Q. An algebraic language for quantum-spacetime topology (Q1175331)

This paper is concerned with developing a foundation for quantum mechanics which is analogous to the role of set theory in classical mechanics -- principally in logic, but also in the space-time topology of the theory. In attempting this the authors reject the von Neumann/Birkhoff approach which contends that the logic of quantum mechanics is a non-distributive lattice generated by subspaces of Hilbert space. They argue that a more general analysis is needed which has both this and classical Boolean structures as a special case, and which has the structure of a non-commutative, non-distributive poset. The authors base their analysis not on lattice theory, but on the linear algebraic theory known as `extensor algebras', which they trace to Grassmann (1844), and which they present in outline in this paper. They then provide a logical interpretation of the extensor algebras, showing that this interpretation generates a proper non-commutative generalisation of the (Hilbert space subspace) `quantum logics'. A physical interpretation of quantum systems is then sketched, and it is claimed that this `richer' logic based on the extensor algebra is better able to handle quantum ensembles. There is some discussion of higher order logics based on this approach, including the introduction of quantifiers. Finally some of the ideas are related in a brief but ambitious way to earlier remarks on the need for a generalised `quantum-spacetime' topology.