Conditional Probability and A Posteriori States in Quantum Mechanics

Abstract

In order to develop a statistical theory of quantum measurements including continuous observables, a concept of a posteriori states is introduced, which generalizes the notion of regular conditional probability distributions in classical probability theory. Its statistical interpretation in measuring processes is discussed and its existence is proved. As an application, we also give a complete proof of the Davies-Lewis conjecture that there are no (weakly) repeatable instruments for non-discrete observables in the standard formulation of quantum mechanics, using the notion of a posteriori states.