PIRSA:13090070

Quantum States are Consistent Probability Distributions

de Silva, N. (2013). Quantum States are Consistent Probability Distributions. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/13090070

de Silva, Nadish. Quantum States are Consistent Probability Distributions. Perimeter Institute, Sep. 12, 2013, https://pirsa.org/13090070 

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:13090070,
            doi = {10.48660/13090070},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/13090070},
            author = {de Silva, Nadish},
            keywords = {Quantum Foundations},
            language = {en},
            title = {Quantum States are Consistent Probability Distributions},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2013},
            month = {sep},
            note = {PIRSA:13090070 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }

Nadish de Silva

University of Oxford

Talk number
PIRSA:13090070
Collection
Talk Type
Subject
Abstract
We describe a notion of state for a quantum system which is given in terms of a collection of empirically realizable probability distributions and is formally analogous to the familiar concept of state from classical statistical mechanics. We first demonstrate the mathematical equivalence of this new notion to the standard quantum notion of density matrix. We identify the simple logical consistency condition (a generalization of the familiar no-signalling condition) which a collection of distributions must obey in order to reconstruct the unique quantum state from which they arise. In this way, we achieve a formal expression of the common intuition of a quantum state as being classical distributions on compatible observables.