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The operator is said to be positive-definite, and written >, if , >, for all {}. [ 1 ] Many authors define a positive operator A {\displaystyle A} to be a self-adjoint (or at least symmetric) non-negative operator.
In practical terms, having an essentially self-adjoint operator is almost as good as having a self-adjoint operator, since we merely need to take the closure to obtain a self-adjoint operator. In physics, the term Hermitian refers to symmetric as well as self-adjoint operators alike. The subtle difference between the two is generally overlooked.
Normal operators are important because the spectral theorem holds for them. The class of normal operators is well understood. Examples of normal operators are unitary operators: N* = N −1; Hermitian operators (i.e., self-adjoint operators): N* = N; skew-Hermitian operators: N* = −N; positive operators: N = MM* for some M (so N is self-adjoint).
The operators must yield real eigenvalues, since they are values which may come up as the result of the experiment. Mathematically this means the operators must be Hermitian. [1] The probability of each eigenvalue is related to the projection of the physical state on the subspace related to that eigenvalue.
In functional analysis and quantum information science, a positive operator-valued measure (POVM) is a measure whose values are positive semi-definite operators on a Hilbert space. POVMs are a generalization of projection-valued measures (PVM) and, correspondingly, quantum measurements described by POVMs are a generalization of quantum ...
In mathematical analysis, a Hermitian function is a complex function with the property that its complex conjugate is equal to the original function with the variable changed in sign: f ∗ ( x ) = f ( − x ) {\displaystyle f^{*}(x)=f(-x)}
Positive-definiteness arises naturally in the theory of the Fourier transform; it can be seen directly that to be positive-definite it is sufficient for f to be the Fourier transform of a function g on the real line with g(y) ≥ 0.
In finite dimensions where operators can be represented by matrices, the Hermitian adjoint is given by the conjugate transpose (also known as the Hermitian transpose). The above definition of an adjoint operator extends verbatim to bounded linear operators on Hilbert spaces H {\displaystyle H} .