Explicit construction of the density matrix in Gleason's theorem

Del Rajan; Matt Visser

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arXiv · 1904.00533

Explicit construction of the density matrix in Gleason's theorem

Del Rajan·Matt Visser

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Abstract

Gleason's theorem is a fundamental 60 year old result in the foundations of quantum mechanix, setting up and laying out the surprisingly minimal assumptions required to deduce the existence of quantum density matrices and the Born rule. Now Gleason's theorem and its proof have been continuously analyzed, simplified, and revised over the last 60 years, and we will have very little to say about the theorem and proof themselves. Instead, we find it useful, (and hopefully interesting), to make some clarifying comments concerning the explicit construction of the quantum density matrix that Gleason's theorem proves exists, but that Gleason's theorem otherwise says relatively little about.

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Del Rajan, Matt Visser. 2019-04-01. Explicit construction of the density matrix in Gleason's theorem. https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.00533

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