Quantum effects are represented by operators on a Hilbert space satisfying 0⩽A⩽I, and sharp quantum effects are represented by projection operators. We say that an effect A is almost sharp if A=PQP for projections P and Q. We give simple characterizations of almost sharp effects. We also characterize effects that can be written as longer products of projections. For generality we first work in the formalism of von Neumann algebras. We then specialize to the full operator algebra B(H) and to finite dimensional Hilbert spaces.
Quantum effects are represented by operators on a Hilbert space satisfying 0⩽A⩽I, and sharp quantum effects are represented by projection operators. We say that an effect A is almost sharp if A=PQP for projections P and Q. We give simple characterizations of almost sharp effects. We also characterize effects that can be written as longer products of projections. For generality we first work in the formalism of von Neumann algebras. We then specialize to the full operator algebra B(H) and to finite dimensional Hilbert spaces.
A quantum effect is an operator A on a complex Hilbert space H that satisfies 0⩽A⩽I. We denote the set of quantum effects by E(H). The set of self-adjoint projection operators on H corresponds to sharp effects and is denoted by P(H). We define the sequential product of A,B∈E(H) by A∘B=A1/2BA1/2. The main purpose of this article is to study some of the algebraic properties of the sequential product. Many of our results show that algebraic conditions on A∘B imply that A and B commute for the usual operator product. For example, if A∘B satisfies certain distributive or associative laws, then AB=BA. Moreover, if A∘B∈P(H), then AB=BA and A∘B=B or B∘A=B if and only if AB=BA=B. A natural definition of stochastic independence is introduced and briefly studied.
List of Figures. List of Tables. Preface. Acknowledgements. I: Mathematical and Physical Background. Introduction. 1. The mathematical scenario of quantum theory and von Neumann's axiomatization. 1.1. Algebraic structures. 1.2. The geometry of quantum theory. 1.3. The axiomatization of orthodox QT. 1.4. The 'logic' of the quantum events. 1.5. The logico-algebraic approach to QT. 2. Abstract axiomatic foundations of sharp QT. 2.1. Mackey's minimal axiomatization of QT. 2.2. Events. 2.3. Event-state systems. 2.4. Event-state systems and preclusivity spaces. 3. Back to Hilbert space. 3.1. Events as closed subspaces. 3.2. Events as projections. 3.3. Hilbert event-state systems. 3.4. From abstract orthoposets of events to Hilbert lattices. 4. The emergence of fuzzy events in Hilbert space quantum theory. 4.1. The notion of effect. 4.2. Effect-Brouwer Zadeh posets. 4.3. MacNeille completions. 4.4. Unsharp preclusivity spaces. 5. Effect algebras and quantum MV algebras. 5.1. Effect algebras and Brouwer Zadeh effect algebras. 5.2. The Lukasiewwicz operations. 5.3. MV algebras and QMV algebras. 5.4. Quasi-linear QMV algebras and effect algebras. 6. Abstract axiomatic foundations of unsharp quantum theory. 6.1. A minimal axiomatization of unsharp QT. 6.2. The algebraic structure of abstract effects. 6.3. The sharply dominating principle. 6.4. Abstract unsharp preclusivity spaces. 6.5. Sharp and unsharp abstract quantum theory. 7. To what extent is quantum ambiguity ambiguous? 7.1. Algebraic notions of 'sharp'. 7.2. Probabilistic definitions of 'sharpness'. II: Quantum Logics as Logic. Introduction. 8. Sharp quantum logics. 8.1. Algebraic and Kripkean semantics for sharp quantum logics. 8.2. Algebraic and Kripkean realizations of Hilbert event-state systems. 8.3. The implication problem in quantum logic. 8.4. Five polynomial conditions. 8.5. The quantum logical conditional as a counterfactual conditional. 8.6. Implication-connectives. 9. Metalogical properties and anomalies of quantum logic. 9.1. The failure of the Lindenbaum properety. 9.2. A modal interpretation of sharp quantum logics. 10. An axiomatization of OL and OQL. 10.1. The calculi of OL and OQL. 10.2. The soundness and completeness theorems. 11. The metalogical intractability of orthomodularity. 11.1. Orthomodularity is not elementary. 11.2. The embeddability problem. 11.3. Hilbert quantum logic and the orthomodular law. 12. First-order quantum logics and quantum set theories. 12.1. First-order semantics. 12.2. Quantum set theories. 13. Partial classical logic, the Lindenbaum property and the hidden variable problem. 13.1. Partial classical logic. 13.2. Partial classical logic and the Lindenbaum property. 13.3. States on partial Boolean algebras. 13.4. The Lindenbaum property and the hidden variable problem. 14. Unsharp quantum logics. 14.1.
We study the sequential product the operation p∗q=pqp on the set of effects, [0, 1]𝒜, of a von Neumann algebra 𝒜 that represents sequential measurement of first p and then q. In their work [J. Math. Phys. 49(5), 052106 (2008)], Gudder and Latrémolière give a list of axioms based on physical grounds that completely determines the sequential product on a von Neumann algebra of type I, that is, a von Neumann algebra ℬ(ℋ) of all bounded operators on some Hilbert space ℋ. In this paper we give a list of axioms that completely determines the sequential product on all von Neumann algebras simultaneously (Theorem 4).
Abstract. I present a measure of the sharpness of an effect A as a function A↦ → S(A) that assumes values between 0 and 1 such that S(A) = 0 exactly when A is trivial and S(A) = 1 exactly when A is a nontrivial projection. This is followed by a list of open questions arising from this definition. 1. General Let H be a complex separable Hilbert space with inner product 〈 ϕ | ψ 〉, ϕ, ψ ∈ H. An effect is a selfadjoint operator A acting on H with the property that ≤ A ≤. Here and are the null and identity operators, respectively, and the partial order A ≤ B is defined as 〈ϕ|Aϕ 〉 ≤ 〈ϕ|Bϕ 〉, stipulated for all ϕ ∈ H. States are represented by positive operators T of trace equal to one, the convex set of all states being denoted S(H). The extreme elements of S(H) are the vector states, that is the rank-one projections T = |ϕ 〉〈ϕ|, where ϕ is any unit vector of H. An effect A together with a state T gives the number tr[TA] ∈ [0, 1], which represents the probability for an outcome of a measurement performed on the state T. The set of effects E(H) is thus the operator interval [ , ] with respect to ≤,
A quantum effect is an operator A on a complex Hilbert space H that satisfies 0≤A≤I, E(H) is the set of all quantum effects on H. In 2001, Professor Gudder and Nagy studied the sequential product A∘B=A1/2BA1/2 of A,B∈E(H). In 2005, Professor Gudder asked: Is A∘B=A1/2BA1/2 the only sequential product on E(H)? Recently, Liu and Wu presented an example to show that the answer is negative. In this paper, firstly, we characterize some algebraic properties of the abstract sequential product on E(H); secondly, we present a general method for constructing sequential products on E(H); finally, we study some properties of the sequential products constructed by the method
This paper examines how logical structures represent sharp and unsharp propositions in classical and quantum systems. Classical sharp logic is modeled by Boolean algebras, where propositions have bivalent truth values, complements are globally defined, and distributivity holds. Quantum sharp logic is modeled by orthomodular lattices of closed Hilbert-space subspaces or projection operators; it retains definite yes–no outcomes for ideal measurements but rejects the Boolean assumptions of global truth valuation and distributivity. Classical unsharp logic uses fuzzy membership or probabilistic truth values to describe vagueness and incomplete information, whereas quantum unsharp logic is expressed through effects and effect algebras, which capture noisy, inefficient, and generalized measurements. The paper’s central question is which algebraic structure is appropriate for each combination of classical or quantum behavior and sharp or unsharp measurement. The analysis shows that the four cases form a coherent hierarchy: Boolean algebras describe deterministic classical events, orthomodular lattices describe ideal quantum propositions, fuzzy or probabilistic models describe classical partial truth, and effect algebras describe realistic quantum effects. This classification clarifies the mathematical and physical role of unsharpness and explains why effect algebras are needed beyond projection-based quantum logic.