. We study the relationship between POV-measures in quantum theory and asymptotic morphisms in the operator algebra E-theory of Connes-Higson. This is done by introducing the theory of "asymptotic" PV-measures and their integral correspondence with positive asymptotic morphisms on locally compact spaces. Examples and applications involving various aspects of quantum physics, including quantum noise models, semiclassical limits, strong deformation quantizations, and pure half-spin particles, are also discussed. 1.
. We study the relationship between POV-measures in quantum theory and asymptotic morphisms in the operator algebra E-theory of Connes-Higson. This is done by introducing the theory of "asymptotic" PV-measures and their integral correspondence with positive asymptotic morphisms on locally compact spaces. Examples and applications involving various aspects of quantum physics, including quantum noise models, semiclassical limits, strong deformation quantizations, and pure half-spin particles, are also discussed. 1.
We review the relationship between positive operator-valued measures (POVMs) in quantum measurement theory and asymptotic morphisms in the C*-algebra E-theory of Connes and Higson. The theory of asymptotic spectral measures, as introduced by Martinez and Trout (CMP 226), is integrally related to positive asymptotic morphisms on locally compact spaces via an asymptotic Riesz Representation Theorem. Examples and applications to quantum physics, including quantum noise models, semiclassical limits, pure spin one-half systems and quantum information processing will also be discussed.
Approximate observables, their description in terms of POV measures and \nthe subsequent extension of the orthodox notion of observable are examined. \nThe sense in which the approximate observables are non-ideal observables \nis considered and a generalised concept of ideal observable is proposed. The \nconventional requirement of self-adjointness is relaxed to one of maximal \nsymmetry and the PV measures are replaced by the larger set of generalised \nspectral measures of maximal symmetric operators. The implications for \nthe quantisation problem are discussed and we give some new examples of \nobservables which have no orthodox representation, i.e. observables which \ncan be identified with non-self-adjoint maximal symmetric operators. Particular \nattention is paid to those aspects of the orthodox theory which rely \non specific properties of self-adjoint operators, such as their association with \nthe infinitesimal generators of groups of unitary operators, and we look at \nthe analogous properties in our generalised theory.
In the Hilbert space formulation of quantum mechanics, ideal measurements of physical variables are discussed using the spectral theory of Hermitian operators and the corresponding projector-valued measures (PVMs). However, more general types of measurements require the treatment in terms of positive-operator-valued measures (POVMs). In the Hamiltonian formulation of quantum mechanics, canonical coordinates are related to PVM. In this paper the results of an analysis of various aspects of applications of POVMs in the Hamiltonian formulation are reported. Several properties of state parameters and quantum observables given by POVMs or represented in an overcomplete basis, including the general Hamiltonian treatment of the Neumark extension, are presented. An analysis of the phase operator, given by the corresponding POVMs, in the Hilbert space and the Hamiltonian frameworks is also given.
A central problem in modern mathematical physics is to study interacting systems beyond the reach of perturbation theory. This thesis studies interacting quantum systems using the mathematical theory of operator algebras. In the first part of this thesis, we consider how to construct quantum many-body systems from one-particle systems. This problem has a well-established solution - namely, the second quantization (or the Gaussian functor). However, it seems difficult for the second quantization to go beyond generalized free field constructions without the help of perturbation theory. The second quantization takes real Hilbert spaces as inputs. Using only information from one-particle Hilbert spaces, it is mathematically impossible for the second quantization to produce connected higher-point correlation functions. Moreover, from the perspectives of mathematical quantization and operator algebra theory, it is more natural to have a quantization procedure that takes an algebra along with a functional as the input. Such a pair of mathematical objects contains more information about the underlying one-particle system and includes the Hilbert space of states (via the GNS construction) as part of the data. Inspired by quantum probability theory, we introduce an alternative approach to construct quantum many-body systems. This approach is based on a noncommutative generalization of the classical Poisson random measure. We call this construction Poissonization. Mathematically, Poissonization is a functor from the category of von Neumann algebras with normal semi nite faithful weights to the category of von Neumann algebras with normal faithful states. It is a natural adaptation of the second quantization to the context of von Neumann algebras. This thesis discusses several properties of Poissonization, and uses Poissonization as a tool to construct various toy models of algebraic quantum field theories relevant to high energy physics. This collection of examples aims at demonstrating the versatility of Poissonization. In the second part of this thesis, we study the noisy interactions between an open quantum system and its environment. One of the challenges in quantum information science is to control open quantum systems with a large number of qubits. An important aspect of many-body systems is the emergence of collective phenomena. One collective noise model is an open atomic system in an electromagnetic environment. This model was considered by Dicke in the 50's. In this thesis, we study the entropic decay in Dicke's model and other related collective noise models. Specifically, we develop a general framework to estimate the spectral gap and modified logarithmic Sobolev constant of these collective noise models. In addition, we study the necessary mixing conditions a general Dicke's model must satisfy in order to have a unique equilibrium state.
In a series of papers, Barnett, Pegg (1986, 1988, 1989, 1992) and various co-authors have proposed a description of quantum phase by means of a collection of s-dimensional states and operators, s>or=1. We analyse the limiting procedure they employ for large s, which is known not to be compatible with quantum mechanics in the usual sense. Further, we supply a rigorous demonstration of the asymptotic limits of the `mean` and `variance` of their system of operators in coherent states. These values had previously been given but not justified mathematically. Our analysis, based on the asymptotic analysis of certain random variables, shows that the physical deductions that can be drawn from these limits are limited. We also prove that the (s+1)-dimensional `pure phase` LHW-states they consider form a sequence of approximate eigenvectors for the Weyl-quantized angle operator Delta ( phi ) and the Toeplitz phase operator X proposed by Garrison and Wong (1970), Popov and Yarunin (1992), and others. These states X s ( theta ), to our knowledge first introduced by Lerner, Huang and Waiters (1970), can be used to construct a system of measurement as in the usual quantum theory, sensitive to certain qualities of phase, but not all. Indeed, a feature of the Barnett-Pegg method, when it gives finite answers, is the construction of associated measurement systems for different observables. We give examples of sequences of (s+1)-dimensional devices which represent measurements significantly closer to ideal for X. This serves as a model for corresponding devices for Delta ( phi ), or indeed, any observable with a continuous spectrum, contingent on its spectral decomposition being obtained explicitly.
The most general type of measurement in quantum physics is modeled by a positive operator-valued measure (POVM). Mathematically, a POVM is a generalization of a measure, whose values are not real numbers, but positive operators on a Hilbert space. POVMs can equivalently be viewed as maps between effect algebras or as maps between algebras for the Giry monad. We will show that this equivalence is an instance of a duality between two categories. In the special case of continuous POVMs, we obtain two equivalent representations in terms of morphisms between von Neumann algebras.