A Bayesian account of quantum histories
- School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD (United Kingdom)
We investigate whether quantum history theories can be consistent with Bayesian reasoning and whether such an analysis helps clarify the interpretation of such theories. First, we summarise and extend recent work categorising two different approaches to formalising multi-time measurements in quantum theory. The standard approach consists of describing an ordered series of measurements in terms of history propositions with non-additive 'probabilities.' The non-standard approach consists of defining multi-time measurements to consist of sets of exclusive and exhaustive history propositions and recovering the single-time exclusivity of results when discussing single-time history propositions. We analyse whether such history propositions can be consistent with Bayes' rule. We show that certain class of histories are given a natural Bayesian interpretation, namely, the linearly positive histories originally introduced by Goldstein and Page. Thus, we argue that this gives a certain amount of interpretational clarity to the non-standard approach. We also attempt a justification of our analysis using Cox's axioms of probability theory.
- OSTI ID:
- 20767013
- Journal Information:
- Annals of Physics (New York), Vol. 321, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1016/j.aop.2005.09.006; PII: S0003-4916(05)00158-2; Copyright (c) 2005 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-4916
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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