English

On Statistical Independence and No-Correlation for a Pair of Random Variables Taking Two Values: Classical and Quantum

Quantum Physics 2018-10-23 v3 Probability

Abstract

It is well known that when a pair of random variables is statistically independent, it has no-correlation (zero covariance, E[XY]E[X]E[Y]=0E[XY] - E[X]E[Y] = 0), and that the converse is not true. However, if both of these random variables take only two values, no-correlation entails statistical independence. We provide here a general proof. We subsequently examine whether this equivalence property carries over to quantum mechanical systems. A counter-example is explicitly constructed to show that it does not. This observation provides yet another simple theorem separating classical and quantum theories.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1804.09248,
  title  = {On Statistical Independence and No-Correlation for a Pair of Random Variables Taking Two Values: Classical and Quantum},
  author = {Toru Ohira},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1804.09248},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

7 pages, 2 figures, minor revision, To appear in Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics

R2 v1 2026-06-23T01:34:34.666Z