Positive Operator Valued Measures and Feller Markov Kernels

Abstract: A Positive Operator Valued Measure (POVM) is a map $F:\mathcal{B}(X)\to\mathcal{L}_s^+(\mathcal{H})$ from the Borel $\sigma$-algebra of a topological space $X$ to the space of positive self-adjoint operators on a Hilbert space $\mathcal{H}$. We assume $X$ to be Hausdorff, locally compact and second countable and prove that a POVM $F$ is commutative if and only if it is the smearing of a spectral measure $E$ by means of a Feller Markov kernel. Moreover, we prove that the smearing can be realized by means of a strong Feller Markov kernel if and only if $F$ is uniformly continuous. Finally, we prove that a POVM which is norm bounded by a finite measure $\nu$ admits a strong Feller Markov kernel. That provides a characterization of the smearing which connects a commutative POVM $F$ to a spectral measure $E$ and is relevant both from the mathematical and the physical viewpoint since smearings of spectral measures form a large and very relevant subclass of POVMs: they are paradigmatic for the modeling of certain standard forms of noise in quantum measurements, they provide optimal approximators as marginals in joint measurements of incompatible observables \cite{Busch}, they are important for a range of quantum information processing protocols, where classical post-processing plays a role \cite{Heinosaari}. The mathematical and physical relevance of the results is discussed and particular emphasis is given to the connections between the Markov kernel and the imprecision of the measurement process.