Question: Who was the first person to describe Relational Quantum mechanics and has worked in Italy, the United States, and France?

Context paragraphs:
Relational approach to quantum physics: The relational approach to quantum physics is an alternative approach to and interpretation of quantum mechanics.  It asserts that the physical world can only be studied accurately in terms of "relationships" between systems, as all experimentally verifiable facts about the world result explicitly from interactions (such as the interaction between a light field and a detector).  According to the relational approach, the assumption that objects possess absolute properties (such as an absolute particle, independent of any detection frame) inevitably leads to ambiguities and paradoxes when these objects are studied closely.  The approach was adopted, in a time span of 1992-1996, by Q. Zheng, S. Hughes, and T. Kobayashi in the University of Tokyo.  As early as in 1985, S. Kochen suggested that the paradoxes of quantum physics could be overcome by developing a relational approach, which was needed at one time to solve the paradoxes of relativistic physics of space and time.  It is also hoped that this entry will serve as a complement to Rovelli’s relational quantum mechanics (RQM).

Coherent states: In physics, specifically in quantum mechanics, a coherent state is the specific quantum state of the quantum harmonic oscillator, often described as a state which has dynamics most closely resembling the oscillatory behavior of a classical harmonic oscillator.  It was the first example of quantum dynamics when Erwin Schrödinger derived it in 1926, while searching for solutions of the Schrödinger equation that satisfy the correspondence principle.  The quantum harmonic oscillator and hence, the coherent states, arise in the quantum theory of a wide range of physical systems.  For instance, a coherent state describes the oscillating motion of a particle confined in a quadratic potential well (for an early reference, see e.g.

Dagger compact category: In mathematics, dagger compact categories (or dagger compact closed categories) first appeared in 1989 in the work of Doplicher and Roberts on the reconstruction of compact topological groups from their category of finite-dimensional continuous unitary representations (that is, Tannakian categories).  They also appeared in the work of Baez and Dolan as an instance of semistrict k-tuply monoidal n-categories, which describe general topological quantum field theories, for n = 1 and k = 3.  They are a fundamental structure in Abramsky and Coecke's categorical quantum mechanics.

George Chapline, Jr.: George Frederick Chapline, Jr. (born May 6, 1942) is an American theoretical physicist, based at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.  His most recent interests have mainly been in quantum information theory, condensed matter, and quantum gravity.  In 2003 he received the Computing Anticipatory Systems award for a new interpretation of quantum mechanics based on the similarity of quantum mechanics and Helmholtz machines.  He was awarded the E. O. Lawrence Award in 1982 by the United States Department of Energy for leading the team that first demonstrated a working X-ray laser (see photo).  In the field of condensed matter physics Chapline is best known as the originator of the concept of a gossamer metal; i.e. a metal where the density of states at the Fermi surface is depressed because of pairing correlations.  Both the actinides and high T superconductors are examples of gossamer metals.

SCOP formalism: Our minds are able to construct a multitude of imaginary, hypothetical, or counterfactual deviations from the more prototypical states of particular concept, and the State COntext Property (SCOP) can model this.  The SCOP formalism was inspired by the need to incorporate the effect of context into the formal description of a concept.  It builds on an operational approach in the foundations of quantum mechanics in which a physical system is determined by the mathematical structure of its set of states, set of properties, the possible (measurement) contexts which can be applied to this entity, and the relations between these sets.  The SCOP formalism is part of a longstanding effort to develop an operational approach to quantum mechanics known as the Geneva-Brussels approach.  With SCOP it is possible to describe situations with any degree of contextuality.  In fact, classical an quantum come out as special cases: quantum at the one end of extreme contextuality and classical at the other end of extreme lack of contextuality.  The SCOP formalism permits one to describe not only physical or conceptual entities, but also potential entities of a more abstract nature, which means that SCOP aims at a very general description of how the interaction between context and the state of an entity plays a fundamental role in its evolution.

Quantum machine: A quantum machine is a human-made device whose collective motion follows the laws of quantum mechanics.  The idea that macroscopic objects may follow the laws of quantum mechanics dates back to the advent of quantum mechanics in the early 20th century.  However, as highlighted by the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment, quantum effects are not readily observable in large-scale objects.  Consequently, quantum states of motion have only been observed in special circumstances at extremely low temperatures.  The fragility of quantum effects in macroscopic objects may arise from rapid quantum decoherence.  Researchers created the first quantum machine in 2009, and the achievement was named the "Breakthrough of the Year" by "Science" in 2010.

Symmetry in quantum mechanics: Symmetries in quantum mechanics describe features of spacetime and particles which are unchanged under some transformation, in the context of quantum mechanics, relativistic quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, and with applications in the mathematical formulation of the standard model and condensed matter physics.  In general, symmetry in physics, invariance, and conservation laws, are fundamentally important constraints for formulating physical theories and models.  In practice, they are powerful methods for solving problems and predicting what can happen.  While conservation laws do not always give the answer to the problem directly, they form the correct constraints and the first steps to solving a multitude of problems.

Carlo Rovelli: Carlo Rovelli (born 3 May 1956) is an Italian theoretical physicist and writer who has worked in Italy, the United States and since 2000, in France.  His work is mainly in the field of quantum gravity, where he is among the founders of the loop quantum gravity theory.  He has also worked in the history and philosophy of science.  He collaborates regularly with several Italian newspapers, in particular the cultural supplements of "Il Corriere della Sera", "Il Sole 24 Ore" and "La Repubblica".

Quantum operation: In quantum mechanics, a quantum operation (also known as quantum dynamical map or quantum process) is a mathematical formalism used to describe a broad class of transformations that a quantum mechanical system can undergo.  This was first discussed as a general stochastic transformation for a density matrix by George Sudarshan.  The quantum operation formalism describes not only unitary time evolution or symmetry transformations of isolated systems, but also the effects of measurement and transient interactions with an environment.  In the context of quantum computation, a quantum operation is called a quantum channel.

Relational quantum mechanics: Relational quantum mechanics (RQM) is an interpretation of quantum mechanics which treats the state of a quantum system as being observer-dependent, that is, the state "is" the relation between the observer and the system.  This interpretation was first delineated by Carlo Rovelli in a 1994 preprint, and has since been expanded upon by a number of theorists.  It is inspired by the key idea behind special relativity, that the details of an observation depend on the reference frame of the observer, and uses some ideas from Wheeler on quantum information.

Supporting paragraphs: Relational quantum mechanics Carlo Rovelli
Answer: Carlo Rovelli