Observables and instruments have played significant roles in recent studies on the foundations of quantum mechanics. Sequential products of effects and conditioned observables have also been introduced. After an introduction in Section~1, we review these concepts in Section~2. Moreover, it is shown how these ideas can be unified within the framework of measurement models. In Section~3, we illustrate these concepts and their relationships for the simple example of a qubit Hilbert space. Conditioned observables and their distributions are studied in Section~4. Section~5 considers joint probabilities of observables. We introduce a definition for joint probabilities and discuss why we consider this to be superior to the standard definition.
This paper presents some of the basic properties of conditioned observables in finite-dimensional quantum mechanics. We begin by defining the sequential product of quantum effects and use this to define the sequential product of two observables. The sequential product is then employed to construct the conditioned observable relative to another observable. We then show that conditioning preserves mixtures and post-process of observables. We consider conditioning among three observables and a complement of an observable. Corresponding to an observable, we define an observable operator in a natur…
We introduce the concepts of dual instruments and sub-observables. We show that although a dual instruments measures a unique observable, it determines many sub-observables. We define a unique minimal extension of a sub-observable to an observable and consider sequential products and conditioning of sub-observables. Sub-observable effect algebras are characterized and studied. Moreover, the convexity of these effect algebras is considered. The sequential product of instruments is discussed. These concepts are illustrated with many examples of instruments. In particular, we discuss Lüders, Hole…
We first show that every operation possesses an unique dual operation and measures an unique effect. If $a$ and $b$ are effects and $J$ is an operation that measures $a$, we define the sequential product of $a$ then $b$ relative to $J$. Properties of the sequential product are derived and are illustrated in terms of Lüders and Holevo operations. We next extend this work to the theory of instruments and observables. We also define the concept of an instrument (observable) conditioned by another instrument (observable). Identity, state-constant and repeatable instruments are considered. Sequenti…
This article considers quantum systems described by a finite-dimensional complex Hilbert space $H$. We first define the concept of a finite observable on $H$. We then discuss ways of combining observables in terms of convex combinations, post-processing and sequential products. We also define complementary and coexistent observables. We then introduce finite instruments and their related compatible observables. The previous combinations and relations for observables are extended to instruments and their properties are compared. We present four types of instruments; namely, identity, trivial, L…
This article points out that observables and instruments can be combined in many ways that have natural and physical interpretations. We shall mainly concentrate on the mathematical properties of these combinations. Section~1 reviews the basic definitions and observables are considered in Section~2. We study parts of observables, post-processing, generalized convex combinations, sequential products and tensor products. These combinations are extended to instruments in Section~3. We consider properties of observables measured by combinations of instruments. We introduce four special types of in…
For a quantum measurement process described by a quantum instrument $\mathcal{I}$ and a system observable corresponding to a positive-operator valued measure (POVM) $E ,$ $\mathcal{I}$ is said to conserve the information of $E$ if the joint successive measurement of $\mathcal{I}$ followed by $E$ is equivalent to a single measurement of $E .$ We show that for any quantum instrument $\mathcal{I}$ we can construct a POVM conserved by $\mathcal{I}$. Intuitively the construction gives the infinite joint successive measurement of $\mathcal{I}.$ We also show that the constructed POVM is the least inf…
We demonstrate that quantum instruments can provide a unified operational foundation for quantum theory. Since these instruments directly correspond to laboratory devices, this foundation provides an alternate, more experimentally grounded, perspective from which to understand the elements of the traditional approach. We first show that in principle all measurable probabilities and correlations can be expressed entirely in terms of quantum instruments without the need for conventional quantum states or observables. We then show how these states and observables reappear as derived quantities by…
We show that the joint behaviour of an arbitrary pair of quantum observables can be described by quasi-probabilities, which are extensions of the standard probabilities used for describing the behaviour of a single observable. The physical situations that require these quasi-probabilities arise when one considers quantum measurement of an observable conditioned by some other variable, with the notable example being the weak measurement employed to obtain Aharonov's weak value. Specifically, we present a general prescription for the construction of quasi-joint-probability (QJP) distributions as…
Our basic structure is a finite-dimensional complex Hilbert space $H$. We point out that the set of effects on $H$ form a convex effect algebra. Although the set of operators on $H$ also form a convex effect algebra, they have a more detailed structure. W introduce sequential products of effect and operations. Although these have already been studied, we introduce the new concept of sequential products of effects with operations and operations with effects. We then consider various special types of operations. After developing properties of these concepts, the results are generalized to includ…
Weak values arise experimentally as conditioned averages of weak (noisy) observable measurements that minimally disturb an initial quantum state, and also as dynamical variables for reduced quantum state evolution even in the absence of measurement. These averages can exceed the eigenvalue range of the observable ostensibly being estimated, which has prompted considerable debate regarding their interpretation. Classical conditioned averages of noisy signals only show such anomalies if the quantity being measured is also disturbed prior to conditioning. This fact has recently been rediscovered,…
We study the problem of performing orthogonal qubit measurements simultaneously. Since these measurements are incompatible, one has to accept additional imprecision. An optimal joint measurement is the one with the least possible imprecision. All earlier considerations of this problem have concerned only joint measurability of observables, while in this work we also take into account conditional state transformations (i.e., instruments). We characterize the optimal joint instrument for two orthogonal von Neumann instruments as being the Luders instrument of the optimal joint observable.
We introduce contextual values as a generalization of the eigenvalues of an observable that takes into account both the system observable and a general measurement procedure. This technique leads to a natural definition of a general conditioned average that converges uniquely to the quantum weak value in the minimal disturbance limit. As such, we address the controversy in the literature regarding the theoretical consistency of the quantum weak value by providing a more general theoretical framework and giving several examples of how that framework relates to existing experimental and theoreti…
In this work, we study the minimal normal measurement models of quantum instruments. We show that usually the apparatus' Hilbert space in such a model is unitarily isomorphic to the minimal Stinespring dilation space of the instrument.However, if the Hilbert space of the system is infinite dimensional and the multiplicities of the outcomes of the associated observable (POVM) are all infinite then this may not be the case. In these pathological cases, the minimal apparatus' Hilbert space is shown to be unitarily isomorphic to the instrument's minimal dilation space augmented by one extra dimens…
We define a complete measurement of a quantum observable (POVM) as a measurement of the maximally refined version of the POVM. Complete measurements give information from the multiplicities of the measurement outcomes and can be viewed as state preparation procedures. We show that any POVM can be measured completely by using sequential measurements or maximally refinable instruments. Moreover, the ancillary space of a complete measurement can be chosen to be minimal.
Measurement interaction between a measured object and a measuring instrument, if both are initially in a pure state, produces a (final) bipartite entangled state vector. The quasi-classical part of the correlations in it is connected with transmission of information in the measurement. But, prior to "reading" the instrument, there is also purely quantum entanglement in the final state vector. It is shown that in repeatable measurement quantitatively the entanglement equals the amount of incompatibility between the measured observable and the final state. It also equals the amount of incompatib…
Physical quantities are assumed to take real values, which stems from the fact that an usual measuring instrument that measures a physical observable always yields a real number. Here we consider the question of what will happen if physical observables are allowed to take complex values. In this paper, we show that by allowing observables in the Bell inequality to take complex values, a classical physical theory can actually get the same upper bound of the Bell expression as quantum theory. Also, by extending the real field to the quaternionic field, we can puzzle out the GHZ problem using loc…
We consider three types of entities for quantum measurements. In order of generality, these types are: observables, instruments and measurement models. If $α$ and $β$ are entities, we define what it means for $α$ to be a part of $β$. This relationship is essentially equivalent to $α$ being a function of $β$ and in this case $β$ can be employed to measure $α$. We then use the concept to define coexistence of entities and study its properties. A crucial role is played by a map $\alphahat$ which takes an entity of a certain type to one of lower type. For example, if $\iscript$ is an instrument, t…
A detailed theory of quantum premeasurement dynamics is presented in which a unitary composite-system operator that contains the relevant object-measuring-instrument interaction brings about the final premeasurement state. It does not include collapse, and it does not consider the environment. It is assumed that a discrete degenerate or non-degenerate observable is measured. Premeasurement is defined by the calibration condition, which requires that every initially statistically sharp value of the measured observable has to be detected with statistical certainty by the measuring instrument. Th…
The duration, strength and structure of memory effects are crucial properties of physical evolution. Due to the invasive nature of quantum measurement, such properties must be defined with respect to the probing instruments employed. Here, using a photonic platform, we experimentally demonstrate this necessity via two paradigmatic processes: future-history correlations in the first process can be erased by an intermediate quantum measurement; for the second process, a noisy classical measurement blocks the effect of history. We then apply memory truncation techniques to recover an efficient de…
We discuss symmetric quantum measurements and the associated covariant observables modelled, respectively, as instruments and positive-operator-valued measures. The emphasis of this work are the optimality properties of the measurements, namely, extremality, informational completeness, and the rank-1 property which contrast the complementary class of (rank-1) projection-valued measures. The first half of this work concentrates solely on finite-outcome measurements symmetric w.r.t. finite groups where we derive exhaustive characterizations for the pointwise Kraus-operators of covariant instrume…
We consider the evolution of a spin 1/2 (qubit) under the simultaneous continuous measurement of three non-commuting qubit operators sigma_x, sigma_y, sigma_z. For identical ideal detectors the qubit state evolves by approaching a pure state with a random direction in the Bloch vector space and by undergoing locally isotropic diffusion in the perpendicular directions. The quantum state conditioned on the complete detector record is used to assess the fidelity of classically inspired estimates based on running time averages and discrete time bin detector outputs.
The measurement process is considered for quantum field theory on curved spacetimes. Measurements are carried out on one QFT, the "system", using another, the "probe" via a dynamical coupling of "system" and "probe" in a bounded spacetime region. The resulting "coupled theory" determines a scattering map on the uncoupled combination of the "system" and "probe" by reference to natural "in" and "out" spacetime regions. No specific interaction is assumed and all constructions are local and covariant. Given any initial probe state in the "in" region, the scattering map determines a completely posi…
Thermal channels -- the free processes allowed in the resource theory of quantum thermodynamics -- are generalised to thermal instruments, which we interpret as implementing thermodynamically free quantum measurements; a Maxwellian demon using such measurements never violates the second law of thermodynamics. Further properties of thermal instruments are investigated and, in particular, it is shown that they only measure observables commuting with the Hamiltonian, and they thermalise the measured system when performing a complete measurement, the latter of which indicates a thermodynamically i…
The existence of a real linear-space structure on the set of observables of a quantum system -- i.e., the requirement that the linear combination of two generally non-commuting observables $A,B$ is an observable as well -- is a fundamental postulate of the quantum theory yet before introducing any structure of algebra. However, it is by no means clear how to choose the measuring instrument of the composed observable $aA+bB$ ($a,b\in \mathbb{R}$) if such measuring instruments are given for the addends observables $A$ and $B$ when they are incompatible observables. A mathematical version of this…
We study positive kernels on $X\times X$, where $X$ is a set equipped with an action of a group, and taking values in the set of $\mathcal A$-sesquilinear forms on a (not necessarily Hilbert) module over a $C^*$-algebra $\mathcal A$. These maps are assumed to be covariant with respect to the group action on $X$ and a representation of the group in the set of invertible ($\mathcal A$-linear) module maps. We find necessary and sufficient conditions for extremality of such kernels in certain convex subsets of positive covariant kernels. Our focus is mainly on a particular example of these kernels…
The kinematical foundations of Schwinger's algebra of selective measurements were discussed in a previous paper (arXiv:1905.12274) and, as a consequence of this, a new picture of quantum mechanics based on groupoids was proposed. In this paper, the dynamical aspects of the theory are analysed. For that, the algebra generated by the observables, as well as the notion of state, are dicussed, and the structure of the transition functions, that plays an instrumental role in Schwinger's picture, is elucidated. A Hamiltonian picture of dynamical evolution emerges naturally, and the formalism offers …
We explore an identity between two branching graphs and propose a physical meaning in the context of the gauge-gravity correspondence. From the mathematical point of view, the identity equates probabilities associated with $\mathbb{GT}$, the branching graph of the unitary groups, with probabilities associated with $\mathbb{Y}$, the branching graph of the symmetric groups. In order to furnish the identity with physical meaning, we exactly reproduce these probabilities as the square of three point functions involving certain hook-shaped backgrounds. We study these backgrounds in the context of L…
