paper

A simple and quantum-mechanically motivated characterization of the formally real Jordan algebras

arXiv:1905.04189 · doi:10.1098/rspa.2019.0604

Abstract

Quantum theory's Hilbert space apparatus in its finite-dimensional version is nearly reconstructed from four simple and quantum-mechanically motivated postulates for a quantum logic. The reconstruction process is not complete, since it excludes the two-dimensional Hilbert space and still includes the exceptional Jordan algebras, which are not part of the Hilbert space apparatus. Options for physically meaningful potential generalizations of the apparatus are discussed.

19 pages