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arXiv:1212.4882

Flows on Generalised Gelfand Spectra of Nonabelian Unital C*-Algebras and Time Evolution of Quantum Systems

Andreas Doering

Published Dec 19, 2012• 13 citations
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Abstract

In arXiv:1212.2613, we associated a presheaf Σ^A with each unital C*-algebra A. The spectral presheaf Σ^A generalises the Gelfand spectrum of an abelian unital C*-algebra. In the present article, we consider one-parameter groups of automorphisms of the spectral presheaf, in particular those arising from one-parameter groups of inner automorphisms of the algebra. We interpret the spectral presheaf as a (generalised) state space for a quantum system and show how one can use flows on the spectral presheaf and on associated structures to describe the time evolution of non-relativistic quantum systems, both in the Schrödinger picture and the Heisenberg picture.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1212.4882

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In arXiv:1212.2613, we associated a presheaf Σ^A with each unital C*-algebra A. The spectral presheaf Σ^A generalises the Gelfand spectrum of an abelian unital C*-algebra. In the present article, we consider one-parameter groups of automorphisms of the spectral presheaf, in particular those arising from one-parameter groups of inner automorphisms of the algebra. We interpret the spectral presheaf as a (generalised) state space for a quantum system and show how one can use flows on the spectral presheaf and on associated structures to describe the time evolution of non-relativistic quantum systems, both in the Schrödinger picture and the Heisenberg picture.
In the topos approach to quantum theory of Doering and Isham the Kochen-Specker Theorem, which asserts the contextual nature of quantum theory, can be reformulated in terms of the global sections of a presheaf characterised by the Gelfand spectrum of a commutative C*-algebra. In previous work we showed how this topos perspective can be generalised to a class of categories typically studied within the monoidal approach to quantum theory of Abramsky and Coecke, and in particular how one can generalise the Gelfand spectrum. Here we study the Gelfand spectrum presheaf for categories of quantale-valued relations, and by considering its global sections we give a non-contextuality result for these categories. We also show that the Gelfand spectrum comes equipped with a topology which has a natural interpretation when thinking of these structures as representing physical theories.
For each quantum system described by an operator algebra [Formula: see text] of physical quantities, we provide a (generalized) state space, notwithstanding the Kochen-Specker theorem. This quantum state space is the spectral presheaf [Formula: see text]. We formulate the time evolution of quantum systems in terms of Hamiltonian flows on this generalized space and explain how the structure of the spectral presheaf [Formula: see text] geometrically mirrors the double role played by self-adjoint operators in quantum theory, as quantum random variables and as generators of time evolution.
Abstract Spectral automorphisms have been introduced in [IVANOV, A.—CARAGHEORGHEOPOL, D.: Spectral automorphisms in quantum logics, Internat. J. Theoret. Phys. 49 (2010), 3146–3152]_in an attempt to construct, in the abstract framework of orthomodular lattices, an analogue of the spectral theory in Hilbert spaces. We generalize spectral automorphisms to the framework of effect algebras with compression bases and study their properties. Characterizations of spectral automorphisms as well as necessary conditions for an automorphism to be spectral are given. An example of a spectral automorphism on the standard effect algebra of a finite-dimensional Hilbert space is discussed and the consequences of spectrality of an automorphism for the unitary Hilbert space operator that generates it are shown. The last section is devoted to spectral families of automorphisms and their properties, culminating with the formulation and proof of a Stone type theorem (in the sense of Stone’s theorem on strongly continuous one-parameter unitary groups — see, e.g. [REED, M.#x2014;SIMON, B.: Methods of Modern Mathematical Physics, Vol. I, Acad. Press, New York, 1975]) for a group of spectral automorphisms.
Observable properties of a classical physical system can be modelled deterministically as functions from the space of pure states to outcome values; dually, states can be modelled as functions from the algebra of observables to outcome values. The probabilistic predictions of quantum physics are contextual in that they preclude this classical assumption of reality: noncommuting observables, which are not assumed to be jointly measurable, cannot be consistently ascribed deterministic values even if one enriches the description of a quantum state. Here, we consider the geometrically dual objects of noncommutative operator algebras of observables as being generalisations of classical (deterministic) state spaces to the quantum setting and argue that these generalised state spaces represent the objects of study of noncommutative operator geometry. By adapting the spectral presheaf of Hamilton–Isham–Butterfield, a formulation of quantum state space that collates contextual data, we reconstruct tools of noncommutative geometry in an explicitly geometric fashion. In this way, we bridge the foundations of quantum mechanics with the foundations of noncommutative geometry à la Connes et al. To each unital C*- algebra A{\mathcal{A}}A we associate a geometric object—a diagram of topological spaces collating quotient spaces of the noncommutative space underlying A{\mathcal{A}}A —that performs the role of a generalised Gel'fand spectrum. We show how any functor F from compact Hausdorff spaces to a suitable target category C{\mathsf{C}}C can be applied directly to these geometric objects to automatically yield an extension F~{\tilde{F}}F~ acting on all unital C*-algebras. This procedure is used to give a novel formulation of the operator K0-functor via a finitary variant K~f{\tilde{K}_{ f}}K~f​ of the extension K~{\tilde{K}}K~ of the topological K-functor. We then delineate a C*-algebraic conjecture that the extension of the functor that assigns to a topological space its lattice of open sets assigns to a unital C*-algebra the Zariski topological lattice of its primitive ideal spectrum, i.e. its lattice of closed two-sided ideals. We prove the von Neumann algebraic analogue of this conjecture.
Following the work of P. Bona [J. Math. Phys. 29, 2223 (1988)], a class of infinite mean-field quantum lattice systems is considered within the framework of algebraic quantum mechanics, and the following question is discussed: Which are the possible dynamical descriptions of the system, i.e., in which representations π of the system’s quasilocal C*-algebra 𝒜 do the local time evolutions converge in the thermodynamic limit to an automorphism group of a certain enlarged C*-algebra 𝒞π containing π(𝒜) and (some of) the classical observables of the system in π. To this end we associate a ‘‘classical state space’’ Eπ to any representation π (which is a subset of the phase-space E⊇RL defined by Bona for the largest possible representation), and show how it is characterized by the π-normal states, thereby obtaining a way to determine Eπ explicitly in many cases. The answer to the question posed then reads: The limiting (Heisenberg) dynamics exists in π on 𝒞π if and only if the set Eπ is invariant under the flow φQt on E which describes the time evolution of classical observables. Conversely, to any invariant, closed subset B of E, there exists a dynamical description of the quantum system with classical state space B.
After a brief introduction to the spectral presheaf, which serves as an analogue of state space in the topos approach to quantum theory, we show that every state of the von Neumann algebra of physical quantities of a quantum system determines a certain measure on the spectral presheaf of the system. The so-called clopen subobjects of the spectral presheaf play the role of measurable sets. Measures on the spectral presheaf can be characterised abstractly, and the main result is that every abstract measure induces a unique state of the von Neumann algebra. Finally, we show how quantum-theoretical expectation values can be calculated from measures associated to quantum states.