On extending the quantum measure

DOI10.1088/1751-8113/43/50/505305MaRDI QIDQ3067719zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Fay Dowker, Steven R. Johnston, Sumati Surya

Publication date 12 January 2011

Published in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1007.2725

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Logical foundations of quantum mechanics; quantum logic (quantum-theoretic aspects) (81P10) Open systems, reduced dynamics, master equations, decoherence (81S22)

Abstract: We point out that a quantum system with a strongly positive quantum measure or decoherence functional gives rise to a vector valued measure whose domain is the algebra of events or physical questions. This gives an immediate handle on the question of the extension of the decoherence functional to the sigma algebra generated by this algebra of events. It is on the latter that the physical transition amplitudes directly give the decoherence functional. Since the full sigma algebra contains physically interesting questions, like the return question, extending the decoherence functional to these more general questions is important. We show that the decoherence functional, and hence the quantum measure, extends if and only if the associated vector measure does. We give two examples of quantum systems whose decoherence functionals do not extend: one is a unitary system with finitely many states, and the other is a quantum sequential growth model for causal sets. These examples fail to extend in the formal mathematical sense and we speculate on whether the conditions for extension are unphysically strong.

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