The quantum mechanics of closed systems such as the universe is formulated using an extension of familiar probability theory that incorporates negative probabilities. Probabilities must be positive for sets of alternative histories that are the basis of fair settleable bets. However, in quantum mechanics there are sets of alternative histories that can be described but which cannot be the basis for fair settleable bets. Members of such sets can be assigned extended probabilities that are sometimes negative. A prescription for extended probabilities is introduced that assigns extended probabilities to all histories that can be described, fine grained or coarse grained, members of decoherent sets or not. All probability sum rules are satisfied exactly. Sets of histories that are recorded to sufficient precision are the basis of settleable bets. This formulation is compared with the decoherent (consistent) histories formulation of quantum theory. Prospects are discussed for using this formulation to provide testable alternatives to quantum theory or further generalizations of it.
Quantum mechanics may be formulated as {\it Sensible Quantum Mechanics} (SQM) so that it contains nothing probabilistic except conscious perceptions. Sets of these perceptions can be deterministically realized with measures given by expectation values of positive-operator-valued {\it awareness operators}. Ratios of the measures for these sets of perceptions can be interpreted as frequency-type probabilities for many actually existing sets. These probabilities generally cannot be given by the ordinary quantum ``probabilities'' for a single set of alternatives. {\it Probabilism}, or ascribing pr…
The transition from the quantum to the classical is governed by randomizing devices (RD), i.e., dynamical systems that are very sensitive to the environment. We show that, in the presence of RDs, the usual arguments based on the linearity of quantum mechanics that lead to the measurement problem do not apply. RDs are the source of probabilities in quantum mechanics. Hence, the reason for probabilities in quantum mechanics is the same as the reason for probabilities in other parts of physics, namely our ignorance of the state of the environment. This should not be confused with decoherence. The…
Two problems will be considered: the question of hidden parameters and the problem of Kolmogorovity of quantum probabilities. Both of them will be analyzed from the point of view of two distinct understandings of quantum mechanical probabilities. Our analysis will be focused, as a particular example, on the Aspect-type EPR experiment. It will be shown that the quantum mechanical probabilities appearing in this experiment can be consistently understood as conditional probabilities without any paradoxical consequences. Therefore, nothing implies in the Aspect experiment that quantum theory is in…
We propose mutant versions of quantum mechanics constructed on vector spaces over the finite Galois fields GF(3) and GF(9). The mutation we consider here is distinct from what we proposed in previous papers on Galois field quantum mechanics. In this new mutation, the canonical expression for expectation values is retained instead of that for probabilities. In fact, probabilities are indeterminate. Furthermore, it is shown that the mutant quantum mechanics over the finite field GF(9) exhibits super-quantum correlations (i.e. the Bell-Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt bound is 4). We comment on the fun…
Decoherent histories quantum theory is reformulated with the assumption that there is one "real" fine-grained history, specified in a preferred complete set of sum-over-histories variables. This real history is described by embedding it in an ensemble of comparable imagined fine-grained histories, not unlike the familiar ensemble of statistical mechanics. These histories are assigned extended probabilities, which can sometimes be negative or greater than one. As we will show, this construction implies that the real history is not completely accessible to experimental or other observational dis…
The concept of probability was prominent in the original foundations of quantum mechanics, and continues to be so today. Indeed, the controversies regarding objective and subjective interpretations of probability have again become active. I argue that, although both objective and subjective probabilities have domains of relevance in QM, their roles are quite distinct. Even where both are legitimate, the objective and subjective probabilities differ, both conceptually and numerically. There are quantum probabilities that have no useful subjective interpretations, and there are subjective probab…
The aim of this paper is to analyze the reconstructability of quantum mechanics from classical conditional probabilities representing measurement outcomes conditioned on measurement choices. We will investigate how the quantum mechanical representation of classical conditional probabilities is situated within the broader frame of noncommutative representations. To this goal, we adopt some parts of the quantum formalism and ask whether empirical data can constrain the rest of the representation to conform to quantum mechanics. We will show that as the set of empirical data grows conventional el…
We discuss how the apparently objective probabilities predicted by quantum mechanics can be treated in the framework of Bayesian probability theory, in which all probabilities are subjective. Our results are in accord with earlier work by Caves, Fuchs, and Schack, but our approach and emphasis are different. We also discuss the problem of choosing a noninformative prior for a density matrix.
This paper presents a novel explanation of the cause of quantum probabilities and the Born rule based on the intuitionistic interpretation of quantum mechanics where propositions obey constructive (intuitionistic) logic. The use of constructive logic makes it possible (through a replacement of the concept of truth with the concept of constructive probability) to abandon the law of excluded middle in the intuitionistic interpretation.
In this paper we analyze the existence of joint probabilities for the Bell-type and GHZ entangled states. We then propose the usage of nonmonotonic upper probabilities as a tool to derive consistent joint upper probabilities for the contextual hidden variables. Finally, we show that for the extreme example of no error, the GHZ state allows for the definition of a joint upper probability that is consistent with the strong correlations.
A factor-graph representation of quantum-mechanical probabilities is proposed. Unlike standard statistical models, the proposed representation uses auxiliary variables (state variables) that are not random variables.
Wigner's marginal probability theory is revisited, and systematically applied to n-particle correlation measurements. A set of Bell inequalities whose corollaries are Hardy contradiction and its generalisation are derived with intuitive graphical analysis.
The subjective and the objective aspects of probabilities are incorporated in a simple duality axiom inspired by observer participation in quantum theory. Transcending the classical notion of probabilities, it is proposed and demonstrated that all probabilities may be fundamentally quantum mechanical in the sense that they may all be derived from the corresponding amplitudes. The classical coin-toss and the quantum double slit interference experiments are discussed as illustrative prototype examples. Absence of multi-order quantum interference effects in multiple-slit experiments and the Exper…
In a quantum universe with a strong arrow of time, it is standard to postulate that the initial wave function started in a particular macrostate--the special low-entropy macrostate selected by the Past Hypothesis. Moreover, there is an additional postulate about statistical mechanical probabilities according to which the initial wave function is a "typical" choice in the macrostate (the Statistical Postulate). Together, they support a probabilistic version of the Second Law of Thermodynamics: typical initial wave functions will increase in entropy. Hence, there are two sources of randomness in…
In this paper, we give a frequency interpretation of negative probability, as well as of extended probability, demonstrating that to a great extent, these new types of probabilities, behave as conventional probabilities. Extended probability comprises both conventional probability and negative probability. The frequency interpretation of negative probabilities gives supportive evidence to the axiomatic system built in (Burgin, 2009; arXiv:0912.4767) for extended probability as it is demonstrated in this paper that frequency probabilities satisfy all axioms of extended probability.
Quantum mechanics may be formulated as Sensible Quantum Mechanics (SQM) so that it contains nothing probabilistic, except, in a certain frequency sense, conscious perceptions. Sets of these perceptions can be deterministically realized with measures given by expectation values of positive-operator-valued awareness operators in a quantum state of the universe which never jumps or collapses. Ratios of the measures for these sets of perceptions can be interpreted as frequency-type probabilities for many actually existing sets rather than as propensities for potentialities to be actualized, so the…
The problem of measurement in quantum mechanics is reanalyzed within a general, strictly probabilistic framework (without reduction postulate). Based on a novel comprehensive definition of measurement the natural emergence of objective events is demonstrated and their formal representation within quantum mechanics is obtained. In order to be objective an event is required to be observable or readable in at least two independent, mutually non-interfering ways with necessarily agreeing results. Consistency in spite of unrestricted validity of reversibility of the evolution or the superposition p…
Relativistic causality, namely, the impossibility of signaling at superluminal speeds, restricts the kinds of correlations which can occur between different parts of a composite physical system. Here we establish the basic restrictions which relativistic causality imposes on the joint probabilities involved in an experiment of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm type. Quantum mechanics, on the other hand, places further restrictions beyond those required by general considerations like causality and consistency. We illustrate this fact by considering the sum of correlations involved in the CHSH in…
Measurement is a fundamental notion in the usual approximate quantum mechanics of measured subsystems. Probabilities are predicted for the outcomes of measurements. State vectors evolve unitarily in between measurements and by reduction of the state vector at measurements. Probabilities are computed by summing the squares of amplitudes over alternatives which could have been measured but weren't. Measurements are limited by uncertainty principles and by other restrictions arising from the principles of quantum mechanics. This essay examines the extent to which those features of the quantum mec…
It is proved that in non-relativistic quantum mechanics (without spin) the transition probability may be described in terms of particle paths, every path having a (positive) probability. This leads to a stochastic hidden variables theory providing an intuitive picture of particle motion. The change of velocity at every time has a probability that depends on the potential over a large region, at a difference with the local action of classical dynamics. Thus the hidden variables theory is non-local like Bohm's, but not deterministic.
We study the probability assignment for the outcomes of time-extended measurements. We construct the class-operator that incorporates the information about a generic time-smeared quantity. These class-operators are employed for the construction of Positive-Operator-Valued-Measures for the time-averaged quantities. The scheme highlights the distinction between velocity and momentum in quantum theory. Propositions about velocity and momentum are represented by different class-operators, hence they define different probability measures. We provide some examples, we study the classical limit and w…
The density operator of a quantum state can be represented as a complex joint probability of any two observables whose eigenstates have non-zero mutual overlap. Transformations to a new basis set are then expressed in terms of complex conditional probabilities that describe the fundamental relation between precise statements about the three different observables. Since such transformations merely change the representation of the quantum state, these conditional probabilities provide a state-independent definition of the deterministic relation between the outcomes of different quantum measureme…
A pedagogical introduction is given to the quantum mechanics of closed systems, most generally the universe as a whole. Quantum mechanics aims at predicting the probabilities of alternative coarse-grained time histories of a closed system. Not every set of alternative coarse-grained histories that can be described may be consistently assigned probabilities because of quantum mechanical interference between individual histories of the set. In the quantum mechanics of closed systems, containing both observer and observed, probabilities are assigned to those sets of alternative histories for whic…
The probability `measure' for measurements at two consecutive moments of time is non-additive. These probabilities, on the other hand, may be determined by the limit of relative frequency of measured events, which are by nature additive. We demonstrate that there are only two ways to resolve this problem. The first solution places emphasis on the precise use of the concept of conditional probability for successive measurements. The physically correct conditional probabilities define additive probabilities for two-time measurements. These probabilities depend explicitly on the resolution of the…
Many of the conceptual problems students have in understanding quantum mechanics arise from the way probabilities are introduced in standard (textbook) quantum theory through the use of measurements. Introducing consistent microscopic probabilities in quantum theory requires setting up appropriate sample spaces taking proper account of quantum incompatibility. When this is done the Schrodinger equation can be used to calculate probabilities independent of whether a system is or is not being measured, and the results usually ascribed to wave function collapse are obtained in a less misleading w…
The dynamical equation of hybrid systems, being the combination of Schrödinger and Liouville equations, produces noncausal evolution when the initial state of interacting quantum and classical mechanical systems is as it is demanded in discussions regarding the problem of measurement. It is found that state of quantum mechanical system instantaneously collapses due to the non-negativity of probabilities.
It is often stated that quantum mechanics only makes statistical predictions and that a quantum state is described by the various probability distributions associated with it. Can we describe a quantum state completely in terms of probabilities and then use it to describe quantum dynamics? What is the origin of the probability distribution for a maximally specified quantum state? Is quantum mechanics `local' or is there an essential nonlocality (nonseparability) inherent in quantum mechanics? These questions are discussed in this paper. The decay of an unstable quantum state and the time depen…
I show that probabilities in quantum mechanics are a measure of belief in the presence of human ignorance, just like all other probabilities. The Born interpretation of the square of modulus of the wave function arises from the interaction of a quantum system with an observer, and probabilities will not arise unless the observer is unable to access all the information available in the system's wave function. Quantum mechanics generally does not permit all the information to be obtained, even in principle, just as in relativity information from outside the past light cone cannot be obtained. Bu…
Three extensions and reinterpretations of nonclassical probabilities are reviewed. (i) We propose to generalize the probability axiom of quantum mechanics to self-adjoint positive operators of trace one. Furthermore, we discuss the Cartesian and polar decomposition of arbitrary normal operators and the possibility to operationalize the corresponding observables. Thereby we review and emphasize the use of observables which maximally represent the context. (ii) In the second part, we discuss Pitowsky polytopes for automaton logic as well as for generalized urn models and evaluate methods to find…
We discuss some issues about probability in quantum mechanics, with particular emphasis on the GHZ theorem. We propose the usage of nonmonotonic upper probabilities as a tool to derive consistent joint upper probabilities for systems where only contextual hidden variables are possible.
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 base…
We show that quantum probabilities can be derived from statistical mechanics of classical fields. We consider Brownian motion in the space of fields and show that such a random field interacting with threshold type detectors produces clicks at random moments of time. And the corresponding probability distribution can be approximately described by the formalism of quantum mechanics. Hence, probabilities in quantum mechanics and classical statistical mechanics differ not so much as it is typically claimed. The temporal structure of the "prequantum random field" (which is the $L_2$-valued Wiener …
By means of the examples of classical and Bohmian quantum mechanics, we illustrate the well-known ideas of Boltzmann as to how one gets from laws defined for the universe as a whole to dynamical relations describing the evolution of subsystems. We explain how probabilities enter into this process, what quantum and classical probabilities have in common and where exactly their difference lies.
Both the quantum mechanical and classical Bells experiment are within the focus of this paper. The fact that one measures different probabilities in both experiments is traced back to the superposition of two orthogonal but nonentangled substates in the quantum mechanical case. This superposition results in an interference term that can be splitted into two additional states representing a sink and a source of probabilities in the classical event space related to Bells experiment. As a consequence, a statistical operator can be related to the quantum mechanical Bells experiment that contains a…
Algorithmic probability has shown some promise in dealing with the probability problem in the Everett interpretation, since it provides an objective, single-case probability measure. Many find the Everettian cosmology to be overly extravagant, however, and algorithmic probability has also provided improved models of subjective probability and Bayesian reasoning. I attempt here to generalize algorithmic Everettianism to more Bayesian and subjectivist interpretations. I present a general framework for applying generative probability, of which algorithmic probability can be considered a special c…
The predictions of quantum mechanics are probabilistic. Quantum probabilities are extracted using a postulate of the theory called the Born rule, the status of which is central to the "measurement problem" of quantum mechanics. Efforts to justify the Born rule from other physical principles, and thus elucidate the measurement process, have involved lengthy statistical or information-theoretic arguments. Here we show that Bohm's deterministic formulation of quantum mechanics allows the Born rule for measurements on a single system to be derived, without any statistical assumptions. We solve a s…
Here we continue with the ideas expressed in "On the strangeness of quantum mechanics" aiming to demonstrate more concretely how this philosophical outlook might be used as a key for resolving the measurement problem. We will address in detail the problem of determining how the concept of undecidability leads to substantial changes to classical theory of probability by showing how such changes produce a theory that coincides with the principles underlying quantum mechanics.
The concept of Logical Entropy, $S_L = 1- \sum_{i=1}^n p_i^2$, where the $p_i$ are normalized probabilities, was introduced by David Ellerman in a series of recent papers. Although the mathematical formula itself is not new, Ellerman provided a sound probabilistic interpretation of $S_L$ as a measure of the distinctions of a partition on a given set. The same formula comes across as a useful definition of entropy in quantum mechanics, where it is linked to the notion of purity of a quantum state. The quadratic form of the logical entropy lends itself to a generalization of the probabilities th…
Some authors have raised the question whether the probabilities stemming from a quantum mechanical computation are entitled to enter the Bell and the Clauser-Horne inequalities. They have remarked that if the quantum probabilities are given the status of conditional ones and the statistics for the various settings of the detectors in a given experiment is properly kept into account, the inequalities happen to be no longer violated. In the present paper a classical simile modeled after the quantum mechanical instances is closely scrutinised. It is shown that the neglect of the conditional chara…
ETH Zurich（苏黎世联邦理工学院）；The Chinese University of Hong Kong（香港中文大学）
A factor-graph representation of quantum-mechanical probabilities (involving any number of measurements) is proposed. Unlike standard statistical models, the proposed representation uses auxiliary variables (state variables) that are not random variables. All joint probability distributions are marginals of some complex-valued function $q$, and it is demonstrated how the basic concepts of quantum mechanics relate to factorizations and marginals of $q$.
Classical mechanics is a singular theory in that real-energy classical particles can never enter classically forbidden regions. However, if one regulates classical mechanics by allowing the energy E of a particle to be complex, the particle exhibits quantum-like behavior: Complex-energy classical particles can travel between classically allowed regions separated by potential barriers. When Im(E) -> 0, the classical tunneling probabilities persist. Hence, one can interpret quantum tunneling as an anomaly. A numerical comparison of complex classical tunneling probabilities with quantum tunneling…
Bounds on quantum probabilities and expectation values are derived for experimental setups associated with Bell-type inequalities. In analogy to the classical bounds, the quantum limits are experimentally testable and therefore serve as criteria for the validity of quantum mechanics.
A longstanding issue in attempts to understand the Everett (Many-Worlds) approach to quantum mechanics is the origin of the Born rule: why is the probability given by the square of the amplitude? Following Vaidman, we note that observers are in a position of self-locating uncertainty during the period between the branches of the wave function splitting via decoherence and the observer registering the outcome of the measurement. In this period it is tempting to regard each branch as equiprobable, but we argue that the temptation should be resisted. Applying lessons from this analysis, we demons…
Starting from the famous Pauli problem on the possibility to associate quantum states with probabilities, the formulation of quantum mechanics in which quantum states are described by fair probability distributions (tomograms, i.e. tomographic probabilities) is reviewed in a pedagogical style. The relation between the quantum state description and the classical state description is elucidated. The difference of those sets of tomograms is described by inequalities equivalent to a complete set of uncertainty relations for the quantum domain and to nonnegativity of probability density on phase sp…
A new ensemble interpretation of quantum mechanics is proposed according to which the ensemble associated to a quantum state really exists: it is the ensemble of all the systems in the same quantum state in the universe. Individual systems within the ensemble have microscopic states, described by beables. The probabilities of quantum theory turn out to be just ordinary relative frequencies probabilities in these ensembles. Laws for the evolution of the beables of individual systems are given such that their ensemble relative frequencies evolve in a way that reproduces the predictions of quantu…
Most scholars maintain that quantum mechanics (QM) is a contextual theory and that quantum probability does not allow an epistemic (ignorance) interpretation. By inquiring possible connections between contextuality and non-classical probabilities we show that a class T of theories can be selected in which probabilities are introduced as classical averages of Kolmogorovian probabilities over sets of (microscopic) contexts, which endows them with an epistemic interpretation. The conditions characterizing T are compatible with classical mechanics (CM), statistical mechanics (SM) and QM, hence we …
In Mod. Phys. Lett. A 9, 3119 (1994), one of us (R.D.S) investigated a formulation of quantum mechanics as a generalized measure theory. Quantum mechanics computes probabilities from the absolute squares of complex amplitudes, and the resulting interference violates the (Kolmogorov) sum rule expressing the additivity of probabilities of mutually exclusive events. However, there is a higher order sum rule that quantum mechanics does obey, involving the probabilities of three mutually exclusive possibilities. We could imagine a yet more general theory by assuming that it violates the next higher…
Usual quantum mechanics predicts probabilities for the outcomes of measurements carried out at definite moments of time. However, realistic measurements do not take place in an instant, but are extended over a period of time. The assumption of instantaneous alternatives in usual quantum mechanics is an approximation whose validity can be investigated in the generalized quantum mechanics of closed systems in which probabilities are predicted for spacetime alternatives that extend over time. In this paper we investigate how alternatives extended over time reduce to the usual instantaneous altern…
An expression is proposed for the quantum mechanical state of a pre- and post-selected ensemble, which is an ensemble determined by the final as well as the initial state of the quantum systems involved. It is shown that the probabilities calculated from the proposed state agree with previous expressions, for cases where they both apply. The same probabilities are found when they are calculated in the forward- or reverse-time directions. This work was prompted by several problems raised by Shimony recently in relation to the state, and time symmetry, of pre- and post-selected ensembles.
It is well known that, due to the uncertainty principle, the Planck constant sets a resolution boundary in phase space and the resulting trade-off in resolution between incompatible measurements has been thoroughly investigated. It is also known that, in the classical regime, sufficiently coarse measurements of position and momentum can simultaneously be determined. However, the picture of how the uncertainty principle gradually disappears as we transition from the quantum to the classical regime is not so vivid. In the present work we clarify this picture by studying the associated probabilit…
The predictions of the Bohmian and the decoherent (or consistent) histories formulations of the quantum mechanics of a closed system are compared for histories -- sequences of alternatives at a series of times. For certain kinds of histories, Bohmian mechanics and decoherent histories may both be formulated in the same mathematical framework within which they can be compared. In that framework, Bohmian mechanics and decoherent histories represent a given history by different operators. Their predictions for the probabilities of histories therefore generally differ. However, in an idealized mod…
In a recent article [Phys. Rev. A 57, 1572 (1998)] Caticha has concluded that ``nonlinear variants of quantum mechanics are inconsistent.'' In this note we identify what it is that nonlinear quantum theories have been shown to be inconsistent with.
This note is sketching a simple and natural mathematical construction for explaining the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics. It employs nonstandard analysis and is based on Feynman's interpretation of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, i.e., of the quantum fluctuations, which was brought to the forefront in some fractal approaches. It results, as in Nelson's stochastic mechanics, in stochastic differential equations which are deduced from infinitesimal random walks. An extended english abstract gives most of the details.
