arXiv subjects

Gerd Niestegge

Publications and source records attributed to Gerd Niestegge.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The bare necessities of a physically reasonable mathematical model for quantum theory

The physical foundation of the mathematical formalism of quantum theory is still an iffy mystery. Here it is presumed that a physically reasonable mathematical model needs only three basic features. The first one are the transition probabilities, which are so typical of quantum theory. The other two constitute a variation of the postulate that continuous reversible dynamical processes exist and act transitively on the underlying space. One class of mathematical models with these features arises from the atomic JBW factors, which include the atomic von Neumann factors and become identical with the Jordan matrix algebras, when the dimension is finite. A further model is known, on which the exceptional Lie group E6 acts transitively. Interestingly, E6 is sometimes considered a candidate for internal symmetries in particle physics, but many familiar features of quantum theory get lost in this case (particularly the general existence of post-measurement states). The paper concludes with some open issues, concerning this problem and the classification of the mathematical structures with the three features.

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arXiv2026

On the homogeneity of the quantum transition probability

In the years 1952 and 1965, H.-C. Wang and U. Hirzebruch showed that the two-point homogeneous compact spaces with convex metrics are isometric to the spheres, the real, complex, octonion projective spaces and the Moufang plane and as well to the sets of the minimal idempotents or pure states in the simple Euclidean Jordan algebras. Here we reveal the physical meaning of these mathematical achievements for the quantum mechanical transition probability. We show that this transition probability features a maximum degree of homogeneity in all simple Euclidean Jordan algebras, which includes common finite-dimensional Hilbert space quantum theory. The atomic parts of these algebras or, equivalently, the extreme boundaries of their state spaces can be characterized by purely topological means. This is an important difference to many other recent approaches that aim to distinguish the entire state spaces among the convex compact sets. An interesting case with non-homogeneous transition probability arises, when the $E_6$-symmetric bioctonionic projective plane is used as quantum logic.

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arXiv2024

Continuous symmetry entails the Jordan algebra structure of finite-dimensional quantum theory

Symmetry postulates play a crucial role in various approaches to reconstruct quantum theory from a few basic principles. Discrete and continuous symmetries are under consideration. The continuous case better matches the physical needs for mathematical models of dynamical processes and is studied here. Applying the representation theory of the orthomodular lattices and a generalized version of Gleason's theorem for Jordan matrix algebras, we show that the continuous symmetry, together with three further requirements, entails that the underlying mathematical structure of a finite-dimensional generalized probabilistic theory becomes a simple Euclidean Jordan algebra. The further requirements are: spectrality, a strong state space and a condition called gbit property.

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arXiv2024

Quantum transition probability in convex sets and self-dual cones

The interplay between the algebraic structure (operator algebras) for the quantum observables and the convex structure of the state space has been explored for a long time and most advanced results are due to Alfsen and Shultz. Here we present a more elementary approach with a more generic structure for the observables, which focuses on the transition probability of the quantum logical atoms. The binary case gives rise to the generalized qubit models and was fully developed in a preceding paper. Here we consider any case with finite information capacity (binary means that the information capacity is 2). A novel geometric property that makes any compact convex set a matching state space is presented. Generally, the transition probability is not symmetric; if it is symmetric, we get an inner product and a self-dual cone. The emerging mathematical structure comes close to the Euclidean Jordan algebras and becomes a new mathematical model for a potential extension of quantum theory.

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arXiv2024

Bit symmetry entails the symmetry of the quantum transition probability

It is quite common to use the generalized probabilistic theories (GPTs) as generic models to reconstruct quantum theory from a few basic principles and to gain a better understanding of the probabilistic or information theoretic foundations of quantum physics and quantum computing. A variety of symmetry postulates was introduced and studied in this framework, including the transitivity of the automorphism group (1) on the pure states, (2) on the pairs of orthogonal pure states [these pairs are called 2-frames] and (3) on any frames of the same size. The second postulate is M\"uller and Ududec's bit symmetry, which they motivate by quantum computational needs. Here we explore these three postulates in the transition probability framework, which is more specific than the GPTs since the existence of the transition probabilities for the quantum logical atoms is presupposed either directly or indirectly via a certain geometric property of the state space. This property for compact convex sets was introduced by the author in a recent paper. We show that bit symmetry implicates the symmetry of the transition probabilities between the atoms. Using a result by Barnum and Hilgert, we can then conclude that the third rather strong symmetry postulate rules out all models but the classical cases and the simple Euclidean Jordan algebras.

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arXiv2022

Non-symmetric transition probability in generalized qubit models

The quantum mechanical transition probability is symmetric. A probabilistically motivated and more general quantum logical definition of the transition probability was introduced in two preceding papers without postulating its symmetry, but in all the examples considered there it remains symmetric. Here we present a class of binary models where the transition probability is not symmetric, using the extreme points of the unit interval in an order unit space as quantum logic. We show that their state spaces are strictly convex smooth compact convex sets and that each such set K gives rise to a quantum logic of this class with the state space K. The transition probabilities are symmetric iff K is the unit ball in a Hilbert space. In this case, the quantum logic becomes identical with the projection lattice in a spin factor which is a special type of formally real Jordan algebra.

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arXiv2022

A generic approach to the quantum mechanical transition probability

In quantum theory, the modulus-square of the inner product of two normalized Hilbert space elements is to be interpreted as the transition probability between the pure states represented by these elements. A probabilistically motivated and more general definition of this transition probability was introduced in a preceding paper and is extended here to a general type of quantum logics: the orthomodular partially ordered sets. A very general version of the quantum no-cloning theorem, creating promising new opportunities for quantum cryptography, is presented and an interesting relationship between the transition probability and Jordan algebras is highlighted.

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arXiv2020

Quantum Probability's Algebraic Origin

Max Born's statistical interpretation made probabilities play a major role in quantum theory. Here we show that these quantum probabilities and the classical probabilities have very different origins. While the latter always result from an assumed probability measure, the first include transition probabilities with a purely algebraic origin. Moreover, the general definition of transition probability introduced here comprises not only the well-known quantum mechanical transition probabilities between pure states or wave functions, but further physically meaningful and experimentally verifiable novel cases. A transition probability that differs from 0 and 1 manifests the typical quantum indeterminacy in a similar way as Heisenberg's and others' uncertainty relations and, furthermore, rules out deterministic states in the same way as the Bell-Kochen-Specker theorem. However, the transition probability defined here achieves a lot more beyond that: it demonstrates that the algebraic structure of the Hilbert space quantum logic dictates the precise values of certain probabilities and it provides an unexpected access to these quantum probabilities that does not rely on states or wave functions.

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arXiv2020

Local tomography and the role of the complex numbers in quantum mechanics

Various reconstructions of finite-dimensional quantum mechanics result in a formally real Jordan algebra A and a last step remains to conclude that A is the self-adjoint part of a C*-algebra. Using a quantum logical setting, it is shown that this can be achieved by postulating that there is a locally tomographic model for a composite system consisting of two copies of the same system. Local tomography is a feature of classical probability theory and quantum mechanics; it means that state tomography for a multipartite system can be performed by simultaneous measurements in all subsystems. The quantum logical definition of local tomography is sufficient, but it is less restictive than the prevalent definition in the literature and involves some subtleties concerning the so-called spin factors.

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arXiv2020

A simple and quantum-mechanically motivated characterization of the formally real Jordan algebras

Quantum theory's Hilbert space apparatus in its finite-dimensional version is nearly reconstructed from four simple and quantum-mechanically motivated postulates for a quantum logic. The reconstruction process is not complete, since it excludes the two-dimensional Hilbert space and still includes the exceptional Jordan algebras, which are not part of the Hilbert space apparatus. Options for physically meaningful potential generalizations of the apparatus are discussed.

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arXiv2017

Quantum teleportation and Grover's algorithm without the wavefunction

In the same way as the quantum no-cloning theorem and quantum key distribution in two preceding papers, entanglement-assisted quantum teleportation and Grover's search algorithm are generalized by transferring them to an abstract setting, including usual quantum mechanics as a special case. This again shows that a much more general and abstract access to these quantum mechanical features is possible than commonly thought. A non-classical extension of conditional probability and, particularly, a very special type of state-independent conditional probability are used instead of Hilbert spaces and wavefunctions.

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arXiv2016

Quantum key distribution without the wavefunction

A well-known feature of quantum mechanics is the secure exchange of secret bit strings which can then be used as keys to encrypt messages transmitted over any classical communication channel. It is demonstrated that this quantum key distribution allows a much more general and abstract access than commonly thought. The results include some generalizations for the Hilbert space version of quantum key distribution,but base upon a general non-classical extension of conditional probability. A special state-independent conditional probability is identified as origin of the superior security of quantum key distribution and may have more profound implications for the foundations and interpretation of quantum mechanics,quantum information theory, and the philosophical question what actually constitutes physical reality.

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arXiv2015

Non-classical conditional probability and the quantum no-cloning theorem

The quantum mechanical no-cloning theorem for pure states is generalized and transfered to the quantum logics with a conditional probability calculus in a rather abstract, though simple and basic fashion without relying on a tensor product construction or finite dimension as required in other generalizations.

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arXiv2015

Dynamical Correspondence in a Generalized Quantum Theory

In order to figure out why quantum physics needs the complex Hilbert space, many attempts have been made to distinguish the C*-algebras and von Neumann algebras in more general classes of abstractly defined Jordan algebras (JB- and JBW-algebras). One particularly important distinguishing property was identified by Alfsen and Shultz and is the existence of a dynamical correspondence. It reproduces the dual role of the selfadjoint operators as observables and generators of dynamical groups in quantum mechanics. In the paper, this concept is extended to another class of nonassociative algebras, arising from recent studies of the quantum logics with a conditional probability calculus and particularly of those that rule out third-order interference. The conditional probability calculus is a mathematical model of the Lueders-von Neumann quantum measurement process, and third-order interference is a property of the conditional probabilities which was discovered by R. Sorkin in 1994 and which is ruled out by quantum mechanics. It is shown then that the postulates that a dynamical correspondence exists and that the square of any algebra element is positive still characterize, in the class considered, those algebras that emerge from the selfadjoint parts of C*-algebras equipped with the Jordan product. Within this class, the two postulates thus result in ordinary quantum mechanics using the complex Hilbert space or, vice versa, a genuine generalization of quantum theory must omit at least one of them.

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arXiv2014

A Generalized Quantum Theory

In quantum mechanics, the selfadjoint Hilbert space operators play a triple role as observables, generators of the dynamical groups and statistical operators defining the mixed states. One might expect that this is typical of Hilbert space quantum mechanics, but it is not. The same triple role occurs for the elements of a certain ordered Banach space in a much more general theory based upon quantum logics and a conditional probability calculus (which is a quantum logical model of the Lueders-von Neumann measurement process). It is shown how positive groups, automorphism groups, Lie algebras and statistical operators emerge from one major postulate - the non-existence of third-order interference (third-order interference and its impossibility in quantum mechanics were discovered by R. Sorkin in 1994). This again underlines the power of the combination of the conditional probability calculus with the postulate that there is no third-order interference. In two earlier papers, its impact on contextuality and nonlocality had already been revealed.

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arXiv2014

Super quantum probabilities and three-slit experiments -- Wright's pentagon state and the Popescu-Rohrlich box require third-order interference

Quantum probabilities differ from classical ones in many ways, e.g., by violating the well-known Bell and CHSH inequalities or another simple inequality due to R. Wright. The latter one has recently regained attention because of its equivalence to a novel noncontextual inequality by Klyachko et al. On the other hand, quantum probabilities still obey many limitations which need not hold any more in more general probabilistic theories (super quantum probabilities). Wright, Popescu and Rohrlich identified states which are included in such theories, but impossible in quantum mechanics, and they showed this using its Hilbert space formalism. Recently, Fritz et al. and Cabello detected that the impossibility of these states can be derived from very general principles (local orthogonality and global exclusive disjunction, respectively) without using Hilbert space techniques. In the paper, an alternative derivation from rather different phyisical principles will be presented. These are a reasonable calculus of conditional probability (i.e., a model for the quantum measurement process) and the absence of third-order interference. The concept of third-order interference was introduced by Sorkin who also recognized its impossibility in quantum mechanics.

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arXiv2013

Three-slit experiments and quantum nonlocality

An interesting link between two very different physical aspects of quantum mechanics is revealed; these are the absence of third-order interference and Tsirelson's bound for the nonlocal correlations. Considering multiple-slit experiments - not only the traditional configuration with two slits, but also configurations with three and more slits - Sorkin detected that third-order (and higher-order) interference is not possible in quantum mechanics. The EPR experiments show that quantum mechanics involves nonlocal correlations which are demonstrated in a violation of the Bell or CHSH inequality, but are still limited by a bound discovered by Tsirelson. It now turns out that Tsirelson's bound holds in a broad class of probabilistic theories provided that they rule out third-order interference. A major characteristic of this class is the existence of a reasonable calculus of conditional probability or, phrased more physically, of a reasonable model for the quantum measurement process.

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arXiv2012

Conditional probability, three-slit experiments, and the Jordan algebra structure of quantum mechanics

Most quantum logics do not allow for a reasonable calculus of conditional probability. However, those ones which do so provide a very general and rich mathematical structure, including classical probabilities, quantum mechanics as well as Jordan algebras. This structure exhibits some similarities with Alfsen and Shultz's non-commutative spectral theory, but these two mathematical approaches are not identical. Barnum, Emerson and Ududec adapted the concept of higher-order interference, introduced by Sorkin in 1994, into a general probabilistic framework. Their adaption is used here to reveal a close link between the existence of the Jordan product and the non-existence of interference of third or higher order in those quantum logics which entail a reasonable calculus of conditional probability. The complete characterization of the Jordan algebraic structure requires the following three further postulates: a Hahn-Jordan decomposition property for the states, a polynomial functional calculus for the observables, and the positivity of the square of an observable. While classical probabilities are characterized by the absence of any kind of interference, the absence of interference of third (and higher) order thus characterizes a probability calculus which comes close to quantum mechanics, but still includes the exceptional Jordan algebras.

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