Topos quantum theory provides representations of quantum states as direct generalizations of the probability distribution, namely probability valuation. In this article, we consider extensions of a known bijective correspondence between quantum states and probability valuations to composite systems and to state transformations. We show that multipartite probability valuations on composite systems have a bijective correspondence to positive over pure tensor states, according to a candidate definition of the composite systems in topos quantum theory. Among the multipartite probability valuations, a special attention is placed to Markov chains which are defined by generalizing classical Markov chains from probability theory. We find an incompatibility between the multipartite probability valuations and a monogamy property of quantum states, which trivializes the Markov chains to product probability valuations. Several observations on the transformations of probability valuations are deduced from the results on multipartite probability valuations, through duality relations between multipartite states and state transformations.
Topos quantum theory provides representations of quantum states as direct generalizations of the probability distribution, namely probability valuation. In this article, we consider extensions of a known bijective correspondence between quantum states and probability valuations to composite systems and to state transformations. We show that multipartite probability valuations on composite systems have a bijective correspondence to positive over pure tensor states, according to a candidate definition of the composite systems in topos quantum theory. Among the multipartite probability valuations, a special attention is placed to Markov chains which are defined by generalizing classical Markov chains from probability theory. We find an incompatibility between the multipartite probability valuations and a monogamy property of quantum states, which trivializes the Markov chains to product probability valuations. Several observations on the transformations of probability valuations are deduced from the results on multipartite probability valuations, through duality relations between multipartite states and state transformations.
The aim of this paper is to relate algebraic quantum mechanics to topos theory, so as to construct new foundations for quantum logic and quantum spaces. Motivated by Bohr’s idea that the empirical content of quantum physics is accessible only through classical physics, we show how a noncommutative C*-algebra of observables A induces a topos
T(A) in which the amalgamation of all of its commutative subalgebras comprises a single commutative C*-algebra
A . According to the constructive Gelfand duality theorem of Banaschewski and Mulvey, the latter has an internal spectrum
Σ(A) in
T(A) , which in our approach plays the role of the quantum phase space of the system. Thus we associate a locale (which is the topos-theoretical notion of a space and which intrinsically carries the intuitionistic logical structure of a Heyting algebra) to a C*-algebra (which is the noncommutative notion of a space). In this setting, states on A become probability measures (more precisely, valuations) on
Σ , and self-adjoint elements of A define continuous functions (more precisely, locale maps) from
Σ to Scott’s interval domain. Noting that open subsets of
Σ(A) correspond to propositions about the system, the pairing map that assigns a (generalized) truth value to a state and a proposition assumes an extremely simple categorical form. Formulated in this way, the quantum theory defined by A is essentially turned into a classical theory, internal to the topos
T(A) .These results were inspired by the topos-theoretic approach to quantum physics proposed by Butterfield and Isham, as recently generalized by Döring and Isham.
The Kochen-Specker theorem asserts the impossibility of assigning values to quantum quantities in a way that preserves functional relations between them. We construct a new type of valuation which is defined on all operators, and which respects an appropriate version of the functional composition principle. The truth-values assigned to propositions are (i) contextual; and (ii) multi-valued, where the space of contexts and the multi-valued logic for each context come naturally from the topos theory of presheaves. The first step in our theory is to demonstrate that the Kochen-Specker theorem is equivalent to the statement that a certain presheaf defined on the category of self-adjoint operators has no global elements. We then show how the use of ideas drawn from the theory of presheaves leads to the definition of a generalized valuation in quantum theory whose values are sieves of operators. In particular, we show how each quantum state leads to such a generalized valuation.
We extend the topos-theoretic treatment given in previous papers of assigning values to quantities in quantum theory. In those papers, the main idea was to assign a sieve as a partial and contextual truth value to a proposition that the value of a quantity lies in a certain set $Δ\subseteq \mathR$. Here we relate such sieve-valued valuations to valuations that assign to quantities subsets, rather than single elements, of their spectra (we call these `interval' valuations). There are two main results. First, there is a natural correspondence between these two kinds of valuation, which uses the notion of a state's support for a quantity (Section 3). Second, if one starts with a more general notion of interval valuation, one sees that our interval valuations based on the notion of support (and correspondingly, our sieve-valued valuations) are a simple way to secure certain natural properties of valuations, such as monotonicity (Section 4).
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.
Topos theory has been suggested first by Isham and Butterfield, and then by Isham and Doering, as an alternative mathematical structure within which to formulate physical theories. In particular, it has been used to reformulate standard quantum mechanics in such a way that a novel type of logic is used to represent propositions. In recent years the topic has been considerably progressing with the introduction of probabilities, group and group transformations. In the present paper we will introduce a candidate for the complex quantity value object and analyse its relation to the real quantity value object. By defining the Grothendieck k-extension of these two objects, so as to turn them into abelian groups, it is possible to define internal one parameter groups in a topos. We then use this new definition to construct the topos analogue of the Stone's theorem.