57 research outputs found
Bohrification of operator algebras and quantum logic
Following Birkhoff and von Neumann, quantum logic has traditionally been
based on the lattice of closed linear subspaces of some Hilbert space, or, more
generally, on the lattice of projections in a von Neumann algebra A.
Unfortunately, the logical interpretation of these lattices is impaired by
their nondistributivity and by various other problems. We show that a possible
resolution of these difficulties, suggested by the ideas of Bohr, emerges if
instead of single projections one considers elementary propositions to be
families of projections indexed by a partially ordered set C(A) of appropriate
commutative subalgebras of A. In fact, to achieve both maximal generality and
ease of use within topos theory, we assume that A is a so-called Rickart
C*-algebra and that C(A) consists of all unital commutative Rickart
C*-subalgebras of A. Such families of projections form a Heyting algebra in a
natural way, so that the associated propositional logic is intuitionistic:
distributivity is recovered at the expense of the law of the excluded middle.
Subsequently, generalizing an earlier computation for n-by-n matrices, we
prove that the Heyting algebra thus associated to A arises as a basis for the
internal Gelfand spectrum (in the sense of Banaschewski-Mulvey) of the
"Bohrification" of A, which is a commutative Rickart C*-algebra in the topos of
functors from C(A) to the category of sets. We explain the relationship of this
construction to partial Boolean algebras and Bruns-Lakser completions. Finally,
we establish a connection between probability measure on the lattice of
projections on a Hilbert space H and probability valuations on the internal
Gelfand spectrum of A for A = B(H).Comment: 31 page
Bohrification
New foundations for quantum logic and quantum spaces are constructed by
merging algebraic quantum theory and topos theory. Interpreting Bohr's
"doctrine of classical concepts" mathematically, given a quantum theory
described by a noncommutative C*-algebra A, we construct a topos T(A), which
contains the "Bohrification" B of A as an internal commutative C*-algebra. Then
B has a spectrum, a locale internal to T(A), the external description S(A) of
which we interpret as the "Bohrified" phase space of the physical system. As in
classical physics, the open subsets of S(A) correspond to (atomic)
propositions, so that the "Bohrified" quantum logic of A is given by the
Heyting algebra structure of S(A). The key difference between this logic and
its classical counterpart is that the former does not satisfy the law of the
excluded middle, and hence is intuitionistic. When A contains sufficiently many
projections (e.g. when A is a von Neumann algebra, or, more generally, a
Rickart C*-algebra), the intuitionistic quantum logic S(A) of A may also be
compared with the traditional quantum logic, i.e. the orthomodular lattice of
projections in A. This time, the main difference is that the former is
distributive (even when A is noncommutative), while the latter is not.
This chapter is a streamlined synthesis of 0709.4364, 0902.3201, 0905.2275.Comment: 44 pages; a chapter of the first author's PhD thesis, to appear in
"Deep Beauty" (ed. H. Halvorson
Noncommutativity as a colimit
Every partial algebra is the colimit of its total subalgebras. We prove this
result for partial Boolean algebras (including orthomodular lattices) and the
new notion of partial C*-algebras (including noncommutative C*-algebras), and
variations such as partial complete Boolean algebras and partial AW*-algebras.
The first two results are related by taking projections. As corollaries we find
extensions of Stone duality and Gelfand duality. Finally, we investigate the
extent to which the Bohrification construction, that works on partial
C*-algebras, is functorial.Comment: 22 pages; updated theorem 15, added propoisition 3
A topos for algebraic quantum theory
The aim of this paper is to relate algebraic quantum mechanics to topos
theory, so as to construct new foundations for quantum logic and quantum
spaces. Motivated by Bohr's idea that the empirical content of quantum physics
is accessible only through classical physics, we show how a C*-algebra of
observables A induces a topos T(A) in which the amalgamation of all of its
commutative subalgebras comprises a single commutative C*-algebra. According to
the constructive Gelfand duality theorem of Banaschewski and Mulvey, the latter
has an internal spectrum S(A) in T(A), which in our approach plays the role of
a quantum phase space of the system. Thus we associate a locale (which is the
topos-theoretical notion of a space and which intrinsically carries the
intuitionistic logical structure of a Heyting algebra) to a C*-algebra (which
is the noncommutative notion of a space). In this setting, states on A become
probability measures (more precisely, valuations) on S(A), and self-adjoint
elements of A define continuous functions (more precisely, locale maps) from
S(A) to Scott's interval domain. Noting that open subsets of S(A) correspond to
propositions about the system, the pairing map that assigns a (generalized)
truth value to a state and a proposition assumes an extremely simple
categorical form. Formulated in this way, the quantum theory defined by A is
essentially turned into a classical theory, internal to the topos T(A).Comment: 52 pages, final version, to appear in Communications in Mathematical
Physic
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