Binary operations on algebras of observables are studied in the quantum as well as in the classical case. It is shown that certain natural compatibility conditions with the associative product imply properties which are usually additionally required.
In Quantum Mechanics operators must be hermitian and, in a direct product space, symmetric. These properties are saved by Lie algebra operators but not by those of quantum algebras. A possible correspondence between observables and quantum algebra operators is suggested by extending the definition of matrix elements of a physical observable, including the eventual projection on the appropriate symmetric space. This allows to build in the Lie space of representations one-parameter families of operators belonging to the enveloping Lie algebra that satisfy an approximate symmetry and have the properties required by physics.
One of us has shown that the statistical properties of the measurements of a quantum mechanical system assume their simplest form when expressed in terms of a certain hypercomplex algebra which is commutative but not associative.1 This algebra differs from the non-commutative but associative matrix algebra usually considered in that one is concerned with the commutative expression ½(A × B + B × A) instead of the associative product A × B of two matrices. It was conjectured that the laws of this commutative algebra would form a suitable starting point for a generalization of the present quantum mechanical theory. The need of such a generalization arises from the (probably) fundamental difficulties resulting when one attempts to apply quantum mechanics to questions in relativistic and nuclear phenomena.
An extension of the conditional expectations (those under a given subalgebra of events and not the simple ones under a single event) from the classical to the quantum case is presented. In the classical case, the conditional expectations always exist; in the quantum case, however, they exist only if a certain weak compatibility criterion is satisfied. This compatibility criterion was introduced among others in a recent paper by the author. Then, state-independent conditional expectations and quantum Markov processes are studied. A classical Markov process is a probability measure, together with a system of random variables, satisfying the Markov property and can equivalently be described by a system of Markovian kernels (often forming a semigroup). This equivalence is partly extended to quantum probabilities. It is shown that a dynamical (semi)group can be derived from a given system of quantum observables satisfying the Markov property, and the group generators are studied. The results are presented in the framework of Jordan operator algebras, and a very general type of observables (including the usual real-valued observables or self-adjoint operators) is considered.
A quantum effect is an operator A on a complex Hilbert space H that satisfies 0⩽A⩽I. We denote the set of quantum effects by E(H). The set of self-adjoint projection operators on H corresponds to sharp effects and is denoted by P(H). We define the sequential product of A,B∈E(H) by A∘B=A1/2BA1/2. The main purpose of this article is to study some of the algebraic properties of the sequential product. Many of our results show that algebraic conditions on A∘B imply that A and B commute for the usual operator product. For example, if A∘B satisfies certain distributive or associative laws, then AB=BA. Moreover, if A∘B∈P(H), then AB=BA and A∘B=B or B∘A=B if and only if AB=BA=B. A natural definition of stochastic independence is introduced and briefly studied.