dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaQuantum and classical probability as Bayes-optimal observation
| Authors | Sven Aerts |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0601138 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0601138 |
Abstract
We propose a simple abstract formalisation of the act of observation, in which the system and the observer are assumed to be in a pure state and their interaction deterministically changes the states such that the outcome can be read from the state of the observer after the interaction. If the observer consistently realizes the outcome which maximizes the likelihood ratio that the outcome pertains to the system under study (and not to his own state), he will be called Bayes-optimal. We calculate the probability if for each trial of the experiment the observer is in a new state picked randomly from his set of states, and the system under investigation is taken from an ensemble of identical pure states. For classical statistical mixtures, the relative frequency resulting from the maximum likelihood principle is an unbiased estimator of the components of the mixture. For repeated Bayes-optimal observation in case the state space is complex Hilbert space, the relative frequency converges to the Born rule. Hence, the principle of Bayes-optimal observation can be regarded as an underlying mechanism for the Born rule. We show the outcome assignment of the Bayes-optimal observer is invariant under unitary transformations and contextual, but the probability that results from repeated application is non-contextual. The proposal gives a concise interpretation for the meaning of the occurrence of a single outcome in a quantum experiment as the unique outcome that, relative to the state of the system, is least dependent on the state of the observe at the instant of measurement.
{
"annotation_id": "cba90829-59c9-4313-b5b8-518500fd206b",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:02:24.251000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:02:24.251000Z",
"file_hash": "63d5070e2520d2ca6362bf2212d01f982a62a4ebbb6ff80f82bf1c50c5684eb9",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "We propose a simple abstract formalisation of the act of observation, in\nwhich the system and the observer are assumed to be in a pure state and their\ninteraction deterministically changes the states such that the outcome can be\nread from the state of the observer after the interaction. If the observer\nconsistently realizes the outcome which maximizes the likelihood ratio that the\noutcome pertains to the system under study (and not to his own state), he will\nbe called Bayes-optimal. We calculate the probability if for each trial of the\nexperiment the observer is in a new state picked randomly from his set of\nstates, and the system under investigation is taken from an ensemble of\nidentical pure states. For classical statistical mixtures, the relative\nfrequency resulting from the maximum likelihood principle is an unbiased\nestimator of the components of the mixture. For repeated Bayes-optimal\nobservation in case the state space is complex Hilbert space, the relative\nfrequency converges to the Born rule. Hence, the principle of Bayes-optimal\nobservation can be regarded as an underlying mechanism for the Born rule. We\nshow the outcome assignment of the Bayes-optimal observer is invariant under\nunitary transformations and contextual, but the probability that results from\nrepeated application is non-contextual. The proposal gives a concise\ninterpretation for the meaning of the occurrence of a single outcome in a\nquantum experiment as the unique outcome that, relative to the state of the\nsystem, is least dependent on the state of the observe at the instant of\nmeasurement.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0601138",
"authors": [
"Sven Aerts"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"title": "Quantum and classical probability as Bayes-optimal observation",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0601138"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "98d26663-82d5-4614-954c-93686ed16f7a",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}