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Uncertainty and complementarity in axiomatic quantum mechanics

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Abstract

In this work an investigation of the uncertainty principle and the complementarity principle is carried through. A study of the physical content of these principles and their representation in the conventional Hilbert space formulation of quantum mechanics forms a natural starting point for this analysis. Thereafter is presented more general axiomatic framework for quantum mechanics, namely, a probability function formulation of the theory. In this general framework two extra axioms are stated, reflecting the ideas of the uncertainty principle and the complementarity principle, respectively. The quantal features of these axioms are explicated. The sufficiency of the state system guarantees that the observables satisfying the uncertainty principle are unbounded and noncompatible. The complementarity principle implies a non-Boolean proposition structure for the theory. Moreover, nonconstant complementary observables are always noncompatible. The uncertainty principle and the complementarity principle, as formulated in this work, are mutually independent. Some order is thus brought into the confused discussion about the interrelations of these two important principles. A comparison of the present formulations of the uncertainty principle and the complementarity principle with the Jauch formulation of the superposition principle is also given. The mutual independence of the three fundamental principles of the quantum theory is hereby revealed.

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  1. Theoretical Physics, Department of Physical Sciences, University Of Turku, SF-20500, Turku 50, Finland

    Pekka J. Lahti

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Lahti, P.J. Uncertainty and complementarity in axiomatic quantum mechanics. Int J Theor Phys 19, 789–842 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00670506

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