English

On non-commutativity in quantum theory (I): from classical to quantum probability

Quantum Physics 2018-03-20 v2 Mathematical Physics math.MP Probability

Abstract

A central feature of quantum mechanics is the non-commutativity of operators used to describe physical observables. In this article, we present a critical analysis on the role of non-commutativity in quantum theory, focusing on its consequences in the probabilistic description. Typically, a random phenomenon is described using the measure-theoretic formulation of probability theory. Such a description can also be done using algebraic methods, which are capable to deal with non-commutative random variables (like in quantum mechanics). Here we propose a method to construct a non-commutative probability theory starting from an ordinary measure-theoretic description of probability. This will be done using the entropic uncertainty relations between random variables, in order to evaluate the presence of non-commutativity in their algebraic description.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1803.04913,
  title  = {On non-commutativity in quantum theory (I): from classical to quantum probability},
  author = {Luca Curcuraci},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1803.04913},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

19 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-06-23T00:51:53.700Z