A Hilbert Module Approach to Classical and Quantum Reference Frames

Abstract

In this paper, we present a model for classical and quantum reference frames for $C^*$-algebras by utilizing Hilbert modules and equivariant correspondences of $C^*$-dynamical systems. We show the classical model provides a commutative baseline for the quantum model, and we discuss how the quantum model encodes the Hilbert space operational formulation of quantum reference frames. We also include various explicit examples for both classical and quantum reference frames.