In Quantum Physics there are circumstances where the direct measurement of particular observables encounters diffculties; in some of these cases, however, its value can be evaluated, i.e. it can be inferred by measuring another observable characterized by perfect correlation with the observable of interest. Though an evaluation is often interpreted as a measurement of the evaluated observable, we prove that the two concepts cannot be identified in Quantum Physics, because the identifcation yields contradictions. Then, we establish the conceptual status of evaluations in Quantum Theory and the role can be ascribed to them.
A general scheme to seek for the relations between entanglement and bservables is proposed in principle. In two-qubit systems with enough general Hamiltonian, we find the entanglement to be the functions of observables for six kinds of chosen state sets and verify how these functions be invariant with time evolution. Moreover, we demonstrate and illustrate the cases with entanglement versus a set of commutable observables under eight kinds of given initial states. Our conclusions show how entanglement become observable even measurable by experiment, and they are helpful for understanding of th…
Two special situations where the standard uncertainty product inequality appears to be useless are modified. One such case is noted to also trivialize the recently-introduced alternatives [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 260401 (2014); Sci. Rep. 6, 23201 (2016)] involving sums of variances. A careful discussion is presented on the experimental justifications of some of the relations [Phys. Rev. A 93, 052108 (2016)] using qutrit and qubit states. Alternative bypass routes are put forward to tackle this situation, with and without involving any auxiliary state. This latter strategy is noted to be vital in…
By introducing a quantitative `degree of commutativity' in terms of the angle between spin-observables we present two tight quantitative trade-off relations in the case of two qubits: First, for entangled states, between the degree of commutativity of local observables and the maximal amount of violation of the Bell inequality: if both local angles increase from zero to π/2 (i.e., the degree of local commutativity decreases), the maximum violation of the Bell inequality increases. Secondly, a converse trade-off relation holds for separable states: if both local angles approach π/2 the maximal …
One of the formulations of Heisenberg uncertainty principle, concerning so-called measurement uncertainty, states that the measurement of one observable modifies the statistics of the other. Here, we derive such a measurement uncertainty principle from two comprehensible assumptions: impossibility of instantaneous messaging at a distance (no-signaling), and violation of Bell inequalities (non-locality). The uncertainty is established for a pair of observables of one of two spatially separated systems that exhibit non-local correlations. To this end, we introduce a gentle form of measurement wh…
The relation between the restricted path integral approach to quantum measurement theory and the commonly accepted von Neumann wavefunction collapse postulate is presented. It is argued that in the limit of impulsive measurements the two approaches lead to the same predictions. The example of repeated impulsive quantum measurements of position performed on a harmonic oscillator is discussed in detail and the quantum nondemolition strategies are recovered in both the approaches.
We present graphs of information versus disturbance for general quantum measurements of completely unknown states. Each piece of information and disturbance is quantified by two measures: (i) the Shannon entropy and estimation fidelity for the information and (ii) the operation fidelity and physical reversibility for the disturbance. These measures are calculated for a single outcome and are plotted on four types of information--disturbance planes to show their allowed regions. In addition, we discuss the graphs of these metrics averaged over all possible outcomes and the optimal measurements …
In Itamar Pitowsky's reading of the Gleason and the Kochen-Specker theorems, in particular, his Logical Indeterminacy Principle, the emphasis is on the value indefiniteness of observables which are not within the preparation context. This is in stark contrast to the prevalent term {\em contextuality} used by many researchers in informal, heuristic yet omni-realistic and potentially misleading ways. This paper discusses both concepts and argues in favor of value indefiniteness in all but a continuum of contexts intertwining in the vector representing a single pure (prepared) state. Even more re…
The time evolution of an unstable quantum mechanical system coupled with an external measuring agent is investigated. According to the features of the interaction Hamiltonian, a quantum Zeno effect (hindered decay) or an inverse quantum Zeno effect (accelerated decay) can take place, depending on the response time of the apparatus. The transition between the two regimes is analyzed for both pulsed and continuous measurements.
If we distribute n qubits between two parties, which quantum pure states and distributions of qubits would allow all-versus-nothing (or Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger-like) proofs of Bell's theorem using only single-qubit measurements? We show a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of these proofs for any number of qubits, and provide all distinct proofs up to n=7 qubits. Remarkably, there is only one distribution of a state of n=4 qubits, and six distributions, each for a different state of n=6 qubits, which allow these proofs.
There is a constraining relation between the reliability of a quantum measurement and the extent to which the measurement process is, in principle, reversible. The greater the information that is gained, the less reversible the measurement dynamics become. To illustrate this relation, we develop a simple physical model for quantum measurement, as well as a hypothetical scheme by which the experimenters can determine the reliability and reversibility. We derive an "uncertainty" (constraining) relation between reliability and reversibility, which holds even when there is no interaction with any …
We investigate the relationship between the information gain and the interaction strength between the quantum system and the measuring device. A strategy is proposed to calculate the information gain of the measuring device as the coupling strength is a variable. For qubit systems, we prove that the information gain increases monotonically with the coupling strength. It is obtained that the information gain of the projective measurement along the x-direction reduces with the increasing of the measurement strength along the z-direction, and a complementarity of information gain in the measureme…
Our aim is to compare the fundamental notions of quantum physics - contextuality vs. incompatibility. One has to distinguish two different notions of contextuality, {\it Bohr-contextuality} and {\it Bell-contextuality}. The latter is defined operationally via violation of noncontextuality (Bell type) inequalities. This sort of contextuality will be compared with incompatibility. It is easy to show that, for quantum observables, there is {\it no contextuality without incompatibility.} The natural question arises: What is contextuality without incompatibility? (What is "dry-residue"?) Generally …
The measurement of time durations or instants of ocurrence of events has been frequently modelled ``operationally'' by coupling the system of interest to a ``clock''. According to several of these models the operational approach is limited at low energies because the perturbation of the clock does not allow to reproduce accurately the corresponding ideal time quantity, defined for the system in isolation. We show that, for a time-of-flight measurement model that can be set to measure dwell or arrival times, these limitations may be overcome by extending the range of energies where the clock wo…
We elaborate further on the metric representation that is obtained by transferring the time-dependence from a Hermitian Hamiltonian to the metric operator in a related non-Hermitian system. We provide further insight into the procedure on how to employ the time-dependent Dyson relation and the quasi-Hermiticity relation to solve time-dependent Hermitian Hamiltonian systems. By solving both equations separately we argue here that it is in general easier to solve the former. We solve the mutually related time-dependent Schroedinger equation for a Hermitian and non-Hermitian spin 1/2, 1 and 3/2 m…
The quantum Zeno effect is well-known for fixing a system to an eigenstate by frequent measurements. It is also known that applying frequent unitary pulses induces a Zeno subspace that can also pin the system to an eigenspace. Both approaches have been studied as means to maintain a system in a certain subspace. Extending the two concepts, we consider making the measurements/pulses dynamical so that the state can move with the motion of the measurement axis/pulse basis. We show that the system stays in the dynamical eigenbasis when the measurements/pulses are slowly changing. Explicit bounds f…
We give a complete analysis of covariant measurements on two spins. We consider the cases of two parallel and two antiparallel spins, and we consider both collective measurements on the two spins, and measurements which require only Local Quantum Operations and Classical Communication (LOCC). In all cases we obtain the optimal measurements for arbitrary fidelities. In particular we show that if the aim is determine as well as possible the direction in which the spins are pointing, it is best to carry out measurements on antiparallel spins (as already shown by Gisin and Popescu), second best to…
We investigate for which resource states an efficient classical simulation of measurement based quantum computation is possible. We show that the Schmidt--rank width, a measure recently introduced to assess universality of resource states, plays a crucial role in also this context. We relate Schmidt--rank width to the optimal description of states in terms of tree tensor networks and show that an efficient classical simulation of measurement based quantum computation is possible for all states with logarithmically bounded Schmidt--rank width (with respect to the system size). For graph states …
A theory of joint nonideal measurement of incompatible observables is used in order to assess the relative merits of quantum tomography and certain measurements of generalized observables, with respect to completeness of the obtained information. A method is studied for calculating a Wigner distribution from the joint probability distribution obtained in a joint measurement.
We describe a method to perform a single quantum measurement of an arbitrary observable of a single ion moving in a harmonic potential. We illustrate the measurement procedure with explicit examples, namely the position and phase observables.
If Alice and Bob start out with an entangled state $|Ψ_{AB}\rangle$, Bob may update his state to $|φ_B\rangle$ either by performing a suitable measurement himself, or by receiving the information that a measurement by Alice has steered that state. While Bob's update on his state is identical, his update on Alice's state differs: if Bob has performed the measurement, he has steered the state $|χ_{\leftarrow}(φ)\rangle_A$ of Alice; if Alice has made the measurement, to steer $|φ\rangle_B$ on Bob she must have found a different state $|χ_{\rightarrow}(φ)\rangle_A$. Based on this observation, a co…
Measurements of single-mode phase observables are studied in the spirit of the quantum theory of measurement. We determine the minimal measurement models of phase observables and consider methods of measuring such observables by using a double homodyne detector. We show that, in principle, the canonical phase distribution of the signal state can be measured via double homodyne detection by first processing the state using a two-mode unitary channel.
Recently Dzhafarov and Kon published the paper advertising the possibility to use the coupling technique of classical probability theory to model incompatible observables in quantum physics and quantum-like models of psychology. Here I present comments on this paper by stressing advantages and disadvantages.
Joint measurements of qubit observables have recently been studied in conjunction with quantum information processing tasks such as cloning. Considerations of such joint measurements have until now been restricted to a certain class of observables that can be characterized by a form of covariance. Here we investigate conditions for the joint measurability of arbitrary pairs of qubit observables. For pairs of noncommuting sharp qubit observables, a notion of approximate joint measurement is introduced. Optimal approximate joint measurements are shown to lie in the class of covariant joint measu…
A complete theory of overmeasurement by measuring refinements of observables is presented. It encompasses a wider set of functions of observ- ables (coarsenings) . Thus the theory has a broad potential application.It is applied to a thorough investigation of simultaneous measurements. In partic- ular, the set of all simultaneous measurements for a given pair of compatible observables is determined.
To control a quantum system via feedback, we generally have two options in choosing control scheme. One is the coherent feedback, which feeds the output field of the system, through a fully quantum device, back to manipulate the system without involving any measurement process. The other one is the measurement-based feedback, which measures the output field and performs a real-time manipulation on the system based on the measurement results. Both schemes have advantages/disadvantages, depending on the system and the control goal, hence their comparison in several situation is important. This p…
Information-Theoretical restrictions on the information transfer are applied to Quantum Measurements. For the measurement of quantum object S by information system O this restrictions are calculated in Algebraic QM formalism as the inference map to the (sub)algebra of O observables.
We compare the accuracy, precision and reliability of different methods for estimating key system parameters for two-level systems subject to Hamiltonian evolution and decoherence. It is demonstrated that the use of Bayesian modelling and maximum likelihood estimation is superior to common techniques based on Fourier analysis. Even for simple two-parameter estimation problems, the Bayesian approach yields higher accuracy and precision for the parameter estimates obtained. It requires less data, is more flexible in dealing with different model systems, can deal better with uncertainty in initia…
A tight information-theoretic measurement uncertainty relation is experimentally tested with neutron spin-1/2 qubits. The noise associated to the measurement of an observable is defined via conditional Shannon entropies and a tradeoff relation between the noises for two arbitrary spin observables is demonstrated. The optimal bound of this tradeoff is experimentally obtained for various non-commuting spin observables. For some of these observables this lower bound can be reached with projective measurements, but we observe that, in other cases, the tradeoff is only saturated by general quantum …
The quantum mechanical measurement problem is the difficulty of dealing with the indefiniteness of the pointer observable at the conclusion of a measurement process governed by unitary quantum dynamics. There has been hope to solve this problem by eliminating idealizations from the characterization of measurement. We state and prove two `insolubility theorems' that disappoint this hope. In both the initial state of the apparatus is taken to be mixed rather than pure, and the correlation of the object observable and the pointer observable is allowed to be imperfect. In the {\it insolubility the…
We present a single inequality as the necessary and sufficient condition for two unsharp observables of a two-level system to be jointly measurable in a single apparatus and construct explicitly the joint observables. A complementarity inequality arising from the condition of joint measurement, which generalizes Englert's duality inequality, is derived as the trade-off between the unsharpnesses of two jointly measurable observables.
We define a complete measurement of a quantum observable (POVM) as a measurement of the maximally refined version of the POVM. Complete measurements give information from the multiplicities of the measurement outcomes and can be viewed as state preparation procedures. We show that any POVM can be measured completely by using sequential measurements or maximally refinable instruments. Moreover, the ancillary space of a complete measurement can be chosen to be minimal.
Nonlocal measurement, or instantaneous measurement of nonlocal observables, is a considerably difficult task even for a simple form of product observable since relativistic causality prohibits interaction between spacelike separate subsystems. Following a recent proposal for effectively creating the von Neumann measurement Hamiltonian of nonlocal observables [Brodutch and Cohen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 070404 (2016)], here we report a proof-of-principle demonstration of nonlocally measuring a product observable using linear optics without the violation of relativistic causality. Our scheme provi…
Whereas complementarity manifests itself via two incompatible observables, quantum contextuality can only be revealed via the joint measurements among at least three observables. By incorporating unsharp measurements and joint measurements into a realistic model, we reestablish an inequality due to Liang, Spekkens, and Wiseman rigorously based on the assumption of noncontextuality alone. Its violation therefore unambiguously pinpoints the quantum contextuality of a two-level system. The maximal violation is attained by three triplewise jointly measurable observables that are pairwise jointly m…
Spin squeezing of collective atomic spins can be achieved conditionally via probing with light and subsequent homodyne detection, as is done in a Quantum Nondemolition measurement. Recently it has been shown that squeezing can also be created unconditionally by a properly designed dissipative dynamics. We compare the two approaches in a Gaussian description, and optimize over all Gaussian light-matter interactions. We find that in the optimal unconditional scheme based on dissipation the level of squeezing scales as $d^{-1/2}$. In contrast, the optimal conditional scheme based on measurement o…
In Quantum Physics it is not always possible to directly perform the measurement of an obsevable; in some of these cases, however, its value can be {\sl detected}, i.e. it can be inferred by measuring {\sl another} observable characterized by perfect correlation with the observable of interest. Though a {\sl detection} is often interpreted as a {\sl measurement} of the detected observable, we prove that the two concepts cannot be identified in Quantum Physics. Furthermore, we establish what meaning and role can be ascribed to detections coherently with Quantum Theory.
The fact that not all quantum observables are jointly measurable is one of the major differences between quantum and classical theory. In the former, non-commuting observables can only be simultaneously measured with limited precision. We report on an experimental implementation of such a simultaneous measurement of two non-commuting observables based on the framework of weak von Neumann measurements. We use a photonic setup where the polarisation degree of freedom acts as the system and the two components of the transversal position correspond to the pointers of the measurement apparatuses. I…
It is shown that mean value of any observable with bounded spectrum can be uniquely determined from binary statistics of the measurement performed on {\it single} qubit ancilla coupled to a given system. The observable structure is fully encoded in the corresponding POVM. The method is generalised to the case of distant labs paradigm and discussed in the context of entanglement detection with few local measurements. The results are also discussed in the context of quantum programming.
We have made the first experimental demonstration of the simultaneous minimum uncertainty product between two complementary observables for a two-state system (a qubit). A partially entangled two-photon state was used to perform such measurements. Each of the photons carries (partial) information of the initial state thus leaving a room for measurements of two complementary observables on every member in an ensemble.
In a recent Letter [Dabelow and Reimann, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 120602 (2020)], a perturbative relaxation theory is applied to the Bose-Hubbard model and compared to data from a quantum simulator experiment [Trotzky et al. Nature Phys 8, 325 (2012)]. In this Comment, I argue that the discrepancy found is due to the quasi-local observable measured in the experiment being affected by a harmonic trapping potential that is unaccounted for in the analytic calculation. I support my claim with quasi-exact numerics computed using a parallel time-evolving block decimation algorithm (TEBD), and show that…
In general, it is difficult to evaluate measurement errors when the initial and final conditions of the measurement make it impossible to identify the correct value of the target observable. Ozawa proposed a solution based on the operator algebra of observables which has recently been used in experiments investigating the error-disturbance trade-off of quantum measurements. Importantly, this solution makes surprisingly detailed statements about the relations between measurement outcomes and the unknown target observable. In the present paper, we investigate this relation by performing a sequen…
Four common optimality criteria for measurements are formulated using relations in the set of observables, and their connections are clarified. As case studies, 1-0 observables, localization observables, and photon counting observables are considered.
One of the central features of quantum theory is that there are pairs of quantum observables that cannot be measured simultaneously. This incompatibility of quantum observables is a necessary ingredient in several quantum phenomena, such as measurement uncertainty relations, violation of Bell inequalities and steering. Two quantum observables that admit a simultaneous measurement are, in this respect, classical. A finer classification of classicality can be made by formulating four symmetric relations on the set of observables that are stronger than compatibility; they are broadcastability, on…
The distinct methods for measuring topological charge in a non-abelian anyonic system have been discussed in the literature: projective measurement of a single point-like quasiparticle and interferometric measurement of the total topological charge of a group of quasiparticles. Projective measurement by definition is only applied near a point and will project to a topological charge sector near that point. Thus, if it is to be applied to a \emph{group} of anyons to project to a \emph{total} charge, then the anyons must first be fused one by one to obtain a single anyon carrying the collective …
Sequential weak measurements of non-commuting observables is not only fundamentally interesting in quantum measurement but also shown potential in various applications. The previous reported methods, however, can only realize limited sequential weak measurements experimentally. In this Letter, we propose the realization of sequential measurements of arbitrary observables and experimentally demonstrate for the first time the measurement of sequential weak values of three non-commuting Pauli observables by using genuine single photons. The results presented here will not only improve our underst…
Cloning of observables, unlike standard cloning of states, aims at copying the information encoded in the statistics of a class of observables rather then on quantum states themselves. In such a process the emphasis is on the quantum operation (evolution plus measurement) necessary to retrieve the original information. We analyze, for qubit systems, the cloning of a class generated by two noncommuting observables, elucidating the relationship between such a process and joint measurements. This helps in establishing an optimality criterion for cloning of observables. We see that, even if the cl…
We examine the problem of estimating the expectation values of two observables when we have a finite number of copies of an unknown qubit state. Specifically we examine whether it is better to measure each of the observables separately on different copies or to perform a joint measurement of the observables on each copy. We find that joint measurements can sometimes provide an advantage over separate measurements, but only if we make estimates of an observable based solely on the results of measurements of that observable. If we instead use both sets of results to estimate each observable then…
Quantum mechanics has been formulated in phase space, with the Wigner function as the representative of the quantum density operator, and classical mechanics has been formulated in Hilbert space, with the Groenewold operator as the representative of the classical Liouville density function. Semiclassical approximations to the quantum evolution of the Wigner function have been defined, enabling the quantum evolution to be approached from a classical starting point. Now analogous semiquantum approximations to the classical evolution of the Groenewold operator are defined, enabling the classical …
Heisenberg's uncertainty relations for measurement quantify how well we can jointly measure two complementary observables and have attracted much experimental and theoretical attention recently. Here we provide an exact tradeoff between the worst-case errors in measuring jointly two observables of a qubit, i.e., all the allowed and forbidden pairs of errors, especially asymmetric ones, are exactly pinpointed. For each pair of optimal errors we provide an optimal joint measurement that is realizable without introducing any ancilla and entanglement. Possible experimental implementations are disc…
We combine traditional pointer-based simultaneous measurements of conjugate observables with the concept of quantum Brownian motion of multipartite systems to phenomenologically model simultaneous measurements of conjugate observables in a thermal environment. This approach provides us with a formal solution of the complete measurement dynamics for quadratic Hamiltonians and we can therefore discuss the measurement uncertainty and optimal measurement times. As a main result, we obtain a lower bound for the uncertainty of a noisy measurement, which is an extension of a previously known uncertai…
Being one of the centroidal concepts in quantum theory, the fundamental constraint imposed by Heisenberg uncertainty relations has always been a subject of immense attention and challenging in the context of joint measurements of general quantum mechanical observables. In particular, the recent extension of the original uncertainty relations has grabbed a distinct research focus and set a new ascendent target in quantum mechanics and quantum information processing. In the present work we explore the joint measurements of three incompatible observables, following the basic idea of a newly propo…
We present a family of entropic uncertainty relations for pointer-based simultaneous measurements of conjugate observables. The lower bounds of these relations explicitly incorporate the influence of the measurement apparatus. We achieve this by using a mathematical theorem which states that the information entropy of convoluted probability distributions is bound from below. As a consequence of these results we can straightforwardly show that appropriately squeezed states are minimal entropy states for simultaneous measurements.
Determining the measurement uncertainty region is a difficult problem for generic sets of observables. For this reason the literature on exact measurement uncertainty regions is focused on symmetric sets of observables, where the symmetries are used to simplify the calculation. We provide a framework to systematically exploit available symmetries, formulated in terms of covariance, to simplify problems of measurement uncertainty. Our key result is that for a wide range figures of merit the optimal compatible approximations of covariant target observables are themselves covariant. This substant…
The advent of cloud quantum computing has led to the rapid development of quantum algorithms. In particular, it is necessary to study variational quantum-classical hybrid algorithms, which are executable on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers. Evaluations of observables appear frequently in the variational quantum-classical hybrid algorithms for NISQ computers. By speeding up the evaluation of observables, it is possible to realize a faster algorithm and save resources of quantum computers. Grouping of observables with separable measurements has been conventionally used, and the …
We consider joint measurement of two and three unsharp qubit observables through an Arthur-Kelly type joint measurement model for qubits. We investigate the effect of initial state of the detectors on the unsharpness of the measurement as well as the post-measurement state of the system. Particular emphasis is given on a physical understanding of the POVM to PVM transition in the model and entanglement between system and detectors.Two approaches for characterizing the unsharpness of the measurement and the resulting measurement uncertainty relations are considered.The corresponding measures of…
The measurement device independent (MDI) Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is a practically implementable method for transmitting secret keys between respective partners performing quantum communication. SARG04 (Scarani-Acìn-Ribordy-Gisin 2004) is a protocol tailored to struggle against photon number splitting (PNS) attacks by eavesdroppers and its MDI-QKD version is reviewed and optimized from secret key bitrate versus communication distance point of view. We consider the effect of several important factors such as error correction function, dark counting parameter and quantum efficiency in orde…
The task of wavefront sensing is to measure the phase of the optical field. Here, we demonstrate that the widely used Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor detects the weak value of transverse momentum, usually achieved by the method of quantum weak measurement. We extend its input states to partially coherent states and compare it with the weak measurement wavefront sensor, which has a higher spatial resolution but a smaller dynamic range. Since weak values are commonly used in investigating fundamental quantum physics and quantum metrology, our work would find essential applications in these field…
