Lesson plan

State (functional analysis)

In the mathematical field of functional analysis, a state of an operator system is a positive linear functional of norm 1. States in functional analysis generalize the notion of density matrices in quantum mechanics, which represent quantum states, both mixed states and pure states. Density matrices in turn generalize state vectors, which only represent pure states. For M an operator system in a C*-algebra A with identity, the set of all states of M, sometimes denoted by S(M), is convex, weak-* closed in the Banach dual space M * . Thus the set of all states of M with the weak-* topology forms a compact Hausdorff space, known as the state space of M. In the C*-algebraic formulation of quantum mechanics, states in this previous sense correspond to physical states, i.e. mappings from physical observables (self-adjoint elements of the C*-algebra) to their expected measurement outcome (real number).

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Article summary

In the mathematical field of functional analysis, a state of an operator system is a positive linear functional of norm 1. States in functional analysis generalize the notion of density matrices in quantum mechanics, which represent quantum states, both mixed states and pure states. Density matrices in turn generalize state vectors, which only represent pure states. For M an operator system in a C*-algebra A with identity, the set of all states of M, sometimes denoted by S(M), is convex, weak-* closed in the Banach dual space M * . Thus the set of all states of M with the weak-* topology forms a compact Hausdorff space, known as the state space of M. In the C*-algebraic formulation of quantum mechanics, states in this previous sense correspond to physical states, i.e. mappings from physical observables (self-adjoint elements of the C*-algebra) to their expected measurement outcome (real number).

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