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arXiv:2111.02166 · Quantum

Spectral resolutions in effect algebras

Anna Jenčová, Sylvia Pulmannová

Published Nov 3, 2022• 4 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Effect algebras were introduced as an abstract algebraic model for Hilbert space effects representing quantum mechanical measurements. We study additional structures on an effect algebra E that enable us to define spectrality and spectral resolutions for elements of E akin to those of self-adjoint operators. These structures, called compression bases, are special families of maps on E , analogous to the set of compressions on operator algebras, order unit spaces or unital abelian groups. Elements of a compression base are in one-to-one correspondence with certain elements of E , called projections. An effect algebra is called spectral if it has a distinguished compression base with two special properties: the projection cover property (i.e., for every element a in E there is a smallest projection majorizing a ), and the so-called b-comparability property, which is an analogue of general comparability in operator algebras or unital abelian groups. It is shown that in a spectral archimedean effect algebra E , every a∈E admits a unique rational spectral resolution and its properties are studied. If in addition E possesses a separating set of states, then every element a∈E is determined by its spectral resolution. It is also proved that for some types of interval effect algebras (with RDP, archimedean divisible), spectrality of E is equivalent to spectrality of its universal group and the corresponding rational spectral resolutions are the same. In particular, for convex archimedean effect algebras, spectral resolutions in E are in agreement with spectral resolutions in the corresponding order unit space.

DOI
10.22331/q-2022-11-03-849

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Effect algebras were introduced as an abstract algebraic model for Hilbert space effects representing quantum mechanical measurements. We study additional structures on an effect algebra E that enable us to define spectrality and spectral resolutions for elements of E akin to those of self-adjoint operators. These structures, called compression bases, are special families of maps on E , analogous to the set of compressions on operator algebras, order unit spaces or unital abelian groups. Elements of a compression base are in one-to-one correspondence with certain elements of E , called projections. An effect algebra is called spectral if it has a distinguished compression base with two special properties: the projection cover property (i.e., for every element a in E there is a smallest projection majorizing a ), and the so-called b-comparability property, which is an analogue of general comparability in operator algebras or unital abelian groups. It is shown that in a spectral archimedean effect algebra E , every a∈E admits a unique rational spectral resolution and its properties are studied. If in addition E possesses a separating set of states, then every element a∈E is determined by its spectral resolution. It is also proved that for some types of interval effect algebras (with RDP, archimedean divisible), spectrality of E is equivalent to spectrality of its universal group and the corresponding rational spectral resolutions are the same. In particular, for convex archimedean effect algebras, spectral resolutions in E are in agreement with spectral resolutions in the corresponding order unit space.
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.
Abstract For convex and sequential effect algebras, we study spectrality in the sense of Foulis. We show that under additional conditions (strong archimedeanity, closedness in norm and a certain monotonicity property of the sequential product), such effect algebra is spectral if and only if every maximal commutative subalgebra is monotone σ\sigma σ σ -complete. Two previous results on existence of spectral resolutions in this setting are shown to require stronger assumptions.
The aim of this paper is to show that there can be either only one or uncountably many contexts in any spectral effect algebra, answering a question posed in [S. Gudder, Convex and Sequential Effect Algebras, (2018), arXiv:1802.01265]. We also provide some results on the structure of spectral effect algebras and their state spaces and investigate the direct products and direct convex sums of spectral effect algebras. In the case of spectral effect algebras with sharply determining state space, stronger properties can be proved: the spectral decompositions are essentially unique, the algebra is sharply dominating and the set of its sharp elements is an orthomodular lattice. The article also contains a list of open questions that might provide interesting future research directions.
It has already been established that the properties required of an abstract sequential product as introduced by Gudder and Greechie are not enough to characterise the standard sequential product a◦b=aba on an operator algebra. We give three additional properties, each of which characterises the standard sequential product on either a von Neumann algebra or a Euclidean Jordan algebra. These properties are (1) invariance under the application of unital order isomorphisms, (2) symmetry of the sequential product with respect to a certain inner product, and (3) preservation of invertibility of the effects. To give these characterisations, we first have to study convex σ-sequential effect algebras. We show that these objects correspond to unit intervals of spectral order unit spaces with a homogeneous positive cone.
Observables of a quantum system, described by self-adjoint operators in a von Neumann algebra or affiliated with it in the unbounded case, form a conditionally complete lattice when equipped with the spectral order. Using this order-theoretic structure, we develop a new perspective on quantum observables. In this first paper (of two), we show that self-adjoint operators affiliated with a von Neumann algebra can equivalently be described as certain real-valued functions on the projection lattice of the algebra, which we call q-observable functions. Bounded self-adjoint operators correspond to q-observable functions with compact image on non-zero projections. These functions, originally defined in a similar form by de Groote, are most naturally seen as adjoints (in the categorical sense) of spectral families. We show how they relate to the daseinisation mapping from the topos approach to quantum theory. Moreover, the q-observable functions form a conditionally complete lattice which is shown to be order-isomorphic to the lattice of self-adjoint operators with respect to the spectral order. In a subsequent paper, we will give an interpretation of q-observable functions in terms of quantum probability theory, and using results from the topos approach to quantum theory, we will provide a joint sample space for all quantum observables.
An often used model for quantum theory is to associate to every physical system a C ∗ -algebra. From a physical point of view it is unclear why operator algebras would form a good description of nature. In this paper, we find a set of physically meaningful assumptions such that any physical theory satisfying these assumptions must embed into the category of finite-dimensional C ∗ -algebras. These assumptions were originally introduced in the setting of effectus theory, a categorical logical framework generalizing classical and quantum logic. As these assumptions have a physical interpretation, this motivates the usage of operator algebras as a model for quantum theory.In contrast to other reconstructions of quantum theory, we do not start with the framework of generalized probabilistic theories and instead use effect theories where no convex structure and no tensor product needs to be present. The lack of this structure in effectus theory has led to a different notion of pure maps. A map in an effectus is pure when it is a composition of a compression and a filter. These maps satisfy particular universal properties and respectively correspond to `forgetting' and `measuring' the validity of an effect.We define a pure effect theory (PET) to be an effect theory where the pure maps form a dagger-category and filters and compressions are adjoint. We show that any convex finite-dimensional PET must embed into the category of Euclidean Jordan algebras. Moreover, if the PET also has monoidal structure, then we show that it must embed into either the category of real or complex C ∗ -algebras, which completes our reconstruction.