Covariant observables and instruments

Claudio Carmeli, Teiko Heinosaari, Alessandro Toigo

Jaeseong Heo, Un Cig Ji

Erkka Haapasalo, Juha-Pekka Pellonpää

Abstract We discuss symmetric quantum measurements and the associated covariant observables modelled, respectively, as instruments and positive-operator-valued measures. The emphasis of this work are the optimality properties of the measurements, namely, extremality, informational completeness, and the rank-1 property which contrast the complementary class of (rank-1) projection-valued measures. The first half of this work concentrates solely on finite-outcome measurements symmetric w.r.t. finite groups where we derive exhaustive characterizations for the pointwise Kraus-operators of covariant instruments and necessary and sufficient extremality conditions using these Kraus-operators. We motivate the use of covariance methods by showing that observables covariant with respect to symmetric groups contain a family of representatives from both of the complementary optimality classes of observables and show that even a slight deviation from a rank-1 projection-valued measure can yield an extreme informationally complete rank-1 observable. The latter half of this work derives similar results for continuous measurements in (possibly) infinite dimensions. As an example we study covariant phase space instruments, their structure, and extremality properties.

K. Heyde, John L. Wood

Erkka Haapasalo, Juha-Pekka Pellonpää

We study completely positive (CP) [Formula: see text]-sesquilinear-form-valued maps on a unital [Formula: see text]-algebra [Formula: see text], where the sesquilinear forms operate on a module over a [Formula: see text]-algebra [Formula: see text]. We also study the cases when either one or both of the algebras are von Neumann algebras. Moreover, we assume that the CP maps are covariant with respect to actions of a symmetry group. This allows us to view these maps as generalizations of covariant quantum instruments. We determine minimal covariant dilations (KSGNS constructions) for covariant CP maps to find necessary and sufficient conditions for a CP map to be extreme in convex subsets of normalized covariant CP maps. As a special case, we study covariant quantum observables and instruments whose value space is a transitive space of a unimodular type-I group. Finally, we discuss the case of instruments that are covariant with respect to a square-integrable representation.

Michael J. W. Hall, Marcel Reginatto