Characterizations of the automorphisms of Hilbert space effect algebras (Q5953707)

The author stresses on the importance of effects in the mathematical description of quantum measurement, noting the set \(E(H)\) of all effects on a complex Hilbert space \(H\) is just the operator interval \([0,I]\) of all positive operators on \(H\) bounded by the identity \(I\). He also remarks ``It is an exciting problem to characterize the automorphisms of algebraic structures of any kind by means of their preservation properties concerning certain relevant relations, sets quantities etc. connected with the underlying structures'' (p. 438). This paper specifically concerns bijections preserving order and orthocomplement (i.e. ortho-order automorphisms) of \(E(H)\), the Hilbert space effect algebra. First the author shows that preservation of orthogonality alone is sufficient to establish preservation of order as well. Next he considers ``coexistence'', the relation which holds between effects that are ``in the range of an unsharp observable''. His first theorem shows that preservation of coexistencny and order together will characterise the ortho-order automorphisms. Theorem 2 asserts that if a bijective map on \(E(H)\) preserves order, and there are two pure states in \(H\) with respect to which this map preserves their probabilities, then this bijective map is an automorphism. The third and last theorem states that preservation of mixtures characterizes the mixture automorphisms of \(E(H)\). Proofs are given to these results in a series of lemmas, elegantly and clearly presented. Final remarks indicate the third theorem can be generalised for von Neumann algebras, while the first two ``heavily depend on the fact that every projection on the underlying Hilbert space belongs to the effect algebra.'' He concludes his paper with these remarks ``In our opinion it would be a nice achievement if one could find an extension of those theorems for the case of effect algebras of von Neumann algebras.'' A bibliography and many references to other papers is included.