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Adrian Kent

Adrian Kent contributes to research discovery and scholarly infrastructure.

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Published work

7 published item(s)

preprint2026arXiv

Fundamental Physics, Existential Risks and Human Futures

Over the past 25 years, I have been involved in some intriguing developments in the foundations of physics, exploring the quantum reality problem, the relationship between quantum theory and gravity and the interplay between consciousness and physical laws. These investigations make it plausible that we will find physics beyond quantum theory, potentially including both new evolution laws and new types of measurement. There is also a significant chance they could have potentially transformative impact on information processing and on the development of and our future with AI.

preprint2025arXiv

The thermodynamics of readout devices and semiclassical gravity

We analyse the common claim that nonlinear modifications of quantum theory necessarily violate the second law of thermodynamics. We focus on hypothetical extensions of quantum theory that contain readout devices. These black boxes provide a classical description of quantum states without perturbing them. They allow quantum state cloning, though in a way consistent with the relativistic no-signalling principle. We review the existence of such devices in the context of Moller-Rosenfeld semiclassical gravity, which postulates that the gravitational field remains classical and is sourced by the expectation value of a quantum energy-momentum tensor. We show that the definition of information in the models examined in this paper deviates from that given by von Neumann entropy, and that claims of second law violations based on the distinguishability of non-orthogonal states or on violations of uncertainty principles fail to hold in such theories.

preprint2022arXiv

Practical quantum tokens without quantum memories and experimental tests

Unforgeable quantum money tokens were the first invention of quantum information science, but remain technologically challenging as they require quantum memories and/or long distance quantum communication. More recently, virtual 'S-money' tokens were introduced. These are generated by quantum cryptography, do not require quantum memories or long distance quantum communication, and yet in principle guarantee many of the security advantages of quantum money. Here, we describe implementations of S-money schemes with off-the-shelf quantum key distribution technology, and analyse security in the presence of noise, losses, and experimental imperfection. Our schemes satisfy near instant validation without cross-checking. We show that, given standard assumptions in mistrustful quantum cryptographic implementations, unforgeability and user privacy could be guaranteed with attainable refinements of our off-the-shelf setup. We discuss the possibilities for unconditionally secure (assumption-free) implementations.

preprint2022arXiv

Testing the nonclassicality of spacetime: what can we learn from Bell-Bose et al.-Marletto-Vedral experiments?

The Bose et al.-Marletto-Vedral (BMV) experiment [S. Bose et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 240401 (2017); C. Marletto and V. Vedral, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 240402 (2017)] aims to prove that spacetime is nonclassical by observing entanglement generated by gravity. However, local hidden variable theories (LHVTs) can simulate the entangled correlations. We propose to extend the entanglement generated by the BMV experiment to distant quantum particles in a Bell experiment. Violating a Bell inequality would rule out LHVTs, providing a stronger proof of the nonclassicality of spacetime than the BMV proposal.

preprint2020arXiv

Flexible quantum tokens in spacetime

S-money [Proc. R. Soc. A 475, 20190170 (2019)] schemes define virtual tokens designed for networks with relativistic or other trusted signalling constraints. The tokens allow near-instant verification and guarantee unforgeability without requiring quantum state storage. We present refined two stage S-money schemes. The first stage, which may involve quantum information exchange, generates private user token data. In the second stage, which need only involve classical communications, users determine the valid presentation point, without revealing it to the issuer. This refinement allows the user to determine the presentation point anywhere in the causal past of all valid presentation points. It also allows flexible transfer of tokens among users without compromising user privacy.

preprint2020arXiv

Globe-hopping

We consider versions of the grasshopper problem (Goulko and Kent, 2017) on the circle and the sphere, which are relevant to Bell inequalities. For a circle of circumference $2π$, we show that for unconstrained lawns of any length and arbitrary jump lengths, the supremum of the probability for the grasshopper&#39;s jump to stay on the lawn is one. For antipodal lawns, which by definition contain precisely one of each pair of opposite points and have length $π$, we show this is true except when the jump length $ϕ$ is of the form $π\frac{p}{q}$ with $p,q$ coprime and $p$ odd. For these jump lengths we show the optimal probability is $1 - 1/q$ and construct optimal lawns. For a pair of antipodal lawns, we show that the optimal probability of jumping from one onto the other is $1 - 1/q$ for $p,q$ coprime, $p$ odd and $q$ even, and one in all other cases. For an antipodal lawn on the sphere, it is known (Kent and Pitalúa-García, 2014) that if $ϕ= π/q$, where $q \in \mathbb N$, then the optimal retention probability of $1-1/q$ for the grasshopper&#39;s jump is provided by a hemispherical lawn. We show that in all other cases where $0<ϕ< π/2$, hemispherical lawns are not optimal, disproving the hemispherical colouring maximality hypotheses (Kent and Pitalúa-García, 2014). We discuss the implications for Bell experiments and related cryptographic tests.

preprint2019arXiv

Stronger Tests of the Collapse Locality Loophole in Bell Experiments

Several versions of quantum theory assume some form of localized collapse. If measurement outcomes are indeed defined by localized collapses, then a loophole-free demonstration of Bell non-locality needs to ensure space-like separated collapses associated with the measurements of the entangled systems. This collapse locality loophole remains largely untested, with one significant exception probing Diosi&#39;s and Penrose&#39;s gravitationally induced collapse hypotheses. I describe here techniques that allow much stronger experimental tests. These apply to all the well known types of collapse postulate, including gravitationally induced collapse, spontaneous localization models and Wigner&#39;s consciousness-induced collapse.