A presentation of Quantum Logic based on an "and then" connective

When a physicist performs a quantic measurement, new information about the system at hand is gathered. This paper studies the logical properties of how this new information is combined with previous information. It presents Quantum Logic as a propositional logic under two connectives: negation and the "and then" operation that combines old and new information. The "and then" connective is neither commutative nor associative. Many properties of this logic are exhibited, and some small elegant subset is shown to imply all the properties considered. No independence or completeness result is claimed. Classical physical systems are exactly characterized by the commutativity, the associativity, or the monotonicity of the "and then" connective. Entailment is defined in this logic and can be proved to be a partial order. In orthomodular lattices, the operation proposed by Finch (1969) satisfies all the properties studied in this paper. All properties satisfied by Finch's operation in modular lattices are valid in Hilbert Space Quantum Logic. It is not known whether all properties of Hilbert Space Quantum Logic are satisfied by Finch's operation in modular lattices. Non-commutative, non-associative algebraic structures generalizing Boolean algebras are defined, ideals are characterized and a homomorphism theorem is proved.Comment: 28 pages. Submitte

Residuated structures and orthomodular lattices

The variety of (pointed) residuated lattices includes a vast proportion of the classes of algebras that are relevant for algebraic logic, e.g., ℓ-groups, Heyting algebras, MV-algebras, or De Morgan monoids. Among the outliers, one counts orthomodular lattices and other varieties of quantum algebras. We suggest a common framework—pointed left-residuated ℓ-groupoids—where residuated structures and quantum structures can all be accommodated. We investigate the lattice of subvarieties of pointed left-residuated ℓ-groupoids, their ideals, and develop a theory of left nuclei. Finally, we extend some parts of the theory of join-completions of residuated ℓ-groupoids to the left-residuated case, giving a new proof of MacLaren’s theorem for orthomodular lattices

On Contextuality and Unsharp Quantum Logic

In this paper we provide a preliminary investigation of subclasses of bounded posets with antitone involution which are "pastings" of their maximal Kleene sub-lattices. Specifically, we introduce super-paraorthomodular lattices, namely paraothomodular lattices whose order determines, and it is fully determined by, the order of their maximal Kleene sub-algebras. It will turn out that the (spectral) paraorthomodular lattice of effects over a separable Hilbert space can be considered as a prominent example of such. Therefore, it arguably provides an algebraic/order theoretical rendering of complementarity phenomena between unsharp observables. A number of examples, properties and characterization theorems for structures we deal with will be outlined. For example, we prove a forbidden configuration theorem and we investigate the notion of commutativity for modular pseudo-Kleene lattices, examples of which are (spectral) paraorthomodular lattices of effects over finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. Finally, we show that structures introduced in this paper yield paraconsistent partial referential matrices, the latter being generalizations of J. Czelakowski's partial referential matrices. As a consequence, a link between some classes of posets with antitone involution and algebras of partial "unsharp" propositions is established

A Bridge Between Q-Worlds

Quantum set theory (QST) and topos quantum theory (TQT) are two long running projects in the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics that share a great deal of conceptual and technical affinity. Most pertinently, both approaches attempt to resolve some of the conceptual difficulties surrounding quantum mechanics by reformulating parts of the theory inside of non-classical mathematical universes, albeit with very different internal logics. We call such mathematical universes, together with those mathematical and logical structures within them that are pertinent to the physical interpretation, `Q-worlds'. Here, we provide a unifying framework that allows us to (i) better understand the relationship between different Q-worlds, and (ii) define a general method for transferring concepts and results between TQT and QST, thereby significantly increasing the expressive power of both approaches. Along the way, we develop a novel connection to paraconsistent logic and introduce a new class of structures that have significant implications for recent work on paraconsistent set theory

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