Consistent histories and the ultrametric on infinite tensor products
Abstract
The consistent histories formulation of quantum mechanics assigns classical probabilities to sequences of coarse-grained events when the corresponding interference terms vanish. In finite models these terms generically need not vanish exactly, and their smallness alone supplies no asymptotic geometry on the space of histories. We construct such a geometry for histories that accumulate quantum records. When the normalized Dowker - Halliwell interference between two histories factorizes as the cumulative fidelity of their records, its decay is controlled by the accumulated squared Bures distance. In the infinite registration limit, the Kakutani - von Neumann dichotomy gives a sharp sector alternative: summable Bures defect yields weakly equivalent record sequences, whereas nonsummable defect produces orthogonal superselection sectors and vanishing normalized interference. The convergence exponent of the Bures defect defines a pseudo-ultrametric on histories. After quotienting its zero distance degeneracy, it becomes a complete ultrametric, requiring neither compactness of the outcome space nor continuity of the record family, and coincides with the gauge invariant sector metric d̃ introduced in \cite{LesTP}. Its value, the \emph{consistency rate}, has three equivalent interpretations: it is the sector separation metric, the polynomial growth exponent of the negative logarithm of normalized interference, and, by the Helstrom formula, the corresponding exponent of the negative logarithm of the minimum error probability for discriminating the cumulative records. Classical separation profiles determine the rate: positive long time mean defect gives the maximal value δ=1, while the borderline profile dm2asymp m−1 produces distinct superselection sectors at zero polynomial rate, δ=0.
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BibTeX
@misc{lesniewski2026consistent,
title = {{Consistent histories and the ultrametric on infinite tensor products}},
author = {Andrew Lesniewski},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.37375},
eprint = {2609.37375},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.37375},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Consistent histories and the ultrametric on infinite tensor products
AU - Andrew Lesniewski
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/29
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.37375
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.37375
AB - The consistent histories formulation of quantum mechanics assigns classical probabilities to sequences of coarse-grained events when the corresponding interference terms vanish. In finite models these terms generically need not vanish exactly, and their smallness alone supplies no asymptotic geometry on the space of histories. We construct such a geometry for histories that accumulate quantum records. When the normalized Dowker - Halliwell interference between two histories factorizes as the cumulative fidelity of their records, its decay is controlled by the accumulated squared Bures distance. In the infinite registration limit, the Kakutani - von Neumann dichotomy gives a sharp sector alternative: summable Bures defect yields weakly equivalent record sequences, whereas nonsummable defect produces orthogonal superselection sectors and vanishing normalized interference. The convergence exponent of the Bures defect defines a pseudo-ultrametric on histories. After quotienting its zero distance degeneracy, it becomes a complete ultrametric, requiring neither compactness of the outcome space nor continuity of the record family, and coincides with the gauge invariant sector metric d̃ introduced in \cite{LesTP}. Its value, the \emph{consistency rate}, has three equivalent interpretations: it is the sector separation metric, the polynomial growth exponent of the negative logarithm of normalized interference, and, by the Helstrom formula, the corresponding exponent of the negative logarithm of the minimum error probability for discriminating the cumulative records. Classical separation profiles determine the rate: positive long time mean defect gives the maximal value δ=1, while the borderline profile d_m^2asymp m^−1 produces distinct superselection sectors at zero polynomial rate, δ=0.
ER -