Let H be a Hilbert space and E(H) the effect algebra on H, that is, E(H) is the set of all self-adjoint operators A: H→H satisfying 0⩽A⩽I. The effect algebra can be equipped with several operations and relations that are important in mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics. Automorphisms with respect to these operations or relations are called symmetries. We present a new method that can be used to describe the general form of such maps. The main idea is to reduce this kind of problem to the study of adjacency-preserving maps. The efficiency of this approach is illustrated by reproving some known results as well as by obtaining some new theorems.
Let H be a Hilbert space and E(H) the effect algebra on H, that is, E(H) is the set of all self-adjoint operators A: H→H satisfying 0⩽A⩽I. The effect algebra can be equipped with several operations and relations that are important in mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics. Automorphisms with respect to these operations or relations are called symmetries. We present a new method that can be used to describe the general form of such maps. The main idea is to reduce this kind of problem to the study of adjacency-preserving maps. The efficiency of this approach is illustrated by reproving some known results as well as by obtaining some new theorems.
Let H be a Hilbert space and E ( H ) the effect algebra on H . A bijective map is called an ortho-order automorphism of E ( H ) if for every we have and . The classical theorem of Ludwig states that every such ϕ is of the form , , for some unitary or antiunitary operator U . It is also known that each bijective map on E ( H ) preserving order and coexistency in both directions is of the same form. Can we improve these two theorems by relaxing the bijectivity assumption and/or replacing the above preserving properties by the weaker assumptions of preserving above relations in one direction only and still get the same conclusion? For both characterizations of automorphisms of effect algebras we will prove the optimal versions and give counterexamples showing the optimality of the obtained results.
Symmetry in quantum mechanicsRoughly speaking, a symmetry of some mathematical object is an invertible transformation that leaves all relevant structure as it is.Thus a symmetry of a set is just a bijection (as sets have no further structure, whence invertibility is the only demand on a symmetry), a symmetry of a topological space is a homeomorphism, a symmetry of a Banach space is a linear isometric isomorphism, and, crucially important for this chapter, a symmetry of a Hilbert space H is a unitary operator, i.e., a linear map u : H → H satisfying one and hence all of the following equivalent conditions:• u is invertible and preserves the inner product, i.e., uϕ, uψ = ϕ, ψ (ϕ, ψ ∈ H).The discussion of symmetries in quantum physics is based on the above idea, but the mathematically obvious choices need not be the physically relevant ones.Even in elementary quantum mechanics, where A = B(H), i.e., the C*-algebra of all bounded operators on some Hilbert space H, the concept of a symmetry is already diverse.The main structures whose symmetries we shall study in this chapter are:1.The normal pure state space P 1 (H), i.e., the set of one-dimensional projections on H, with transition probability τ : P 1 (H) × P 1 (H) → [0, 1] defined by (2.44).2. The normal state space D(H), i.e. the convex set of density operators ρ on H. The self-adjoint operators B(H)sa on H, seen as a Jordan algebra (see below).4. The effects E (H) = [0, 1] B(H) , seen as a convex partially ordered set (poset). 5.The projections P(H) on H, seen as an orthocomplemented lattice.6.The unital commutative C*-subalgebras C (B(H)) of B(H), seen as a poset.Each of these structures comes with its own notion of a symmetry, but the main point of this chapter will be to show these notions are equivalent, corresponding in all cases to either unitary or-surprisingly-anti-unitary operators, both merely defined up to a phase.The latter subtlety will open the world of projective unitary group representation to quantum mechanics (without which the existence of spin-1 2 particles such as electrons, and therewith also of ourselves, would be impossible).
Abstract The Hilbert space effect algebra is a fundamental mathematical structure which is used to describe unsharp quantum measurements in Ludwig’s formulation of quantum mechanics. Each effect represents a quantum (fuzzy) event. The relation of coexistence plays an important role in this theory, as it expresses when two quantum events can be measured together by applying a suitable apparatus. This paper’s first goal is to answer a very natural question about this relation, namely, when two effects are coexistent with exactly the same effects? The other main aim is to describe all automorphisms of the effect algebra with respect to the relation of coexistence. In particular, we will see that they can differ quite a lot from usual standard automorphisms, which appear for instance in Ludwig’s theorem. As a byproduct of our methods we also strengthen a theorem of Molnár.
Let H be a finite-dimensional Hilbert space, dimH≥2. We prove that every continuous coexistency preserving map on the effect algebra E(H) is either a standard automorphism of E(H), or a standard automorphism of E(H) composed with the orthocomplementation. We present examples showing the optimality of the result.
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.
This work is a study on the symmetry groups of quantum mechanics accompanied by its applications on the coexistence of qubit effects. We surveyed among some of the mappings known as preservers on the set of quantum effects for their role in conserving specific structures that are important in quantum mechanics. Since the preserves in this work mainly target the quantum effects, we provided principals of its corresponding algebra known as effect algebra. Then we advanced, to study the relations between some of these preservers (here we mean automorphisms) by channels operate on qubit effects. The channels are in convex form and we investigate the role of their convex parameters in conserving or breaking the coexistence of two qubit effects. The preserver that we are interested in is a bijective map which preserves the order and coexistence of effects in both directions. Of course, the coexistence of qubit effects can also be studied in the language of coexistence and compatibility of observables. Then our task is to study the coexistence of observables when there are only two effects in their outcome sets. This task has been studied for observables with arbitrary number of effects in their outcome sets [48]. The bounds they have found for the channels convex parameters are independent of that number. However, when the case narrows for limited number outcomes no analytic solution is available, and the study should be carried numerically. Here, we considered observables each having only two nontrivial effects in their out come sets, and asked for the demanding conditions that break their compatibility partially or completely.