The inference of a hidden variable's historical value, based on observations before and after the fact, is a controversial subject in quantum mechanics. Here I address the controversy by proposing a formalism that unifies and generalizes some of the previous proposals for the task, including the quantum minimum-mean-square-error estimators proposed by Ohki, the generalized conditional expectation proposed by Accardi and Cecchini, the quantum smoothing theory proposed by Tsang, the optimal observables for parameter estimation proposed by Personick, Belavkin, and Grishanin, and the weak values proposed by Aharonov, Albert, and Vaidman. The formalism is based on Ohki's suggestion of a distance between two observables in the Heisenberg picture, which remains well defined for incompatible observables and serves as a more general foundation for quantum inference than Belavkin's nondemolition principle.

• Received 20 December 2021
• Revised 26 February 2022
• Accepted 6 April 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.105.042213