Remarks on an attempted axiomatisation of Quantum Mechanics, due to Lucien Hardy, and Ten Theses on Hilbert's Sixth Problem and Quantum Measurement

Abstract

From the standpoint of Hilbert's Sixth Problem, which is the axiomatisation of Physics, the famous paper of Lucien Hardy's, Quantum Theory from Five Reasonable Axioms, is not relevant. The present paper argues that Hardy does not give a physical definition of `limit', and if we assume the usual mathematical definition of limit of a sequence, he fails to define a sequence in physical terms to which the usual definition is applicable. We argue that one should not, in fact, try to define probability in terms of the usual notion of limit of a sequence of results of a measurement because of seemingly insurmountable difficulties in axiomatising the notion of function or sequence in this context. Von Plato's and the authour's work (see http:arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0502124 and euclid.unh.edu/~jjohnson/axiomatics.html for larger context and further references) on the definition of physical probability needs to be used in this context. We conclude with ten theses on quantum measurement, from the standpoint of the Hilbert problem.