Concepts surrounding incompatibility in quantum physics

This thesis concerns how attempting to measure certain fundamental properties of a physical theory can lead us to new insights. The idea of general probabilistic models is introduced and developed, in order to provide a way to be able to consider and compare different theories. A measure of incompatibility of two observables is defined, through the amount of smearing needed to make them jointly measureable. This measure is then used to characterise the degree of incompatibility that exists in a given theory. Quantum theory is then shown to be as incompatible as any other theory, but only in a very course grained sense. A related way of measuring the strength of incompatibility of a pair of observables is then shown to put a bound on a measure of the strength of non-local correlations. The notion of steering, or remote ensemble preparation, is then shown to be a sufficient condition for the saturation of that bound. Examples are considered that demonstrate that the given sufficient notion of steering is not necessary, and it is proposed how the measures can be modified in cases where the link does not hold. The idea of formulating measures of error and disturbance associated with a measurement device is discussed. The notion of a direct test of error or disturbance is used to analyse current proposed measures, and show their shortcomings.