Beyond quantum resource theories - Carlo Maria Scandolo

Quantum resource theories are a powerful framework for the quantification of resourcefulness in quantum theory. They arise naturally whenever we have a restriction on what we can do on a quantum system. However, the idea behind them is very general, and can be successfully exported to non-quantum scenarios. After introducing quantum resource theories and their mathematical framework, I will present two situations in which we can learn something new from their application to a non-quantum setting. In the first situation, I will show how it is possible to give rigorous foundations of statistical mechanics in arbitrary physical theories, even without knowing the mathematical details of their formalism. In the second situation, I will apply resource theories to discrete dynamical systems, which find applications to genetic regulation, showing how we can derive key results for the action of some external perturbations in a simple way.