Four and a Half Axioms for Finite Dimensional Quantum Mechanics

TL;DR

This paper proposes four axioms that nearly derive finite-dimensional quantum mechanics, linking classical measurement, symmetry, and non-signaling states to the mathematical structure of quantum theory.

Contribution

It introduces a set of four strong axioms that lead to the derivation of the mathematical framework of finite-dimensional quantum mechanics.

Findings

Measurements represented by orthonormal subsets

States represented by vectors in an ordered real Hilbert space

Positive cone of the space is homogeneous and self-dual

Abstract

I discuss a set of strong, but probabilistically intelligible, axioms from which one can {\em almost} derive the appratus of finite dimensional quantum theory. Stated informally, these require that systems appear completely classical as restricted to a single measurement, that different measurements, and likewise different pure states, be equivalent (up to the action of a compact group of symmetries), and that every state be the marginal of a bipartite non-signaling state perfectly correlating two measurements. This much yields a mathematical representation of measurements and states that is already very suggestive of quantum mechanics. In particular, in any theory satisfying these axioms, measurements can be represented by orthonormal subsets of, and states, by vectors in, an ordered real Hilbert space -- in the quantum case, the space of Hermitian operators, with its usual tracial inner product. One final postulate (a simple minimization principle, still in need of a clear interpretation) forces the positive cone of this space to be homogeneous and self-dual and hence, to be the the state space of a formally real Jordan algebra. From here, the route to the standard framework of finite-dimensional quantum mechanics is quite short.