- #1
etotheipi
Apologies in advance for my ignorance, I don't really have a reference to consult and Google hasn't been too helpful! In standard probability theory there are a few common useful formulae, e.g. for two events ##S## and ##T## $$P(S\cup T) = P(S) + P(T) - P(S\cap T)$$ $$P(S \cap T) = P(S) \times P(T | S)$$ I was reading Binney's notes and he says for two mutually exclusive events ##S## and ##T## (let's say with complex probability amplitudes ##A(S)## and ##A(T)##) the probability of ##S## or ##T## happening goes as $$P(S \cup T) = |A(S \cup T)|^2 = |A(S) + A(T)|^2 = \dots$$It appears that the first two formulas I quoted work right so long as you change out ##P## for ##A## and work with amplitudes instead. So for instance our second rule might become $$A(S\cap T) = A(S) \times A(T | S)$$ Are these just special cases, or is it always valid to apply the rules of classical probability in terms of amplitudes here instead? Or are these formulae even useful? Thanks!
Last edited by a moderator: