Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-1-2017
Abstract
Proposed models of closed timelike curves (CTCs) have been shown to enable powerful information-processing protocols. We examine the simulation of models of CTCs both by other models of CTCs and by physical systems without access to CTCs. We prove that the recently proposed transition probability CTCs (T-CTCs) are physically equivalent to postselection CTCs (P-CTCs), in the sense that one model can simulate the other with reasonable overhead. As a consequence, their information-processing capabilities are equivalent. We also describe a method for quantum computers to simulate Deutschian CTCs (but with a reasonable overhead only in some cases). In cases for which the overhead is reasonable, it might be possible to perform the simulation in a table-top experiment. This approach has the benefit of resolving some ambiguities associated with the equivalent circuit model of Ralph et al. Furthermore, we provide an explicit form for the state of the CTC system such that it is a maximum-entropy state, as prescribed by Deutsch.
Publication Source (Journal or Book title)
Foundations of Physics
First Page
375
Last Page
391
Recommended Citation
Brun, T., & Wilde, M. (2017). Simulations of Closed Timelike Curves. Foundations of Physics, 47 (3), 375-391. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-017-0066-7