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Canadian Journal of Mathematics

Refinement Conditions on Operations in Sample Spaces

Robert J. Weaver

Published Oct 1, 1975• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

The recent study of operational statistics (see [2; 4; 5; 10 ; 11 ; 12 ; 13 ; 14 ; 15 ; 16]) describes a generalized sample space which represents the set of all possible outcomes of a collection of coherently related operations (experiments). This approach to probability generalizes the classical notion of a sample space due to A. N. Kolmogorov [8], and it gives the concept somewhat wider applicability. For instance in [4] and [14], D. J. Foulis and C. H. Randall set out the start of a program wherein a generalized sample space (hereafter called a GSS) and its affiliated partially ordered set of generalized propositions could be a framework within which a genuinely operational interpretation of the so called “logic” of quantum mechanical systems may be found.

DOI
10.4153/cjm-1975-103-8

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The recent study of operational statistics (see [2; 4; 5; 10 ; 11 ; 12 ; 13 ; 14 ; 15 ; 16]) describes a generalized sample space which represents the set of all possible outcomes of a collection of coherently related operations (experiments). This approach to probability generalizes the classical notion of a sample space due to A. N. Kolmogorov [8], and it gives the concept somewhat wider applicability. For instance in [4] and [14], D. J. Foulis and C. H. Randall set out the start of a program wherein a generalized sample space (hereafter called a GSS) and its affiliated partially ordered set of generalized propositions could be a framework within which a genuinely operational interpretation of the so called “logic” of quantum mechanical systems may be found.
Since 1933, when Kolmogorov laid the foundations for probability and statistics as we know them today [1], it has been recognized that propositions asserting that such and such an event occurred as a consequence of the execution of a particular random experiment tend to band together and form a Boolean algebra. In 1936, Birkhoff and von Neumann [2] suggested that the so-called logic of quantum mechanics should not be a Boolean algebra, but rather should form what is now called a modular ortholattice [3]. Presumably, the departure from Boolean algebras encountered in quantum mechanics can be attributed to the fact that in quantum mechanics, one must consider more than one physical experiment, e.g., an experiment measuring position, an experiment measuring charge, an experiment measuring momentum, etc., and, because of the uncertainty principle, these experiments need not admit a common refinement in terms of which the Kolmogorov theory is directly applicable. Mackey's Axioms I–VI for quantum mechanics [4] imply that the logic of quantum mechanics should be a σ-orthocomplete orthomodular poset [5]. Most contemporary practitioners of quantum logic seem to agree that a quantum logic is (at least) an orthomodular poset [6], [7], [8], [9], [10] or some variation thereof [11]. P. D. Finch [12] has shown that every completely orthomodular poset is the logic arising from sets of Boolean logics, where these sets have a structure similar to the structures generally given to quantum logic. In all of these versions of quantum logic, a fundamental relation, the relation of compatibility or commutativity, plays a decisive role.
The concept of an operational logic has been developed by Randall and Foulis ([l]-[4], [10], [11]) as a part of a larger effort to obtain a formalism suitable for expressing, comparing, and evaluating various approaches to empirical science, statistics, and in particular, quantum mechanics. The structure of these logics is similar to that of an orthomodular partially ordered set which is often used as a model for quantum logics. However, the operational logic is a more general structure which, among other features, allows for the creation of a tensor product of logics to represent the coupling of physical systems. Randall and Foulis have shown that, given certain reasonable physical constraints, such a product is not possible within the category of orthomodular posets [12].
This work employs the empirical logic approach of D. Foulis and C. Randall to compare non-relativistic, conservative, non-compound physical systems (universes) in classical and quantum mechanics. We present definitions of test spaces, propositions, proposition logics, statistical states, observables, and dynamical systems. Then we try to identify their mathematical representatives for both, classical and quantum universes. Except for the case of the dynamical system, which is not defined for classical universes, the definitions prove to be general enough to apply to both cases. Necessary mathematical tools not generally known to physicists are also treated in a concise fashion. These include some basic theory of partially ordered sets (posets) and lattices, in particular boolean and orthomodular lattices.