Motivated by several approaches to quantum gravity, there is a considerable literature on generalised uncertainty principles particularly through modification of the canonical position-momentum commutation relations. Some of these modified relations are also consistent with general principles that may be supposed of any physical theory. Such modified commutators have significant observable consequences. Here we study the noisy behaviour of an optomechanical system assuming a certain commonly studied modified commutator. From recent observations of radiation pressure noise in tabletop optomechanical experiments as well as the position noise spectrum of Advanced LIGO we derive bounds on the modified commutator. We find how such experiments can be adjusted to provide significant improvements in such bounds, potentially surpassing those from sub-atomic measurements.
We discuss a gedanken experiment for the simultaneous measurement of the position and momentum of a particle in de Sitter spacetime. We propose an extension of the so-called generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) which implies the existence of a minimum observable momentum. The new GUP is directly connected to the nonzero cosmological constant, which becomes a necessary ingredient for a more complete picture of the quantum spacetime.
We propose a new method for generating generalised uncertainty relations (GURs) including the generalised uncertainty principle (GUP), extended uncertainty principle (EUP), and extended generalised uncertainty principle (EGUP), previously proposed in the quantum gravity literature, without modifying the Heisenberg algebra. Our approach is compatible with the equivalence principle, and with local Poincar{\' e} invariance in the relativistic limit, thus circumventing many of the problems associated with GURs derived from modified commutation relations. In particular, it does not require the exis…
Phenomenological approaches to quantum gravity implement a minimum resolvable length-scale but do not link it to an underlying formalism describing geometric superpositions. Here, we introduce an intuitive approach in which points in the classical spatial background are delocalised, or `smeared', giving rise to an entangled superposition of geometries. The model uses additional degrees of freedom to parameterise the superposed classical backgrounds. Our formalism contains both minimum length and minimum momentum resolutions and we naturally identify the former with the Planck length. In additi…
We outline a new model in which generalised uncertainty relations, that govern the behaviour of microscopic world, and dark energy, that determines the large-scale evolution of the Universe, are intrinsically linked via the quantum properties of space-time. In this approach the background is treated as a genuinely quantum object, with an associated state vector, and additional fluctuations of the geometry naturally give rise to the extended generalised uncertainty principle (EGUP). An effective dark energy density then emerges from the field that minimises the modified uncertainty relations. T…
Coherent states are required to form a complete set of vectors in the Hilbert space by providing the resolution of identity. We study the completeness of coherent states for two different models in a noncommutative space associated with the generalised uncertainty relation by finding the resolution of unity with a positive definite weight function. The weight function, which is sometimes known as the Borel measure, is obtained through explicit analytic solutions of the Stieltjes and Hausdorff moment problem with the help of the standard techniques of inverse Mellin transform.
The Robertson's formulation of the uncertainty relation is the most widely accepted form of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation (HUR). It gets modified when we consider it for entangled particles. But this formulation does not consider the measurement process itself. There are reformulation of the uncertainty relations called the generalized uncertainty relations by including the measurement process into the uncertainty relation. HUR gets modified for the case of entangled particles. Here it is shown that the limit of the Generalized Uncertainty Relation (GUR) also reduces for entangled partic…
We study the dynamical consequences of Maggiore's unique generalised uncertainty principle (GUP). We find that it leads naturally, and generically, to novel consequences. In the high temperature limit, there is a drastic reduction in the degrees of freedom, of the type found, for example, in strings far above the Hagedorn temperature. In view of this, the present GUP may perhaps be taken as the new version of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, conjectured by Atick and Witten to be responsible for such reduction. Also, the present GUP leads naturally to varying speed of light and modified di…
We derive generalised uncertainty relations (GURs) for angular momentum and spin in the smeared-space model of quantum geometry. The model implements a minimum length and a minimum linear momentum, and recovers both the generalised uncertainty principle (GUP) and the extended uncertainty principle (EUP) within a single formalism. In this paper, we investigate the consequences of these results for particles with extrinsic and intrinsic angular momentum, and obtain generalisations of the canonical ${\rm so(3)}$ and ${\rm su(2)}$ algebras. We find that, although ${\rm SO(3)}$ symmetry is preserve…
We outline a new model in which generalised uncertainty relations are obtained without modified commutation relations. While existing models introduce modified phase space volumes for the canonical degrees of freedom, we introduce new degrees of freedom for the background geometry. The phase space is therefore enlarged but remains Euclidean. The spatial background is treated as a genuinely quantum object, with an associated state vector, and the model naturally gives rise to the extended generalised uncertainty principle (EGUP). Importantly, this approach solves (or rather, evades) well known …
In this short note we show how the Generalised Uncertainty Principle (GUP) and the Extended Uncertainty Principle (EUP), two of the most common generalised uncertainty relations proposed in the quantum gravity literature, can be derived within the context of canonical quantum theory, without the need for modified commutation relations. A GUP-type relation naturally emerges when the standard position operator is replaced by an appropriate Positive Operator Valued Measure (POVM), representing a finite-accuracy measurement that localises the quantum wave packet to within a spatial region $σ_g > 0…
We determine the Hausdorff dimension of a particle path, $D_{\rm H}$, in the recently proposed `smeared space' model of quantum geometry. The model introduces additional degrees of freedom to describe the quantum state of the background and gives rise to both the generalised uncertainty principle (GUP) and extended uncertainty principle (EUP) without introducing modified commutation relations. We compare our results to previous studies of the Hausdorff dimension in GUP models based on modified commutators and show that the minimum length enters the relevant formulae in a different way. We then…
We extend significantly previous works on the Hilbert space representations of the Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP) in 3+1 dimensions of the form $[X_i,P_j] = i F_{ij}$ where $ F_{ij} = f(P^2) δ_{ij} + g(P^2) P_i P_j $ for any functions $f$. However, we restrict our study to the case of commuting $X$'s. We focus in particular on the symmetries of the theory, and the minimal length that emerge in some cases. We first show that, at the algebraic level, there exists an unambiguous mapping between the GUP with a deformed quantum algebra and a quadratic Hamiltonian into a standard, Heisenber…
Generalised observables (POM observables) are necessary for representing all possible measurements on a quantum system. Useful algebraic operations such as addition and multiplication are defined for these observables, recovering many advantages of the more restrictive Hermitian operator formalism. Examples include new uncertainty relations and metrics, and optical phase applications.
We propose a new generalised formalism for estimating the quantum phase uncertainty of pure and mixed continuous-variable quantum states and compare this with the phase uncertainty given by the quantum Fisher information. In order to preserve the Hermiticity of the operators, we use the Heisenberg and Schroedinger uncertainty relations to derive expressions for the phase uncertainty from generalised Susskind-Glogower operators. This formalism not only offers the possibility of directly measuring quantum phase uncertainties in a cavity-QED experiment but also gives a significant computational s…
We investigate quantum Rényi entropic quantities, specifically those derived from 'sandwiched' divergence. This divergence is one of several proposed Rényi generalisations of the quantum relative entropy. We may define Rényi generalisations of the quantum conditional entropy and mutual information in terms of this divergence, from which they inherit many desirable properties. However, these quantities lack some of the convenient structure of their Shannon and von Neumann counterparts. We attempt to bridge this gap by establishing divergence inequalities for valid combinations of Rényi order wh…
A geometric framework for quantum statistical estimation is used to establish a series of higher order corrections to the Heisenberg uncertainty relations associated with pairs of canonically conjugate variables. These corrections can be expressed in terms of linear combinations of higher order cumulants for the distributions, and thus vanish for Gaussian distributions. Estimates for typical numerical values arising from these corrections are indicated in the case of a gamma distribution.
We propose the experimental test of the uncertainty principle. From sub-quantum models it follows that the uncertainty principle may be not true on short time intervals of the order of a picosecond. The positive result of this experiment would signify the limits of QM.
The quantum states which satisfy the equality in the generalised uncertainty relation are called intelligent states. We prove the existence of intelligent states for the Anandan-Aharonov uncertainty relation based on the geometry of the quantum state space for arbitrary parametric evolutions of quantum states when the initial and final states are non-orthogonal.
One unique feature of quantum mechanics is the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which states that the outcomes of two incompatible measurements cannot simultaneously achieve arbitrary precision. In an information-theoretic context of quantum information, the uncertainty principle can be formulated as entropic uncertainty relations with two measurements for a quantum bit (qubit) in two-dimensional system. New entropic uncertainty relations are studied for a higher-dimensional quantum state with multiple measurements, the uncertainty bounds can be tighter than that expected from two measurement…
A proof that minimum uncertainty states of the simplest periodic quantum system exist in a state space that is represented by a Colombeau algebra of generalised functions but not in Hilbert space or in the space of Schwartz distributions is given. There are two significant generalisations of Hilbert space that lead to the special Colombeau algebra. The first step is to a vector space of Schwartz distributions that contains the eigenstates of operators with continuous spectra, the second is to a Colombeau algebra that provides a solution for a differential equation with non-constant coefficient…
The Heisenberg inequality ΔX ΔP \geq \hbar/2 can be replaced by an exact equality, for suitably chosen measures of position and momentum uncertainty, which is valid for all wavefunctions. The significance of this "exact" uncertainty relation is discussed, and results are generalised to angular momentum and phase, photon number and phase, time and frequency, and to states described by density operators. Connections to optimal estimation of an observable from the measurement of a second observable, Wigner functions, energy bounds, and entanglement are also given.
The possibility of the existence of small correction terms to the canonical commutation relations and the uncertainty relations has recently found renewed interest. In particular, such correction terms could induce finite lower bounds $Δx_0, Δp_0$ to the resolution of distances and/or momenta. I review a general framework for the path integral formulation of quantum field theories on such generalised geometries, and focus then on the mechanisms by which $Δp_0>0$, and/or $Δx_0>0$ lead to IR and/or UV regularisation.
The assumption that an ensemble of classical particles is subject to nonclassical momentum fluctuations, with the fluctuation uncertainty fully determined by the position uncertainty, has been shown to lead from the classical equations of motion to the Schroedinger equation. This 'exact uncertainty' approach may be generalised to ensembles of gravitational fields, where nonclassical fluctuations are added to the field momentum densities, of a magnitude determined by the uncertainty in the metric tensor components. In this way one obtains the Wheeler-DeWitt equation of quantum gravity, with the…
It is difficult to discriminate between the state of initial time $t_0$ and that of time $t_0+Δt$. The task of discriminating between the two states can be interpreted as the hypothesis testing problem as to a state $ρ$ deciding whether $ρ$ is $ρ_{t_0}$ or$ρ_{t_0+Δt}$ We show the process of optimization of this hypotheses testing and the condition that discrimination between the two states become difficult even when optimized test was executed. In addition, We consider time-enegy uncertainty relation from the viewpoint of optimized hypotheses testing. Optimization consists of two steps. The fi…
We derive and experimentally investigate a strong uncertainty relation valid for any $n$ unitary operators, which implies the standard uncertainty relation as a special case, and which can be written in terms of geometric phases. It is saturated by every pure state of any $n$-dimensional quantum system, generates a tight overlap uncertainty relation for the transition probabilities of any $n+1$ pure states, and gives an upper bound for the out-of-time-order correlation function. We test these uncertainty relations experimentally for photonic polarisation qubits, including the minimum uncertain…
Heisenberg's measurement uncertainty relations (MUR) of two quantum observables are essential for contemporary researches in quantum foundations and quantum information science. Going beyond, here we report the first experimental test of MURs for three quantum observables. Following the proposal of Bush, Lahti, and Werner [Phys. Rev. A 89, 012129 (2014)], we first establish rigorously MURs for triplets of unbiased qubit observables as combined approximation errors lower-bounded by an incompatibility measure. We then develop a convex programming protocol to numerically find the exact value of t…
Generalised quantum measurements with two outcomes are fully characterised by two real parameters, dubbed as sharpness parameter and biasedness parameter and they can be linked with different aspects of the experimental setup. It is known that precision of measurements, characterised by the sharpness parameter of the measurements, reduces the possibility of probing quantum features like violation of local-realism (LR) or macro-realism (MR). Here we investigate the effect of biasedness together with sharpness of measurement and find a trade-off between those two parameters in the context of pro…
We study the spontaneous excitation of a two-level atom in the presence of a perfectly reflecting mirror, when the atom, or the mirror, is uniformly accelerating in the framework of the generalised uncertainty principle (GUP). The quantized scalar field obeys a modified dispersion relation leading to a GUP deformed Klein-Gordon equation. The solutions of this equation with suitable boundary conditions are obtained to calculate the spontaneous excitation probability of the atom for the two separate cases. We show that in the case when the mirror is accelerating, the GUP modulates the spatial os…
Recent progress in observing and manipulating mechanical oscillators at quantum regime provides new opportunities of studying fundamental physics, for example, to search for low energy signatures of quantum gravity. For example, it was recently proposed that such devices can be used to test quantum gravity effects, by detecting the change in the [x,p] commutation relation that could result from quantum gravity corrections. We show that such a correction results in a dependence of a resonant frequency of a mechanical oscillator on its amplitude, which is known as amplitude-frequency effect. By …
We experimentally verify uncertainty relations for mixed states in the tomographic representation by measuring the radiation field tomograms, i.e. homodyne distributions. Thermal states of single-mode radiation field are discussed in details as paradigm of mixed quantum state. By considering the connection between generalised uncertainty relations and optical tomograms is seen that the purity of the states can be retrieved by statistical analysis of the homodyne data. The purity parameter assumes a relevant role in quantum information where the effective fidelities of protocols depend critical…
Generalised quantum Stein's lemma more robust than ever
Scuola Normale Superiore（比萨高等师范学院）；The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen（香港中文大学（深圳））；International Quantum Academy (SIQA)（国际量子学院）；Nagoya University（名古屋大学）
It is known that temperature estimates of macroscopic systems in equilibrium are most precise when their energy fluctuations are large. However, for nanoscale systems deviations from standard thermodynamics arise due to their interactions with the environment. Here we include such interactions and, using quantum estimation theory, derive a generalised thermodynamic uncertainty relation valid for classical and quantum systems at all coupling strengths. We show that the non-commutativity between the system's state and its effective energy operator gives rise to quantum fluctuations that increase…
