40 research outputs found
A quantum computational semantics for epistemic logical operators. Part I: epistemic structures
Some critical open problems of epistemic logics can be investigated in the framework
of a quantum computational approach. The basic idea is to interpret sentences like
âAlice knows that Bob does not understand that Ï is irrationalâ as pieces of quantum information
(generally represented by density operators of convenient Hilbert spaces). Logical
epistemic operators (to understand, to know. . .) are dealt with as (generally irreversible)
quantum operations, which are, in a sense, similar to measurement-procedures. This approach
permits us to model some characteristic epistemic processes, that concern both human
and artificial intelligence. For instance, the operation of âmemorizing and retrieving
informationâ can be formally represented, in this framework, by using a quantum teleportation
phenomenon
Epistemic quantum computational structures in a Hilbert-space environment
Some critical open problems of epistemic logics can be investigated in the framework of a quantum computational approach. The basic idea is to interpret sentences like âAlice knows that Bob does not understand that Ï is irrationalâ as pieces of quantum information (generally represented by density operators of convenient Hilbert spaces). Logical epistemic operators (to understand, to know ...) are dealt with as (generally irreversible) quantum operations, which are, in a sense, similar to measurement-procedures. This approach permits us to model some characteristic epistemic processes, that concern both human and artiïŹcial intelligence. For instance, the operation of âmemorizing and retrieving informationâ can be formally represented, in this framework, by using a quantum teleportation phenomenon
Extended Representations of Observables and States for a Noncontextual Reinterpretation of QM
A crucial and problematical feature of quantum mechanics (QM) is
nonobjectivity of properties. The ESR model restores objectivity reinterpreting
quantum probabilities as conditional on detection and embodying the
mathematical formalism of QM into a broader noncontextual (hence local)
framework. We propose here an improved presentation of the ESR model containing
a more complete mathematical representation of the basic entities of the model.
We also extend the model to mixtures showing that the mathematical
representations of proper mixtures does not coincide with the mathematical
representation of mixtures provided by QM, while the representation of improper
mixtures does. This feature of the ESR model entails that some interpretative
problems raising in QM when dealing with mixtures are avoided. From an
empirical point of view the predictions of the ESR model depend on some
parameters which may be such that they are very close to the predictions of QM
in most cases. But the nonstandard representation of proper mixtures allows us
to propose the scheme of an experiment that could check whether the predictions
of QM or the predictions of the ESR model are correct.Comment: 17 pages, standard latex. Extensively revised versio
Some Properties of Transforms in Culture Theory
It is shown that, in certain circumstances, systems of cultural rules may be
represented by doubly stochastic matrices denoted called possibility
transforms, and by certain real valued possibility densities with inner
product. Using such objects we may characterize a certain problem of
ethnographic and ethological description as a problem of prediction, in which
observations are predicted by properties of fixed points of transforms of pure
systems, or by properties of convex combinations of such pure systems. That is,
ethnographic description is an application of the Birkhoff theorem regarding
doubly stochastic matrices on a space whose vertices are permutations.Comment: Read at International Quantum Structures Association meetings, 200
Physical propositions and quantum languages
The word \textit{proposition} is used in physics with different meanings,
which must be distinguished to avoid interpretational problems. We construct
two languages and with classical
set-theoretical semantics which allow us to illustrate those meanings and to
show that the non-Boolean lattice of propositions of quantum logic (QL) can be
obtained by selecting a subset of \textit{p-testable} propositions within the
Boolean lattice of all propositions associated with sentences of
. Yet, the aforesaid semantics is incompatible with the
standard interpretation of quantum mechanics (QM) because of known no-go
theorems. But if one accepts our criticism of these theorems and the ensuing SR
(semantic realism) interpretation of QM, the incompatibility disappears, and
the classical and quantum notions of truth can coexist, since they refer to
different metalinguistic concepts (\textit{truth} and \textit{verifiability
according to QM}, respectively). Moreover one can construct a quantum language
whose Lindenbaum-Tarski algebra is isomorphic to QL, the
sentences of which state (testable) properties of individual samples of
physical systems, while standard QL does not bear this interpretation.Comment: 15 pages, no figure, standard Late
On the lattice structure of probability spaces in quantum mechanics
Let C be the set of all possible quantum states. We study the convex subsets
of C with attention focused on the lattice theoretical structure of these
convex subsets and, as a result, find a framework capable of unifying several
aspects of quantum mechanics, including entanglement and Jaynes' Max-Ent
principle. We also encounter links with entanglement witnesses, which leads to
a new separability criteria expressed in lattice language. We also provide an
extension of a separability criteria based on convex polytopes to the infinite
dimensional case and show that it reveals interesting facets concerning the
geometrical structure of the convex subsets. It is seen that the above
mentioned framework is also capable of generalization to any statistical theory
via the so-called convex operational models' approach. In particular, we show
how to extend the geometrical structure underlying entanglement to any
statistical model, an extension which may be useful for studying correlations
in different generalizations of quantum mechanics.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1008.416
Relational Quantum Mechanics and Probability
We present a derivation of the third postulate of Relational Quantum
Mechanics (RQM) from the properties of conditional probabilities.The first two
RQM postulates are based on the information that can be extracted from
interaction of different systems, and the third postulate defines the
properties of the probability function. Here we demonstrate that from a
rigorous definition of the conditional probability for the possible outcomes of
different measurements, the third postulate is unnecessary and the Born's rule
naturally emerges from the first two postulates by applying the Gleason's
theorem. We demonstrate in addition that the probability function is uniquely
defined for classical and quantum phenomena. The presence or not of
interference terms is demonstrated to be related to the precise formulation of
the conditional probability where distributive property on its arguments cannot
be taken for granted. In the particular case of Young's slits experiment, the
two possible argument formulations correspond to the possibility or not to
determine the particle passage through a particular path.Comment: Foundations of Physics, Springer Verlag, 201
`What is a Thing?': Topos Theory in the Foundations of Physics
The goal of this paper is to summarise the first steps in developing a
fundamentally new way of constructing theories of physics. The motivation comes
from a desire to address certain deep issues that arise when contemplating
quantum theories of space and time. In doing so we provide a new answer to
Heidegger's timeless question ``What is a thing?''.
Our basic contention is that constructing a theory of physics is equivalent
to finding a representation in a topos of a certain formal language that is
attached to the system. Classical physics uses the topos of sets. Other
theories involve a different topos. For the types of theory discussed in this
paper, a key goal is to represent any physical quantity with an arrow
\breve{A}_\phi:\Si_\phi\map\R_\phi where \Si_\phi and are two
special objects (the `state-object' and `quantity-value object') in the
appropriate topos, .
We discuss two different types of language that can be attached to a system,
. The first, \PL{S}, is a propositional language; the second, \L{S}, is
a higher-order, typed language. Both languages provide deductive systems with
an intuitionistic logic. With the aid of \PL{S} we expand and develop some of
the earlier work (By CJI and collaborators.) on topos theory and quantum
physics. A key step is a process we term `daseinisation' by which a projection
operator is mapped to a sub-object of the spectral presheaf \Sig--the topos
quantum analogue of a classical state space. The topos concerned is \SetH{}:
the category of contravariant set-valued functors on the category (partially
ordered set) \V{} of commutative sub-algebras of the algebra of bounded
operators on the quantum Hilbert space \Hi.Comment: To appear in ``New Structures in Physics'' ed R. Coeck