Physics as quantum information processing

Giacomo Mauro D'Ariano

Published 2010-12-12Version 1

The experience from Quantum Information has lead us to look at Quantum Theory (QT) and the whole Physics from a different angle. The information-theoretical paradigm---"It from Bit'---prophesied by John Archibald Wheeler is relentlessly advancing. Recently it has been shown that QT is derivable from pure informational principles. The possibility that there is only QT at the foundations of Physics has been then considered, with space-time, Relativity, quantization rules and Quantum Field Theory (QFT) emerging from a quantum-information processing. The resulting theory is a discrete version of QFT with automatic relativistic invariance, and without fields, Hamiltonian, and quantization rules. In this paper I review some recent advances on these lines. In particular: i) How space-time and relativistic covariance emerge from the quantum computation; ii) The derivation of the Dirac equation as free information flow, without imposing Lorentz covariance; iii) the information-theoretical meaning of inertial mass and Planck constant; iv) An observable consequence of the theory: a mass-dependent refraction index of vacuum. I will then conclude with two possible routes to Quantum Gravity.