L\"uders' and quantum Jeffrey's rules as entropic projections

Abstract

We prove that the standard quantum mechanical description of a quantum state change due to measurement, given by Lueders' rules, is a special case of the constrained maximisation of a quantum relative entropy functional. This result is a quantum analogue of the derivation of the Bayes--Laplace rule as a special case of the constrained maximisation of relative entropy. The proof is provided for the Umegaki relative entropy of density operators over a Hilbert space as well as for the Araki relative entropy of normal states over a W*-algebra. We also introduce a quantum analogue of Jeffrey's rule, derive it in the same way as above, and discuss the meaning of these results for quantum bayesianism.