We develop a general algebraic method for investigating the diagonalizability of a composite-system observable in the, so-called, noncorrelated basis of the Hilbert state space of a composite ("two-body") quantum system. The method consists in rewriting a composite-system obsrvable in linear form, for which one directly and uniquely obtains an answer concerning the diagonalizability. The method has been applied to the analysis of the concept of separability of the interaction part of the Hamiltonian of the composite system, "quantum system plus environment (apparatus)". The application leads to a new (more precise) operational definition of separability, which represents a necessary condition concerning the occurrence of decoherence in the, so-called, orthodox approach to the theory of decoherence.
We develop a general algebraic method for investigating the diagonalizability of a composite-system observable in the, so-called, noncorrelated basis of the Hilbert state space of a composite ("two-body") quantum system. The method consists in rewriting a composite-system obsrvable in linear form, for which one directly and uniquely obtains an answer concerning the diagonalizability. The method has been applied to the analysis of the concept of separability of the interaction part of the Hamiltonian of the composite system, "quantum system plus environment (apparatus)". The application leads to a new (more precise) operational definition of separability, which represents a necessary condition concerning the occurrence of decoherence in the, so-called, orthodox approach to the theory of decoherence.
Within the decoherence theory we investigate the physical background of the condition of the separability (diagonalizability in noncorrelated basis) of the interaction Hamiltonian of the composite system, "system plus environment". It proves that the condition of the separability may serve as a criterion for defining "system", but so that "system" cannot be defined unless it is simultaneously defined with its "environment". When extended to a set of the mutually interacting composite systems, this result implies that the separability conditions of the local interactions are mutually tied. The task of defining "system" (and "environment") via investigating the separability of the Hamiltonian is a sort of the inverse task of the decoherence theory. A simple example of doing the task is given.
We investigate the conditions which can lead to the occurrence of "decoherence" (i.e., of "environment-induced superselection"), in a quantum system interacting with another, infinite quantum system (an apparatus, environment, etc.), in the context of the nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. We are particularly concerned with: a kind of interaction, its relative strength, initial state of the apparatus (environment), and compatibility of the self-Hamiltonian and the interaction Hamiltonian of the composite system, "system plus apparatus", including time dependent interactions. As necessary conditions concerning occurrence of decoherence appear the two requirements: (i) That the interaction Hamiltonian is of the separable kind , and (ii) That the complete Hamiltonian, Ĥ u satisfies commutator relation [Ĥ u ( t ), Ĥ u ( t ')] = 0 ( t and t ' arbitrary instants). Since non-separable interaction cannot produce the same, we conclude that occurrence of decoherence is neither a rule (as it is sometimes assumed in the context of the "environment theory"), nor an exceptional consequence of the dynamics of a system interacting with its environment (as it is sometimes claimed in the criticism of the environment theory). Exhaustiveness and generality of our analysis extend applicability of related results (which are independent on a particular model of (infinite) environment), at least as a qualitative test and/or quantitative estimation of the results of the calculations obtained by the use of the different methods (semiclassical methods, path-integration technique, etc.) in quantum many-particle physics.
G.A. RAGGIO Abstract. We give a brief and incomplete survey of the problem of entan- glement of of composite quantum systems. 1960's - 1980's there were serious attempts (all of them anticipated by J. von Neu- mann) to do away with the underlying Hilbert space and work directly with the abstract algebraic structure modeled by C � -algebras or W � -algebras (abstract von Neumann algebras)(1, 2, 3). This was particularly fruitful when dealing with sys- tems of infinitely many degrees of freedom (quantum fields, thermodynamic limits, etc.). The problem of entanglement which we want to address here can be formu- lated quite straightforwardly in this algebraic framework of quantum theory. But we will stick to the quantum mechanics of the 1930's and keep the Hilbert space. Mainly because the results which are available concern the finite dimensional case. The states of the quantum system specified by H are associated with the lin- ear functionals f : B(H) → C which are positive (i.e., f(a) ≥ 0 for all positive a ∈ B(H)), normalized (i.e., f(1) = 1) and normal (i.e., f(supn{an}) = supnf(an) for any increasing family of selfadjoint operators {an : n = 1,2, � � � } which is uni- formly bounded). It is this normality condition which guarantees that the are in one-to-one correspondence with positive trace class operators d of unit trace (density operators) via the formula B(H) ∋ a 7→ tr(da). This gives an extremely convenient representation of and one often confuses the state f as a linear functional with the associated density operator d for which f(a) = tr(da). States are automatically continuous, and satisfy f(a � ) = f(a). The complex number f(a) is interpreted probabilistically as the expected value of the observable associated with the operator a when the system is in the state f. The normalization condi- tion is thus necessary for the consistency of this interpretation and the normality condition is seen as a non-commutative version of the �-additivity of probability measures. Clearly states, which we will denote by �(H), form a convex set which is closed
Quantum mechanics is already 100 years old, but remains alive and full of challenging open problems. On one hand, the problems encountered at the frontiers of modern theoretical physics like quantum gravity, string theories, etc. concern quantum theory, and are at the same time related to open problems of modern mathematics. But even within non-relativistic quantum mechanics itself there are fundamental unresolved problems that can be formulated in elementary terms. These problems are also related to challenging open questions of modern mathematics; linear algebra and functional analysis in particular. Two of these problems will be discussed in this article: (a) the separability problem, i.e. the question when the state of a composite quantum system does not contain any quantum correlations or entanglement; and (b) the distillability problem, i.e. the question when the state of a composite quantum system can be transformed to an entangled pure state using local operations (local refers here to component subsystems of a given system). Although many results concerning the above mentioned problems have been obtained (in particular in the last few years in the framework of quantum information theory), both problems remain until now essentially open. We will present a primer on the current state of knowledge concerning these problems, and discuss the relation of these problems to one of the most challenging questions of linear algebra: the classification and characterization of positive operator maps.
An axiomatic approach to the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics, based upon a certain concept of conditional probability, has been proposed in two recent papers by the author. It leads to Jordan operator algebras and thus comes rather close to the standard Hilbert space model of quantum mechanics, but still includes the so-called exceptional Jordan algebras, for which a Hilbert space representation does not exist. This approach is now extended by defining a mathematical model of composite systems. Such a model is required for the study of the joint distribution of two quantum observables. A very general type of observables (not only the real-valued observables corresponding to the self-adjoint operators) is considered. The joint distribution is defined, using the concept of conditional probability, and exhibits a certain dependence on the succession of the observations which is different from the classical case and unknown so far in quantum mechanics. Finally, it turns out that, at least in the finite-dimensional case, a really satisfying model of the composite system exists only if each single system is modeled by a complex Jordan matrix algebra (or a direct sum), and the model then becomes the tensor product. This provides some reasoning why the exceptional Jordan algebras can be ruled out, why quantum mechanics needs the complex numbers and the complex Hilbert space, and why the tensor product is the right choice for the model of a composite system.
The self adjoint linear operators which represent the observables of a physical system are in general not an irreducible system. Because a complete set of commuting observables must determine the state of a physical system unambiguously the observables generate an algebra of operators which must contain a maximal abelian subalgebra. The structure of such algebras is investigated and it is shown by applying the theory of the direct integral of Hilbert spaces that there exists always a unique canonical representation of the Hilbert space as a direct integral in such a way that the transformations which are induced by the observables in the component subspaces are irreducible.