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arXiv:1609.09723 · Physical Review A

Composing decoherence functionals

Paul Boës, Miguel Navascués

Published Feb 13, 2017• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Quantum measure theory (QMT) is a generalization of quantum theory where physical predictions are computed from a matrix known as the decoherence functional (DF). Previous works have noted that, in its original formulation, QMT exhibits a problem with composability, since the composition of two decoherence functionals is, in general, not a valid decoherence functional. This does not occur when the DFs in question happen to be positive semidefinite (a condition known as strong positivity). In this paper, we study the concept of composability of DFs and its consequences for QMT. Firstly, we show that the problem of composability is much deeper than originally envisaged, since, for any $n$, there exists a DF that can coexist with $n\ensuremath{-}1$ copies of itself, but not with $n$. Secondly, we prove that the set of strongly positive DFs cannot be enlarged while remaining closed under composition. Furthermore, any closed set of DFs containing all quantum DFs can only contain strongly positive DFs.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.95.022114

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Quantum measure theory (QMT) is a generalization of quantum theory where physical predictions are computed from a matrix known as the decoherence functional (DF). Previous works have noted that, in its original formulation, QMT exhibits a problem with composability, since the composition of two decoherence functionals is, in general, not a valid decoherence functional. This does not occur when the DFs in question happen to be positive semidefinite (a condition known as strong positivity). In this paper, we study the concept of composability of DFs and its consequences for QMT. Firstly, we show that the problem of composability is much deeper than originally envisaged, since, for any nnn, there exists a DF that can coexist with n\ensuremath−1n\ensuremath{-}1n\ensuremath−1 copies of itself, but not with nnn. Secondly, we prove that the set of strongly positive DFs cannot be enlarged while remaining closed under composition. Furthermore, any closed set of DFs containing all quantum DFs can only contain strongly positive DFs.
We give an argument for strong positivity of the decoherence functional as the correct, physical positivity condition in formulations of quantum theory based fundamentally on the path integral. We extend to infinite systems work by Boës and Navascués that shows that the set of strongly positive quantum systems is maximal among sets of systems that are closed under tensor product composition. We show further that the set of strongly positive quantum systems is the unique set that is maximal among the sets that are closed under tensor product composition.
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.
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.
In this thesis we will explore the development of a realist quantum theory based on the decoherence functional using the co-event interpretation of Quantum Measure Theory. The Sum-Over-Histories theory of quantum mechanics will provide the bedding for a Hilbert-space-free stochastic-like theory that can accommodate spacetime-like objects, and can therefore be applied to quantum gravity and cosmology, as well as give an alternative perspective on quantum phenomena. The primitive objects of the theory are histories, which give different accounts of a system’s evolution, and the decoherence functional, which sums the quantum interference between these histories. Quantum Measure Theory and Generalised Quantum Mechanics (a theory close to Decoherent Histories) then give alternative interpretations of the decoherence functional’s relation to reality. In these theories, the decoherence functional is mathematically constrained in analogue to probability measures. However, one of the conditions, called weak positivity, can be lost under composition of isolated systems. We will extend this composition argument to take the case for a stronger condition of strong positivity for decoherence functionals. The bulk of the report will then focus on the co-event interpretation of Quantum Measure Theory, where co-events give full accounts of which events do or do not occur for a given system. The quantum nature of reality is expressed through the breaking of classical logic within these co-event descriptions. We will focus on evolving co-event schemes, which dynamically construct co-events to describe the reality of an evolving system in tandem with its progression. The evolving co-event schemes will be shown to reproduce classical logic when they are applied to classical systems. Moreover, similar to classical stochastic theory, these schemes will be shown to be invariant under the inclusion or exclusion of non-interfering histories. We will also explore a number of outstanding problems for these schemes, and will propose some potential modifications.
We introduce a generalized theory of decoherence-free subspaces and subsystems (DFSs), which do not require accurate initialization. We derive a set of conditions for the existence of DFSs within this generalized framework. By relaxing the initialization requirement we show that a DFS can tolerate arbitrarily large preparation errors. This has potentially significant implications for experiments involving DFSs, in particular for the experimental implementation, over DFSs, of the large class of quantum algorithms which can function with arbitrary input states.
We show that quantum measures and integrals appear naturally in any L2-Hilbert space H. We begin by defining a decoherence operator D(A, B) and it’s associated q-measure operator µ(A) = D(A, A) on H. We show that these operators have certain positivity, additivity and continuity properties. If ρ is a state on H, then Dρ(A, B) = tr [ρD(A, B)] and µρ(A) = Dρ(A, A) have the usual properties of a decoherence functional and q-measure, respectively. The quantization of a random variable f is defined to be a certain self-adjoint operator fb on H. Continuity and additivity properties of the map f 7→ fb are discussed. It is shown that if f is nonnegative, then fb is a positive operator. A quantum integral is de- fined by R f dµρ = tr(ρfb). A tail-sum formula is proved for the quantum integral. The paper closes with an example that illustrates some of the theory.