2. The Physics of Complex Probability

Holger Friedrich Hofmann

Quantum paradoxes show that quantum statistics can exceed the limits of positive joint probabilities for physical properties that cannot be measured jointly. It is therefore impossible to describe the relations between the different physical properties of a quantum system by assigning joint realities to their observable values. Instead, recent experimental results obtained by weak measurements suggest that nonclassical correlations could be expressed by complex valued quasiprobabilities, where the phases of the complex probabilities express the action of transformations between the noncommuting properties [H. F. Hofmann, New J. Phys. 13, 103009 (2011)]. In these relations, negative probabilities necessarily emerge whenever the physical properties involved are related to each other by half-periodic transformations, since such transformations are characterized by action phases of $\ensuremath{\pi}$ in their complex probabilities. It is therefore possible to trace the failure of realist assumptions back to a fundamental and universally valid relation between statistics and dynamics that associates half-periodic transformations with negative probabilities.

Holger Friedrich Hofmann

Recent results obtained in quantum measurements indicate that the fundamental relations between three physical properties of a system can be represented by complex conditional probabilities. Here, it is shown that these relations provide a fully deterministic and universally valid framework on which all of quantum mechanics can be based. Specifically, quantum mechanics can be derived by combining the rules of Bayesian probability theory with only a single additional law that explains the phases of complex probabilities. This law, which I introduce here as the law of quantum ergodicity, is based on the observation that the reality of physical properties cannot be separated from the dynamics by which they emerge in measurement interactions. The complex phases are an expression of this inseparability and represent the dynamical structure of transformations between the different properties. In its quantitative form, the law of quantum ergodicity describes a fundamental relation between the ergodic probabilities obtained by dynamical averaging and the deterministic relations between three properties expressed by the complex conditional probabilities. The complete formalism of quantum mechanics can be derived from this one relation, without any axiomatic mathematical assumptions about state vectors or superpositions. It is therefore possible to explain all quantum phenomena as the consequence of a single fundamental law of physics.

Abdo Abou Jaoudé

Holger Friedrich Hofmann

Quantum mechanics does not permit joint measurements of non-commuting observables.However, it is possible to measure the weak value of a projection operator, followed by the precise measurement of a different property.The results can be interpreted as complex joint probabilities of the two non-commuting measurement outcomes.Significantly, it is possible to predict the outcome of completely different measurements by combining the joint probabilities of the initial state with complex conditional probabilities relating the new measurement to the possible combinations of measurement outcomes used in the characterization of the quantum state.We can therefore conclude that the complex conditional probabilities observed in weak measurements describe fundamental state-independent relations between non-commuting properties that represent the most fundamental form of universal laws in quantum physics.

Michael Strevens