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Main Authors: Harding, John, Wilce, Alex
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.05627
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author Harding, John
Wilce, Alex
author_facet Harding, John
Wilce, Alex
contents We introduce a notion of the ``explanation" of one (generalized) probabilistic model by another as particular kind of span in the category $\Prob$ of probabilistic models and morphisms. We show that explanations compose under a standard pullback construction (notwithstanding that $\Prob$ does not support arbitrary pullbacks). We then show that every locally-finite probabilistic model has a canonical, sharp classical explanation. The construction is functorial, so every locally-finite probabilistic theory has a canonical, sharp classical (though of course, usually non-local) representation.
format Preprint
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institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Classical Explanations in (and of) General Probabilistic Theories
Harding, John
Wilce, Alex
Quantum Physics
Logic in Computer Science
We introduce a notion of the ``explanation" of one (generalized) probabilistic model by another as particular kind of span in the category $\Prob$ of probabilistic models and morphisms. We show that explanations compose under a standard pullback construction (notwithstanding that $\Prob$ does not support arbitrary pullbacks). We then show that every locally-finite probabilistic model has a canonical, sharp classical explanation. The construction is functorial, so every locally-finite probabilistic theory has a canonical, sharp classical (though of course, usually non-local) representation.
title Classical Explanations in (and of) General Probabilistic Theories
topic Quantum Physics
Logic in Computer Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.05627