An alternative foundation of quantum theory
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Abstract: A new approach towards quantum theory is proposed in this paper. The basis is first taken to be theoretical variables, physical variables that may be accessible or inaccessible, i.e., it may be possible or impossible for an actor to assign arbitrarily sharp numerical values to them. In an epistemic process, the accessible variables are just ideal observations connected to an actor or to some communicating actors. Group actions are defined on these variables, and group representation theory is the basis for developing the Hilbert space formalism. Operators corresponding to accessible theoretical variables are derived, and in the discrete case it is argued that the possible physical values are the eigenvalues of these operators. The interpretation of quantum states (or eigenvector spaces) implied by this approach is as focused questions to nature together with sharp answers to those questions. The questions may be complementary in the sense defined by Bohr. The focus of the paper are some mathematical theorems associated with the proposed foundation of quantum theory. It is shown here that the groups and transformation needed in this approach can be constructed explicitly in the case where the accessible variables are finite-dimensional. This simplifies the theory considerably. To make the theory more general, at the end the concept of inaccessible variables ia replaced by the concept of notions, and in this connection, aspects of category theory replaces group theory. It is my view that the discussion on the interpretation of quantum mechanics should come after a thorough treatment of the foundation issue. The interpretation proposed here may be called a general epistemic interpretation of quantum theory.
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