Quantum theory for a total system including one internal measuring apparatus

TL;DR

This paper develops a quantum theory for a total system including an internal measuring apparatus, addressing how different state decompositions affect physical implications and proposing a consistent framework for measurement within quantum mechanics.

Contribution

It introduces a formalism incorporating internal measurement devices into quantum theory with a new principle ensuring consistent descriptions of physical states.

Findings

Different decompositions of density operators can have distinct physical implications.

The theory imposes restrictions on state vectors to ensure consistent measurement predictions.

It suggests a possible breaking of time-reversal symmetry in quantum evolution.

Abstract

In this paper, we extend the standard formalism of quantum mechanics to a quantum theory for a total system including one internal measuring apparatus. The internality of the measuring apparatus implies that different decomposition of a given density operator for the internal measuring apparatus into mixture of pure states may have different physical implications. We use `specified mixed-state description' to call a density operator with a specified decomposition into mixture of pure states. The proposed theory has three basic assumptions, which roughly speaking have the following contents: (i) Physical states of the total system can be associated with vectors in the total Hilbert space; (ii) the dynamical evolution of a state vector obeys Schr\"{o}dinger equation; and (iii) under a principle of compatible description and certain non-transition condition, a pure-vector description of the total system may imply the existence of certain specified mixed-state description. The principle of compatible description states that different mathematical descriptions for the same physical state of the total system must give consistent predictions for results of measurements performed by the internal measuring apparatus. This principle imposes a restriction to vectors in the Hilbert space and this may effectively break the time-reversal symmetry of Schr\"{o}dinger equation.