A fully epistemic hidden variable model for emulating quantum dynamics

In this thesis I propose a new toy model, the Fully Epistemic Model (FEM), which is based on Spekkens's knowledge balance principle [1]. Unlike Spekkens's Toy Model (STM), which demands that valid operations map ontic states---states of reality---to ontic states explicitly, the FEM demands that valid operations map epistemic states---states of knowledge---to epistemic states in a linear and reversible manner. The resulting dynamics of the FEM for one and two toy bits, have a straightforward connection to the dynamics of one and two qubits in quantum theory. In light of this the FEM is superior to STM, as the latter's dynamics do not admit a connection with the dynamics of one and two qubits. It is discovered that, for certain protocols, the number of input states for which a given protocol performs the correct task is greater in the FEM compared to STM. There are no informational processing tasks for which one model outperforms the other in terms of resources. To an empiricist living in a toy universe the FEM and STM are indistinguishable.