output of counterfactual experiments, can be used to discuss the pre-measurement past of the particles. Based on this analysis, the protocol developed by Salih et al. is found to strongly violate counterfactuality. However, my protocol is more flexible in that it allows particles to propagate in the opposite direction to the message. This leads to counterfactuality being satisfied-even in the presence of large experimental errors. These results are observed both analytically and numerically. This part of the thesis is based on my article 'Evaluation of counterfactuality in counterfactual communication protocols' [Phys. Rev. A 96, 062316 (2017)]. The numerical methods are inspired by another of my publications: 'Protocol for fermionic positive-operator-valued measures' [Phys. Rev. A 96, 052305 (2017)]. Finally, as the Fisher information measure is found to be useful in evaluating counterfactual protocols, I extend my work by investigating the quantum Fisher information in experiments with general discrete quantum circuits. I prove that the quantum Fisher information of a two-level interaction in a quantum circuit can be expressed by a simple formula. Under certain phase-relations, the formula provides a straightforward connection between the abstract concept of the inter-measurement wavefunction and the quantum Fisher information at the output. With regard to how the information obtained from a certain volume of space influences our perception of classical objects, I argue that the quantum Fisher information measure is highly useful in describing quantum objects. If this measure is applied to observers with a limited set of the experimental measurement outcomes, a quantum object can appear to follow non-classical discontinuous paths. This supports the remarkable conclusion that our perception of the past of a quantum object is subjectively dependent on the measurement we conduct on it.

Apresentamos uma tentativa de estender o alcance da teoria clássica na previsão de fenômenos microscópicos. Baseamos nosso enfoque na hipótese de que a mecânica quântica é uma teoria estocástica cujas origens são as flutuações eletromagnéticas de ponto zero. Discutimos uma abordagem nova para a descrição do movimento browniano, clássico e quântico, através de uma equação clássica estocástica do tipo Schröedinger eficiência dessa equação é testada para sistemas lineares em contato com diferentes reservatórios de ruídos. Ambientes diferentes do espaço vazio levam naturalmente a interações do tipo força de Casimir. Para a descrição de rotações intrínsecas introduzimos na teoria clássica a representação espinorial e obtemos uma equação do tipo Pauli-Schrödinger, com flutuação e dissipação, que nos permite gerar distribuições no espaço de fase para partículas com spin arbitrário. Concluímos que a eletrodinâmica estocástica é uma teoria clássica apta a descrever os processos quânticos que se originam das autuações do vácuo. / We present an attempt to extend the range of the classical theory in the description of microscopic phenomena. We base our point of view in the hypothesis that quantum mechanics is a stochastic theory whose origin is in the electromagnetic zero-point fluctuations. We discuss a new approach for the description of Brownian motion, both classical and quantum with a stochastic Schrödinger type equation. The effectiveness of this equation is tested for linear systems in contact with different noise reservoirs. Environments different from the vacuum lead naturally to the Casimir force interaction. For the description of particles with spin we introduce in the classical theory a spinorial representation for rotations and obtain a Pauli-Schrödinger type equation, with fluctuation and dissipation, that allows us to generate phase space distributions for particles with arbitrary spin. We conclude that stochastic electrodynamics is a classical theory that is able to describe those quantum processes whose origins are in the vacuum fluctuations.

Apresentamos uma tentativa de estender o alcance da teoria clássica na previsão de fenômenos microscópicos. Baseamos nosso enfoque na hipótese de que a mecânica quântica é uma teoria estocástica cujas origens são as flutuações eletromagnéticas de ponto zero. Discutimos uma abordagem nova para a descrição do movimento browniano, clássico e quântico, através de uma equação clássica estocástica do tipo Schröedinger eficiência dessa equação é testada para sistemas lineares em contato com diferentes reservatórios de ruídos. Ambientes diferentes do espaço vazio levam naturalmente a interações do tipo força de Casimir. Para a descrição de rotações intrínsecas introduzimos na teoria clássica a representação espinorial e obtemos uma equação do tipo Pauli-Schrödinger, com flutuação e dissipação, que nos permite gerar distribuições no espaço de fase para partículas com spin arbitrário. Concluímos que a eletrodinâmica estocástica é uma teoria clássica apta a descrever os processos quânticos que se originam das autuações do vácuo. / We present an attempt to extend the range of the classical theory in the description of microscopic phenomena. We base our point of view in the hypothesis that quantum mechanics is a stochastic theory whose origin is in the electromagnetic zero-point fluctuations. We discuss a new approach for the description of Brownian motion, both classical and quantum with a stochastic Schrödinger type equation. The effectiveness of this equation is tested for linear systems in contact with different noise reservoirs. Environments different from the vacuum lead naturally to the Casimir force interaction. For the description of particles with spin we introduce in the classical theory a spinorial representation for rotations and obtain a Pauli-Schrödinger type equation, with fluctuation and dissipation, that allows us to generate phase space distributions for particles with arbitrary spin. We conclude that stochastic electrodynamics is a classical theory that is able to describe those quantum processes whose origins are in the vacuum fluctuations.

Entanglement is a key resource in many quantum information schemes and in the last years the research on multi-qubit entanglement has drawn lots of attention. In this thesis the experimental generation and characterisation of multi-qubit entanglement is presented. Specifically we have prepared entangled states of up to six qubits. The qubits were implemented in the polarisation degree of freedom of single photons. We emphasise that one type of states that we produce are rotationally invariant states, remaining unchanged under simultaneous identical unitary transformations of all their individual constituents. Such states can be applied to e.g. decoherence-free encoding, quantum communication without sharing a common reference frame, quantum telecloning, secret sharing and remote state preparation schemes. They also have properties which are interesting in studies of foundations of quantum mechanics. In the experimental implementation we use a single source of entangled photon pairs, based on parametric down-conversion, and extract the first, second and third order events. Our experimental setup is completely free from interferometric overlaps, making it robust and contributing to a high fidelity of the generated states. To our knowledge, the achieved fidelity is the highest that has been observed for six-qubit entangled states and our measurement results are in very good agreement with predictions of quantum theory. We have also performed another novel test of the foundations of quantum mechanics. It is based on an inequality that is fulfilled by any non-contextual hidden variable theory, but can be violated by quantum mechanics. This test is similar to Bell inequality tests, which rule out local hidden variable theories as possible completions of quantum mechanics. Here, however, we show that non-contextual hidden variable theories cannot explain certain experimental results, which are consistent with quantum mechanics. Hence, neither of these theories can be used to make quantum mechanics complete.

The rapidly developing interdisciplinary field of quantum information, which merges quantum and information science, studies non-classical aspects of quantum systems. These studies are motivated by the promise that the non-classicality can be used to solve tasks more efficiently than classical methods would allow. In many quantum informational studies, non-classical behaviour is attributed to the notion of entanglement. In this thesis we use photons to experimentally investigate fundamental questions such as: What happens to the entanglement in a system when it is affected by noise? In our study of noisy entanglement we pursue the challenging task of creating bound entanglement. Bound entangled states are created through an irreversible process that requires entanglement. Once in the bound regime, entanglement cannot be distilled out through local operations assisted by classical communication. We show that it is possible to experimentally produce four-photon bound entangled states and that a violation of a Bell inequality can be achieved. Moreover, we demonstrate an entanglement-unlocking protocol by relaxing the condition of local operations. We also explore the non-classical nature of quantum mechanics in several single-photon experiments. In these experiments, we show the violation of various inequalities that were derived under the assumption of non-contextuality. Using qutrits we construct and demonstrate the simplest possible test that offers a discrepancy between classical and quantum theory. Furthermore, we perform an experiment in the spirit of the Kochen-Specker theorem to illustrate the state-independence of this theorem. Here, we investigate whether or not measurement outcomes exhibit fully contextual correlations. That is, no part of the correlations can be attributed to the non-contextual theory. Our results show that only a small part of the experimental generated correlations are amenable to a non-contextual interpretation. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Submitted. Paper 5: Submitted. Paper 6: Submitted.</p>

<p>Open quantum systems have become a rapidly developing sector for research. Such systems present novel physical phenomena, such as topological chirality, enhanced sensitivity, and unidirectional invisibility resulting from both their non-equilibrium dynamics and the presence of exceptional points.</p> <p><br></p> <p>We begin by introducing the core features of open systems governed by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, providing the PT -dimer as an illustrative example. Proceeding, we introduce the Lindblad master equation which provides a working description of decoherence in quantum systems, and investigate its properties through the Decohering Dimer and periodic potentials. We then detail our preferred experimental apparatus governed by the Lindbladian. Finally, we introduce the Liouvillian, its relation to non-Hermitian Hamiltonians and Lindbladians, and through it investigate multiple properties of open quantum systems.</p>