Maximum Entropy Principle as Postulate of Quantum Mechanics
Abstract
Even a century after the formulation of Quantum Mechanics (QM), the wave function collapse (WFC) remains a contentious aspect of the theory. Environment-induced decoherence has offered a partial resolution by illustrating how unitary evolution in an open quantum system can lead to effective WFC within its components. However, this approach by itself does not lead to a fully self-consistent reformulation of QM. We introduce a modified set of QM postulates, which exclude both WFC and Born's probability rule. They are replaced with the Maximum Entropy Principle, a weaker postulate that specifies conditional probabilities for mutually compatible observations. Within this formulation, both WFC and Born's rule become emerging properties.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2311.04893,
title = {Maximum Entropy Principle as Postulate of Quantum Mechanics},
author = {Alexei V. Tkachenko},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.04893},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
6 pages, 1 figure