Order properties of bounded observables
Neal Zierler · Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society · 1963
Continuing the development [4] of an aspect of the approach to the axiomatization of quantum mechanics of G. W. Mackey [3], we consider here the real linear space X of signed measures on the set P of events generated by the states, and the set F0 of linear functionals on X which are induced in a natural way by the bounded observables. A necessary and sufficient condition for two events to be simultaneously measurable is found in terms of the order structure of F0, with the following consequence: if F0 is a lattice, P is deterministic. At the opposite extreme, F0 is said to be an anti-lattice1 if the greatest lower bound exists only for comparable pairs of its elements and we show in this case that the center of P is trivial. Our results extend those of R. V. Kadison [l], in which F0 and P are the self-adjoint operators and projections respectively in a uniformly closed self-adjoint operator algebra. While the framework and plan of the proofs were inspired by Kadison's work, almost none of the apparatus used by him is available here with the result that, in detail, our techniques are quite different from his. Let P be a weakly modular partially ordered set (see [4]). A function x from P to the non-negative real numbers and + oo is said to be a measure if x(0) =0 and x is countably additive in the sense that whenever {a,} is a pairwise orthogonal sequence of elements of P, then x(Ua?) = 2Zxiad- If x is a measure and {bt} EP is an increasing (decreasing) sequence with supremum (infimum) b, then x(&?) —*x(6). A countably additive function x from P to the extended real numbers is a signed measure if x(0) =0 and x takes on at most one of the values + =o and — oo ; x is finite if x(l) is finite. Define the functions 5 and i on the signed measures on P by six) = sup(x(a) : aEP\, fx) =inf {x(a): aEP} and set ||x|| =s(x)—?(x). Clearly ||x|| < oo if and only if x is finite. It iseasy toseethat||x|| = sup {x(a)— xia'):aE P} ■ Lemma 1. Let X be a real linear space of finite signed measures on P. Then the function || || defined above is a norm for X and, under this norm and its natural partial ordering, X is a partially ordered normed linear space. That is,2