The measurement postulates of quantum mechanics are not redundant

TL;DR

This paper challenges the claim that quantum measurement postulates are redundant by providing explicit examples of alternative measurement rules, showing the assumptions used are not exclusive to quantum mechanics, and emphasizing the empirical nature of such questions.

Contribution

It refutes previous claims by constructing explicit non-quantum measurement models and analyzing the assumptions, demonstrating quantum mechanics can be extended beyond standard measurement postulates.

Findings

Explicit examples of non-quantum measurement rules satisfying the assumptions.

The 'possibility of state estimation' is neither necessary nor sufficient for state estimation.

Quantum mechanics can be extended with alternative measurement rules, which are empirically testable.

Abstract

Masanes, Galley and M\"uller [1] argue that the measurement postulates of non-relativistic quantum mechanics follow from the structural postulates together with an assumption they call the "possibility of state estimation". Their argument also relies on what they term a "theory-independent characterization of measurements for single and multipartite systems". We refute their conclusion, giving explicit examples of non-quantum measurement and state update rules that satisfy all their assumptions. We also show that their "possibility of state estimation" assumption is neither necessary nor sufficient to ensure a sensible notion of state estimation within a theory whose states are described by the quantum formalism. We further show their purportedly "theory-independent" characterization assumes several properties of quantum measurements that exclude plausible alternative types of measurement. We illustrate all these points with specific alternative measurement postulates and post-measurement state update rules. We conclude that, contrary to some folklore, quantum mechanics is by no means an island in theory-space. It can consistently be extended by rules for obtaining information about quantum states other than via POVMs. Whether such rules are realised in nature, for example in linking quantum theory and gravity, is an empirical question that cannot be resolved by theoretical analysis alone.