271 research outputs found
Quantum mechanics as a theory of probability
We develop and defend the thesis that the Hilbert space formalism of quantum
mechanics is a new theory of probability. The theory, like its classical
counterpart, consists of an algebra of events, and the probability measures
defined on it. The construction proceeds in the following steps: (a) Axioms for
the algebra of events are introduced following Birkhoff and von Neumann. All
axioms, except the one that expresses the uncertainty principle, are shared
with the classical event space. The only models for the set of axioms are
lattices of subspaces of inner product spaces over a field K. (b) Another axiom
due to Soler forces K to be the field of real, or complex numbers, or the
quaternions. We suggest a probabilistic reading of Soler's axiom. (c) Gleason's
theorem fully characterizes the probability measures on the algebra of events,
so that Born's rule is derived. (d) Gleason's theorem is equivalent to the
existence of a certain finite set of rays, with a particular orthogonality
graph (Wondergraph). Consequently, all aspects of quantum probability can be
derived from rational probability assignments to finite "quantum gambles". We
apply the approach to the analysis of entanglement, Bell inequalities, and the
quantum theory of macroscopic objects. We also discuss the relation of the
present approach to quantum logic, realism and truth, and the measurement
problem.Comment: 37 pages, 3 figures. Forthcoming in a Festschrift for Jeffrey Bub,
ed. W. Demopoulos and the author, Springer (Kluwer): University of Western
Ontario Series in Philosophy of Scienc
Betting on the Outcomes of Measurements: A Bayesian Theory of Quantum Probability
We develop a systematic approach to quantum probability as a theory of
rational betting in quantum gambles. In these games of chance the agent is
betting in advance on the outcomes of several (finitely many) incompatible
measurements. One of the measurements is subsequently chosen and performed and
the money placed on the other measurements is returned to the agent. We show
how the rules of rational betting imply all the interesting features of quantum
probability, even in such finite gambles. These include the uncertainty
principle and the violation of Bell's inequality among others. Quantum gambles
are closely related to quantum logic and provide a new semantics to it. We
conclude with a philosophical discussion on the interpretation of quantum
mechanics.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figure
Macroscopic objects in quantum mechanics: A combinatorial approach
Why we do not see large macroscopic objects in entangled states? There are
two ways to approach this question. The first is dynamic: the coupling of a
large object to its environment cause any entanglement to decrease
considerably. The second approach, which is discussed in this paper, puts the
stress on the difficulty to observe a large scale entanglement. As the number
of particles n grows we need an ever more precise knowledge of the state, and
an ever more carefully designed experiment, in order to recognize entanglement.
To develop this point we consider a family of observables, called witnesses,
which are designed to detect entanglement. A witness W distinguishes all the
separable (unentangled) states from some entangled states. If we normalize the
witness W to satisfy |tr(W\rho)| \leq 1 for all separable states \rho, then the
efficiency of W depends on the size of its maximal eigenvalue in absolute
value; that is, its operator norm ||W||. It is known that there are witnesses
on the space of n qbits for which ||W|| is exponential in n. However, we
conjecture that for a large majority of n-qbit witnesses ||W|| \leq O(\sqrt{n
logn}). Thus, in a non ideal measurement, which includes errors, the largest
eigenvalue of a typical witness lies below the threshold of detection. We prove
this conjecture for the family of extremal witnesses introduced by Werner and
Wolf (Phys. Rev. A 64, 032112 (2001)).Comment: RevTeX, 14 pages, some additions to the published version: A second
conjecture added, discussion expanded, and references adde
Probability and Nonlocality in Many Minds Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics
We argue that a certain type of many minds (and many worlds) interpretations
of quantum mechanics due to Lockwood (and Deutsch) do not provide a coherent
interpretation of the quantum mechanical probabilistic algorithm. By contrast,
in Albert and Loewer's version of the many minds interpretation there is a
coherent interpretation of the quantum mechanical probabilities. We consider
Albert and Loewer's probability interpretation in the context of Bell-type and
GHZ-type states and argue that it exhibits a certain form of nonlocality which
is, however, much weaker than Bell's nonlocality.Comment: 22 pages, last section rewritten, to appear in British Journal for
the Philosophy of Scienc
Generalizations of Kochen and Specker's Theorem and the Effectiveness of Gleason's Theorem
Kochen and Specker's theorem can be seen as a consequence of Gleason's
theorem and logical compactness. Similar compactness arguments lead to stronger
results about finite sets of rays in Hilbert space, which we also prove by a
direct construction. Finally, we demonstrate that Gleason's theorem itself has
a constructive proof, based on a generic, finite, effectively generated set of
rays, on which every quantum state can be approximated.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, read at the Robert Clifton memorial conferenc
New Bell inequalities for the singlet state: Going beyond the Grothendieck bound
Contemporary versions of Bell's argument against local hidden variable (LHV)
theories are based on the Clauser Horne Shimony and Holt (CHSH) inequality, and
various attempts to generalize it. The amount of violation of these
inequalities cannot exceed the bound set by the Grothendieck constants.
However, if we go back to the original derivation by Bell, and use the perfect
anti-correlation embodied in the singlet spin state, we can go beyond these
bounds. In this paper we derive two-particle Bell inequalities for traceless
two-outcome observables, whose violation in the singlet spin state go beyond
the Grothendieck constants both for the two and three dimensional cases.
Moreover, creating a higher dimensional analog of perfect correlations, and
applying a recent result of Alon and his associates (Invent. Math. 163 499
(2006)) we prove that there are two-particle Bell inequalities for traceless
two-outcome observables whose violation increases to infinity as the dimension
and number of measurements grow. Technically these result are possible because
perfect correlations (or anti-correlations) allow us to transport the indices
of the inequality from the edges of a bipartite graph to those of the complete
graph. Finally, it is shown how to apply these results to mixed Werner states,
provided that the noise does not exceed 20%.Comment: 18 pages, two figures, some corrections and additional references,
published versio
Generalizing Tsirelson's bound on Bell inequalities using a min-max principle
Bounds on the norm of quantum operators associated with classical Bell-type
inequalities can be derived from their maximal eigenvalues. This quantitative
method enables detailed predictions of the maximal violations of Bell-type
inequalities.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX4, replaced with published versio
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