Non-Kolmogorov Probability and Quantum Physics

Mioara Mugur-Schächter

D. A. Slavnov

Oleg Georgievich Smolyanov, Andrei Yu. Khrennikov

Luigi Accardi

Andrei Yu. Khrennikov

This paper is devoted to foundations of probability theory. We discuss interpretations of probability, corresponding mathematical formalisms, and applications to quantum physics. One of the aims of this paper is to show that the probability model based on Kolmogorov's axiomatics cannot describe all stochastic phenomena, i.e., that quantum physics induces natural restrictions of the use of Kolmogorov's theory and that we need to develop non-Kolmogorov models for describing some quantum phenomena. The physical motivations are presented in a clear and brief manner. Thus the reader does not need to have preliminary knowledgeof quantum physics. Our main idea is that we cannot develop non-Kolmogorov models by the formal change of Kolmogorov's axiomatics. We begin with interpretations (classical, frequency, and proportional). Then we present a class of non-Kolmogorov models described by so-called p-adic numbers. Here, in particular, we obtain a quite natural realization of negative probabilities. These negative probability distributions might provide a solution of some quantum paradoxes.

Andrei Yu. Khrennikov

Our aim is to emphasize the role of mathematical models in physics, especially models of geometry and probability. We briefly compare developments of geometry and probability by pointing to similarities and differences: from Euclid to Lobachevsky and from Kolmogorov to Bell. In probability, Bell could play the same role as Lobachevsky in geometry. In fact, violation of Bell’s inequality can be treated as implying the impossibility to apply the classical probability model of Kolmogorov (1933) to quantum phenomena. Thus the quantum probabilistic model (based on Born’s rule) can be considered as the concrete example of the non-Kolmogorovian model of probability, similarly to the Lobachevskian model — the first example of the non-Euclidean model of geometry. This is the “probability model” interpretation of the violation of Bell’s inequality. We also criticize the standard interpretation—an attempt to add to rigorous mathematical probability models additional elements such as (non)locality and (un)realism. Finally, we compare embeddings of non-Euclidean geometries into the Euclidean space with embeddings of the non-Kolmogorovian probabilities (in particular, quantum probability) into the Kolmogorov probability space. As an example, we consider the CHSH-test.