The notions of disintegration and Bayesian inversion are fundamental in conditional probability theory. They produce channels, as conditional probabilities, from a joint state, or from an already given channel (in opposite direction). These notions exist in the literature, in concrete situations, but are presented here in abstract graphical formulations. The resulting abstract descriptions are used for proving basic results in conditional probability theory. The existence of disintegration and Bayesian inversion is discussed for discrete probability, and also for measure-theoretic probability – via standard Borel spaces and via likelihoods. Finally, the usefulness of disintegration and Bayesian inversion is illustrated in several examples.

This paper uncovers the fundamental relationship between total and partial computation in the form of an equivalence of certain categories. This equivalence involves on the one hand effectuses, which are categories for total computation, introduced by Jacobs for the study of quantum/effect logic. On the other hand, it involves what we call FinPACs with effects; they are finitely partially additive categories equipped with effect algebra structures, serving as categories for partial computation. It turns out that the Kleisli category of the lift monad (−) + 1 on an effectus is always a FinPAC with effects, and this construction gives rise to the equivalence. Additionally, state-and-effect triangles over FinPACs with effects are presented.

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Quotients and comprehension are fundamental mathematical constructions that can be described via adjunctions in categorical logic. This paper reveals that quotients and comprehension are related to measurement, not only in quantum logic, but also in probabilistic and classical logic. This relation is presented by a long series of examples, some of them easy, and some also highly non-trivial (esp. for von Neumann algebras). We have not yet identified a unifying theory. Nevertheless, the paper contributes towards such a theory by introducing the new quotient-and-comprehension perspective on measurement instruments, and by describing the examples on which such a theory should be built.Comment: In Proceedings QPL 2015, arXiv:1511.0118

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