Some theorems in axiomatic quantum theory

Diederik Aerts, Bart Van Steirteghem

Storrs McCall

Gerhard Gerlich

Chris Mitsch

In this paper I provide a detailed history of von Neumann’s “No Hidden Variables” theorem, and I argue it is a demonstration that his axiomatization mathematically captures a salient feature of the statistical interpretation (namely, that hidden variables are incompatible). I show that this reading of von Neumann’s theorem is obvious once one recalls several contextual factors of his work. First, his axiomatization was what I call a Hilbert-style axiomatic completion; indeed, it developed from work initiated by Hilbert (and Nordheim). Second, it was responsive to specific mathematical and theoretical problems faced by Dirac and Jordan’s statistical transformation theory (then called ‘quantum mechanics’). Third, the axiomatization was essentially completed already in his 1927 papers, at least concerning the status of hidden variables, and this would have been obvious to the audience for those papers. Thus, the theorem’s statement and proof were only necessary when the material was presented for a general mathematical audience, i.e., in his 1932 Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics . With this reading in mind, his claim that quantum mechanics was in “compelling logical contradiction with causality” appears as a straightforward consequence of his theorem. I conclude by reassessing the theorem’s broader historical and scientific significance.

Don Ridgeway

We apply the algebraic theory of infinite classical lattices from Part I to write an axiomatic theory of measurements, based on Mackey's axioms for quantum mechanics. The axioms give a complete theory of measurements in the sense of Haag and Kastler, taking the traditional form of a logic of propositions provided with a classical spectral theorem. The results are expressed in terms of probability distributions of individual measurements. As applications, we give a separation theorem for states by the set of observables and discuss its relationship to the equivalence of ensembles in the thermodynamic-limit program. We also introduce a weak equivalence of states based on the theory.