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Journal of Symbolic Logic

Abacus logic: The lattice of quantum propositions as the poset of a theory

Othman Qasim Malhas

Published Jun 1, 1994• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract With a certain graphic interpretation in mind, we say that a function whose value at every point in its domain is a nonempty set of real numbers is an Abacus. It is shown that to every collection C of abaci there corresponds a logic, called an abacus logic, i.e.. a certain set of propositions partially ordered by generalized implication. It is also shown that to every collection C of abaci there corresponds a theory Jc in a classical propositional calculus such that the abacus logic determined by C is isomorphic to the poset of Jc. Two examples are given. In both examples abacus logic is a lattice in which there happens to be an operation of orthocomplementation. In the first example abacus logic turns out to be the Lindenbaum algebra of Jc. In the second example abacus logic is a lattice isomorphic to the ortholattice of subspaces of a Hilbert space. Thus quantum logic can be regarded as an abacus logic. Without suggesting “hidden variables” it is finally shown that the Lindenbaum algebra of the theory in the second example is a subalgebra of the abacus logic B of the kind studied in example 1. It turns out that the “classical observables” associated with B and the “quantum observables” associated with quantum logic are not unrelated. The value of a classical observable contains, in coded form, information about the “uncertainty” of a quantum observable. This information is retrieved by decoding the value of the corresponding classical observable.

DOI
10.2307/2275403

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Abstract With a certain graphic interpretation in mind, we say that a function whose value at every point in its domain is a nonempty set of real numbers is an Abacus. It is shown that to every collection C of abaci there corresponds a logic, called an abacus logic, i.e.. a certain set of propositions partially ordered by generalized implication. It is also shown that to every collection C of abaci there corresponds a theory Jc in a classical propositional calculus such that the abacus logic determined by C is isomorphic to the poset of Jc. Two examples are given. In both examples abacus logic is a lattice in which there happens to be an operation of orthocomplementation. In the first example abacus logic turns out to be the Lindenbaum algebra of Jc. In the second example abacus logic is a lattice isomorphic to the ortholattice of subspaces of a Hilbert space. Thus quantum logic can be regarded as an abacus logic. Without suggesting “hidden variables” it is finally shown that the Lindenbaum algebra of the theory in the second example is a subalgebra of the abacus logic B of the kind studied in example 1. It turns out that the “classical observables” associated with B and the “quantum observables” associated with quantum logic are not unrelated. The value of a classical observable contains, in coded form, information about the “uncertainty” of a quantum observable. This information is retrieved by decoding the value of the corresponding classical observable.
It has been shown by Birkhoff and v. Neumann (1936) and by Jauch and Piron (1963,1964,1968) that the subspaces of Hilbert space constitute an orthocomplemented quasi-modular lattice Lq, if one considers between two subspaces (elements) a, b the relation a⊆b and the operations a∩b, a∪b, a⊥. Furthermore, since the subspaces can be interpreted as quantum mechanical propositions, and since the operations ∩,∪ ,⊥ have some similarity with the logical operations ⋀ (and), ⋁ (or) and ⌝ (not), the question has been raised already by Birkhoff and v. Neumann, whether the lattice of subspaces of Hilbert space can be interpreted as a propositional calculus, sometimes called quantum logic. There are many kinds of lattices which can be interpreted as a propositional or logical calculus. A Boolean lattice LB of propositions corresponds to the calculus of classical logic and an implicative (Birkhoff, 1961) lattice Li has as a model the calculus of effective (intuitionistic) logic.
According to quantum mechanics, the pure states of a microsystem are represented by vectors in a Hilbert Space. Sentences of the form, "x є L" (where x is the state vector for a system, L a subspace of the appropriate Hilbert space), may be called Q-propositions: such sentences serve to summarise our information about the results of possible experiments on the system. Quantum logic investigates the relations which hold among the Q-propositions about a given physical sys tem. These logical relations correspond to algebraic relations among the subspaces of Hilbert space. The algebra of this set of subspaces is non-Boolean, and may be regarded either as an orthomodular lattice or as a partial Boolean algebra. With each type of structure we can associate a logic. A general approach to the semantics for such a logic is provided in terms of interpretations of a formal language within an algebraic structure; an interpretation maps sentences of the language homomorphically onto elements of the structure. When the structure in question is a Boolean algera, the resulting logic is classical; here we develop a semantics for the logic associated with partial Boolean algebras. Two systems of proof, based on the natural deduction systems of Gentzen, are shown for this logic. With respect to the given sematics, these calculi are sound and weakly complete. Strong completeness is conjectured. Quantum logic deals with the logical relations between sentences, and so is properly called a logic. However, it is the logic appropriate to a limited class of sentences: proposals that it should replace classical logic wherever the latter is used should be viewed with suspicion.
Sentences Associated with a Quantum System and Their Truth Values In a sense this chapter is marginal to the content of this volume; the reader can skip it without prejudice to the comprehension of chapters to follow. Quantum logic is a discipline that branched off from the 1936 paper of Birkhoff and von Neumann and has the orthomodular-poset structures encountered in previous chapters as basic mathematical carriers: that is why we think it worthwhile to devote some pages to the subject. But the main interests quantum logic calls into play are in the territory of logicians and philosophers: that is why we (who are neither logicians nor philosophers) shall confine ourselves to a very simplified introduction to the subject. Roughly, the starting question is whether the propositions of a quantum system can be associated with, or can be interpreted as, sentences of a language (or propositional calculus) and which rules this language inherits from the ordered structure of propositions. In raising this question one has in mind the fact that when the physical system is classical its propositions form a Boolean algebra, and Boolean algebras are the algebraic models of the calculus of classical logic. Thus the question above can also be phrased as follows: when a Boolean algebra is relaxed into an orthomodular nondistributive lattice, which logic is it the model of? “Quantum logic” is the name that designates the answer, but there are several views about the content of this name. Here we sketch one approach to a quantum logic.
This article employs a descriptive-analytical method with an algebraic and axiomatic approach to address quantum logic. Through several thought experiments, it is demonstrated that the distributive law for propositions does not hold in quantum mechanics. Therefore, the logic governing this domain of science is not classical logic. In fact, the algebra corresponding to the logic of quantum propositions is an orthomodular lattice, which is why the distributive law is not necessarily valid for such propositions. In quantum logic, various definitions are offered for the implication operator. Since none of these operators satisfy the deduction theorem, a suitable implication operator with this property must be defined. This objective is achieved by defining a unified quantum logic. By constructing a Lindenbaum-Tarski algebra for this unified quantum logic, it can be shown that it is indeed a quantum logic. Dishkant presented an embedding of quantum logic into the Br-modal logic system. This provides an appropriate semantics for quantum logic. A suitable model for this logic is the closed subspaces of a Hilbert space.
The logical structures studied in this paper are generalizations of the propositional calculus. The classical propositional calculus is essentially Boolean algebra or, alternatively, the theory of functions on an arbitrary set S with values in a two-element set. The generalization consists in allowing partial functions on the set S , i.e., functions defined on certain subsets of S , and defining an equivalence relation among these functions such that any two constant functions with the same constant value belong to the same equivalence class. The generalization is equally natural for functions with values in the field of real numbers and we shall consider this case first. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.