Positive operator-valued measures and densely defined operator-valued frames

Abstract

In the signal-processing literature, a frame is a mechanism for performing analysis and reconstruction in a Hilbert space. By contrast, in quantum theory, a positive operator-valued measure (POVM) decomposes a Hilbert-space vector for the purpose of computing measurement probabilities. Frames and their most common generalizations can be seen to give rise to POVMs, but does every reasonable POVM arise from a type of frame? We answer this question using a Radon–Nikodym-type result.