Spectral resolutions in effect algebras
Anna Jenčová, Sylvia Pulmannová · Quantum · 2022
Effect algebras were introduced as an abstract algebraic model for Hilbert space effects representing quantum mechanical measurements. We study additional structures on an effect algebra E that enable us to define spectrality and spectral resolutions for elements of E akin to those of self-adjoint operators. These structures, called compression bases, are special families of maps on E , analogous to the set of compressions on operator algebras, order unit spaces or unital abelian groups. Elements of a compression base are in one-to-one correspondence with certain elements of E , called projections. An effect algebra is called spectral if it has a distinguished compression base with two special properties: the projection cover property (i.e., for every element a in E there is a smallest projection majorizing a ), and the so-called b-comparability property, which is an analogue of general comparability in operator algebras or unital abelian groups. It is shown that in a spectral archimedean effect algebra E , every a∈E admits a unique rational spectral resolution and its properties are studied. If in addition E possesses a separating set of states, then every element a∈E is determined by its spectral resolution. It is also proved that for some types of interval effect algebras (with RDP, archimedean divisible), spectrality of E is equivalent to spectrality of its universal group and the corresponding rational spectral resolutions are the same. In particular, for convex archimedean effect algebras, spectral resolutions in E are in agreement with spectral resolutions in the corresponding order unit space.