Empirical quantum mechanics

Abstract

Machida and Namiki developed a many-Hilbert-spaces formalism for dealing with the interaction between a quantum object and a measuring apparatus. Their mathematically rugged formalism was polished first by Araki from an operator-algebraic standpoint and then by Ozawa for Boolean quantum mechanics, which approaches a quantum system with a compatible family of continuous superselection rules from a notable and perspicacious viewpoint. On the other hand, Foulis and Randall set up a formal theory for the empirical foundation of all sciences, at the hub of which lies the notion of a manual of operations. They deem an operation as the set of possible outcomes and put down a manual of operations at a family of partially overlapping operations. Their notion of a manual of operations was incorporated into a category-theoretic standpoint into that of a manual of Boolean locales by Nishimura, who looked upon an operation as the complete Boolean algebra of observable events. Considering a family of Hilbert spaces not over a single Boolean locale but over a manual of Boolean locales as a whole, Ozawa's Boolean quantum mechanics is elevated into empirical quantum mechanics, which is, roughly speaking, the study of quantum systems with incompatible families of continuous superselection rules. To this end, we are obliged to develop empirical Hilbert space theory. In particular, empirical versions of the square root lemma for bounded positive operators, the spectral theorem for (possibly unbounded) self-adjoint operators, and Stone's theorem for one-parameter unitary groups are established.