Towards Quantum Integrated Information Theory

Abstract

Integrated Information Theory (IIT) has emerged as one of the leading research lines in computational neuroscience to provide a mechanistic and mathematically well-defined description of the neural correlates of consciousness. Integrated Information ($\Phi$) quantifies how much the integrated cause/effect structure of the global neural network fails to be accounted for by any partitioned version of it. The holistic IIT approach is in principle applicable to any information-processing dynamical network regardless of its interpretation in the context of consciousness. In this paper we take the first steps towards a formulation of a general and consistent version of IIT for interacting networks of quantum systems. A variety of different phases, from the dis-integrated ($\Phi=0$) to the holistic one (extensive $\log\Phi$), can be identified and their cross-overs studied.