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arXiv:gr-qc/9303026 · Classical and Quantum Gravity

Unique determination of an inner product by adjointness relations in the algebra of quantum observables

Alan D. Rendall

Published Nov 1, 1993• 35 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

It is shown that if a representation of a *-algebra on a vector space V is an irreducible *-representation with respect to some inner product on V, then under appropriate technical conditions this property determines the inner product uniquely up to a constant factor. Ashtekar(1991) has suggested using the condition that a given representation of the algebra of quantum observables is a *-representation to fix the inner product on the space of physical states. This idea is of particular interest for the quantization of gravity where an obvious prescription for defining an inner product is lacking. The results of this paper show rigorously that Ashtekar's criterion does suffice to determine the inner product in very general circumstances. Two versions of the result are proved: a simpler one which only applies to representations by bounded operators and a more general one which allows for unbounded operators. Some concrete examples are worked out in order to illustrate the meaning and range of applicability of the general theorems.

DOI
10.1088/0264-9381/10/11/009

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It is shown that if a representation of a *-algebra on a vector space V is an irreducible *-representation with respect to some inner product on V, then under appropriate technical conditions this property determines the inner product uniquely up to a constant factor. Ashtekar(1991) has suggested using the condition that a given representation of the algebra of quantum observables is a *-representation to fix the inner product on the space of physical states. This idea is of particular interest for the quantization of gravity where an obvious prescription for defining an inner product is lacking. The results of this paper show rigorously that Ashtekar's criterion does suffice to determine the inner product in very general circumstances. Two versions of the result are proved: a simpler one which only applies to representations by bounded operators and a more general one which allows for unbounded operators. Some concrete examples are worked out in order to illustrate the meaning and range of applicability of the general theorems.
The self adjoint linear operators which represent the observables of a physical system are in general not an irreducible system. Because a complete set of commuting observables must determine the state of a physical system unambiguously the observables generate an algebra of operators which must contain a maximal abelian subalgebra. The structure of such algebras is investigated and it is shown by applying the theory of the direct integral of Hilbert spaces that there exists always a unique canonical representation of the Hilbert space as a direct integral in such a way that the transformations which are induced by the observables in the component subspaces are irreducible.
It is shown that if ℍ is a Hilbert space for a representation of a group G, then there are triplets of spaces (FH,H,FH), in which FH is a space of coherent state or vector coherent state wave functions and FH is its dual relative to a conveniently defined measure. It is shown also that there is a sequence of maps FH→H→FH which facilitates the construction of the corresponding inner products. After completion if necessary, the spaces (FH,H,FH) become isomorphic Hilbert spaces. It is shown that the inner product for ℍ is often easier to evaluate in FH than in FH. Thus, we obtain integral expressions for the inner products of coherent state and vector coherent state representations. These expressions are equivalent to the algebraic expressions of K-matrix theory, but they are frequently more efficient to apply. The construction is illustrated by many examples.
We investigate whether the inner product structure of quantum mechanics can be modified without violating fundamental physical principles. We consider a generalized inner product defined by a positive operator and assume local unitary dynamics, existence of entangled states and the no-signalling principle. We show that any nontrivial choice of inner product different from standard one inevitably leads to superluminal signalling, in contradiction with relativistic causality. Therefore, the standard Hilbert-space inner product is uniquely enforced by no-signalling.
We establish an operational framework connecting the classical Kolmogorov--Arnold (KA) representation theorem to quantum information theory. By introducing and proving an algebraic, bounded-degree polynomial version of the theorem, we demonstrate that any target physical property of an unentangled multi-qubit product state can be exactly decomposed using a finite, fixed set of local ``inner'' observables and a shallow architecture of univariate polynomials. We further analyse the stability of this Quantum Kolmogorov--Arnold (QKA) representation under adversarial perturbations. In stark contrast to the pathological instabilities and severe reparameterisation sensitivities inherent to the classical Kolmogorov--Arnold representation theorem, our algebraic quantum framework exhibits remarkable resilience. We prove that the representation remains stable against bounded physical perturbations acting on the inner measurement operators, and show via the Heisenberg picture that it is inherently immune to adversarial quantum channel attacks acting on the input states.
We discuss the uniqueness of quantum states compatible with given measurement results for a set of observables. For a given pure state, we consider two different types of uniqueness: (1) no other pure state is compatible with the same measurement results and (2) no other state, pure or mixed, is compatible with the same measurement results. For case (1), it was known that for a ddd-dimensional Hilbert space, there exists a set of $4d\ensuremath{-}5$ observables that uniquely determines any pure state. We show that for case (2), $5d\ensuremath{-}7$ observables suffice to uniquely determine any pure state. Thus, there is a gap between the results for (1) and (2), and we give some examples to illustrate this. Unique determination of a pure state by its reduced density matrices (RDMs), a special case of determination by observables, is also discussed. We improve the best-known bound on local dimensions in which almost all pure states are uniquely determined by their RDMs for case (2). We further discuss circumstances where (1) can imply (2). We use convexity of the numerical range of operators to show that when only two observables are measured, (1) always implies (2). More generally, if there is a compact group of symmetries of the state space which has the span of the observables measured as the set of fixed points, then (1) implies (2). We analyze the possible dimensions for the span of such observables. Our results extend naturally to the case of low-rank quantum states.
With the postulates already formulated in the language of an abstract inner product spaces, this chapter shows how an observable can be naturally expressed as a linear Hermitian operator acting on the inner product space where the states live. We start by introducing linear operators acting on vector spaces and their representations. Next, we discuss the systems of eigenvalues and eigenvectors associated with such operators. The important case of Hermitian operator and the properties of their eigenvalues and eigenvectors, relevant to quantum mechanics, are introduced. After developing the necessary background in linear algebra, the connection of Hermitian operators with quantum observables is established. We then proceed to explain what this connection actually accomplishes. In particular, we show how it translates the target questions of quantum mechanics into an eigenvalue problem. This makes it evident what the nature of the input to a quantum theory should be. This input enters the formalism through what are known as “quantization rules”. I discuss this in the last section of this chapter. An illustration using a disguised spin-half system winds up the chapter.