In this paper, we extend the standard formalism of quantum mechanics to a quantum theory for a total system including one internal measuring apparatus. The internality of the measuring apparatus implies that different decomposition of a given density operator for the internal measuring apparatus into mixture of pure states may have different physical implications. We use `specified mixed-state description' to call a density operator with a specified decomposition into mixture of pure states. The proposed theory has three basic assumptions, which roughly speaking have the following contents: (i) Physical states of the total system can be associated with vectors in the total Hilbert space; (ii) the dynamical evolution of a state vector obeys Schrodinger equation; and (iii) under a principle of compatible description and certain non-transition condition, a pure-vector description of the total system may imply the existence of certain specified mixed-state description. The principle of compatible description states that different mathematical descriptions for the same physical state of the total system must give consistent predictions for results of measurements performed by the internal measuring apparatus. This principle imposes a restriction to vectors in the Hilbert space and this may effectively break the time-reversal symmetry of Schrodinger equation.
In this paper, we extend the standard formalism of quantum mechanics to a quantum theory for a total system including one internal measuring apparatus. The internality of the measuring apparatus implies that different decomposition of a given density operator for the internal measuring apparatus into mixture of pure states may have different physical implications. We use `specified mixed-state description' to call a density operator with a specified decomposition into mixture of pure states. The proposed theory has three basic assumptions, which roughly speaking have the following contents: (i) Physical states of the total system can be associated with vectors in the total Hilbert space; (ii) the dynamical evolution of a state vector obeys Schrodinger equation; and (iii) under a principle of compatible description and certain non-transition condition, a pure-vector description of the total system may imply the existence of certain specified mixed-state description. The principle of compatible description states that different mathematical descriptions for the same physical state of the total system must give consistent predictions for results of measurements performed by the internal measuring apparatus. This principle imposes a restriction to vectors in the Hilbert space and this may effectively break the time-reversal symmetry of Schrodinger equation.
The standard formalism of quantum mechanics is extended to describe a total system including the reference system (RS), with respect to which the total system is described. The RS is assumed to be able to act as a measuring apparatus, with measurement records given by the values of some reference properties of the RS. In order to describe the total system, we define a frame of reference (FR) as a set of states that can be used to express all other states of the total system. The theory is based on four basic postulates, which have, loosely speaking, the following contents. (i) A reference property of a RS has a definite value and is sufficiently stable in the FR directly related to the reference property. (ii) States of the total system are associated with vectors in the Hilbert space. (iii) Schrödinger equation is the dynamical law in each valid FR. (iv) Under certain condition a property of a system can be regarded as a reference property; vector descriptions of the total system given in different FRs of the same RS may have a probabilistic relationship like in Born's rule.
Quantum mechanics is widely recognised as being incomplete. It is not consistent with the second law of thermodynamics and does not provide a scientifically credible physical account of the measurement process, the means by which coherence is broken and classically observable states are recorded. This has led to many ad hoc assumptions being used to account for various properties of quantum systems, among which is the coherence time of quantum devices that determines their ability to perform computations. Here, we show that all these properties can be accommodated naturally and consistently in the context of mixing quantum systems which exhibit continuous spectra, as arises in the thermodynamic limit in quantum statistical mechanics and quantum gravity. In particular, for isolated systems we show that the time-reversal symmetry associated with unitary time evolution of the quantum state gives rise to time-symmetry breaking and a semi-group evolution which attains thermodynamic equilibrium at long times. Moreover, the emergence of this non-unitary time-asymmetry leads to microcanonical equilibrium states in which all quantum coherence is lost and is accompanied by the transformation of pure states into mixtures, leading in turn to an increase in entropy. Inclusion of a macroscopic measurement apparatus shows how the outcome of a measurement corresponds to the von Neumann projection postulate, arising with probabilities in conformance with the Born rule. The mathematical structure of the theory which applies to quantum systems with continuous spectra is closely analogous to the classical ergodic theory of dynamical systems and the conditions under which they attain equilibrium states.
The standard formalism of quantum mechanics is extended to describe a total system including the reference system (RS), with respect to which the total system is described. The RS is assumed to be able to act as a measuring apparatus, with measurement records given by the values of some reference properties of the RS. In order to describe the total system, we define a frame of reference (FR) as a set of states that can be used to express all other states of the total system. The theory is based on four basic postulates, which have, loosely speaking, the following contents. (i) A reference property of a RS has a definite value and is sufficiently stable in the FR directly related to the reference property. (ii) States of the total system are associated with vectors in the Hilbert space. (iii) Schrodinger equation is the dynamical law in each valid FR. (iv) Under certain condition a property of a system can be regarded as a reference property; vector descriptions of the total system given in different FRs of the same RS may have a probabilistic relationship like in Born's rule.
From the outset statistical mechanics will be framed in the language of quantum theory. The typical macroscopic system is composed of multiple constituents, and hence described in some many-particle Hilbert space. In general, not much is known about such a system, certainly not the precise preparation of all its microscopic details. Thus, its description requires a more general notion of a quantum state, a so-called mixed state. This chapter begins with a brief review of the basic axioms of quantum theory regarding observables, pure states, measurements, and time evolution. Particular attention is paid to the use of projection operators and to the most elementary quantum system, a two-level system. The chapter then motivates the introduction of mixed states and examines in detail their mathematical representation and properties. It also dwells on the description of composite systems, introducing, in particular, the notions of statistical independence and correlations.
In textbooks, ideal quantum measurements are described in terms of the tested system only by the collapse postulate and Born's rule. This level of description offers a rather flexible position for the interpretation of quantum mechanics. Here we analyse an ideal measurement as a process of interaction between the tested system S and an apparatus A, so as to derive the properties postulated in textbooks. We thus consider within standard quantum mechanics the measurement of a quantum spin component ŝz by an apparatus A, being a magnet coupled to a bath. We first consider the evolution of the density operator of S + A describing a large set of runs of the measurement process. The approach describes the disappearance of the off-diagonal terms ("truncation") of the density matrix as a physical effect due to A, while the registration of the outcome has classical features due to the large size of the pointer variable, the magnetization. A quantum ambiguity implies that the density matrix at the final time can be decomposed on many bases, not only the one of the measurement. This quantum oddity prevents to connect individual outcomes to measurements, a difficulty known as the "measurement problem". It is shown that it is circumvented by the apparatus as well, since the evolution in a small time interval erases all decompositions, except the one on the measurement basis. Once one can derive the outcome of individual events from quantum theory, the so-called collapse of the wavefunction or the reduction of the state appears as the result of a selection of runs among the original large set. Hence nothing more than standard quantum mechanics is needed to explain features of measurements. The employed statistical formulation is advocated for the teaching of quantum theory.
We will give a new model for measurements of a quantum system, expressed as the compact operators on a Hilbert space, such that the measuring apparatuses are described by a unital separable non-type I nuclear simple C∗-algebra equipped with certain unital endomorphisms and pure states. An interaction between the quantum system and the apparatus is specified by a unitary associated with the combined system as before. Magnifying to the classical level some aspects of the quantum system so captured in the apparatus is explicitly done by applying the endomorphism; then the resulting state is the superposition of {\em phases} with weights. Nature will then choose each phase according to the probability prescribed by the weights just as does one when multiple phases appear as in phase transition. Thus in our model state-reduction (or collapse of the wave function) is a primary event; whether this corresponds to the measurement of an observable or which one if it does is another matter.