New position uncertainty (delocalization) measures for a particle on the circle are proposed and illustrated on several examples, where the previous measures (based on 2pi-periodic position operators) appear to be unsatisfactory. The new measures are suitably constructed using the standard multiplication angle operator variances. They are shown to depend solely on the state of the particle and to obey uncertainty relations of the Schroedinger-Robertson type.
In the preceding Comment (quant-ph/0209032) Trifonov disputes our recently proposed uncertainty relations for a quantum particle on a circle. He states that (i) the quantity $Δ^2(\hatϕ)$ introduced by us representing the uncertainty of the angle is not a proper measure of the position uncertainty and therefore the proposed inequalities can hardly be qualified as a relevant uncertainty relations on a circle; and that (ii) the most suitable uncertainty relations on a circle are those based on the Gram-Robertson matrix. It is shown by examples that both points are erroneous.
The uncertainty relations for the position and momentum of a quantum particle on a circle are identified minimized by the corresponding coherent states. The sqeezed states in the case of the circular motion are introduced and discussed in the context of the uncertainty relations.
It is shown by examples that the position uncertainty on a circle, proposed recently by Kowalski and Rembieliński [J. Phys. A 35 (2002) 1405] is not consistent with the state localization. We argue that the relevant uncertainties and uncertainty relations (UR's) on a circle are that based on the Gram-Robertson matrix. Several of these generalized UR's are displayed and related criterions for squeezed states are discussed.
We rederive uncertainty relations for the angular position and momentum of a particle on a circle by employing the exponential of the angle instead of the angle itself, which leads to circular variance as a natural measure of resolution. Intelligent states minimizing the uncertainty product under the constraint of a given uncertainty in angle or in angular momentum turn out to be given by Mathieu wave functions. We also discuss a number of physically feasible approximations to these optimal states. The theory is applied to the orbital angular momentum of a beam of photons and verified in an ex…
We discuss on the uncertainty relation (UR) for a closed one dimensional system (circle). In such a system, we cannot use the angle along the circle as a position variable. Otherwise we meet difficulties about the definition of the average position and the standard deviation (SD), and Hermitian property of angular momentum. From these reasons, we define the position variable as Cartesian variable $(X,Y)$ that have the periodic property for angle $ϕ$. In the same way we define a SD by using that variables. Then we obtain two URs. We also discuss the minimum wave packet (MWP) on the circle. MWPs…
The disputed question of uncertainty relations (UR) on a circle is regarded as a particular element of a more general problem which refers to the quantum description of angular observables $L_z$ and $ϕ$. The improvised $L_z-ϕ$ UR are found to be affected by unsourmontable shortcomings. Also in contradiction with a largely accepted belief it is proved that the usual procedures of quantum mechanics are accurately applicable for the $L_z-ϕ$ pair. The applicability regards both the known circular motions and the less known non-circular rotational motions. The presented facts contribute as argument…
It is demonstrated that in contrast to the well-known case with a quantum particle moving freely in a real line, the wave packets corresponding to the coherent states for a free quantum particle on a circle do not spread but develop periodically in time. The discontinuous changes during the course of time in the phase representing the position of a particle can be interpreted as the quantum jumps on a circle.
Position measurements are examined under the assumption that object position x_t and probe position X_t just after the measurement are expressed by a linear combination of positions x_0 and X_0 just before the measurement. The Heisenberg uncertainty relation between the position uncertainty and momentum disturbance holds when the measurement error ε(x_t) for the object position x_t is adopted as the position uncertainty. However, the uncertainty in the measurement result obtained for x_0 is the standard deviation of the measurement result, and not the measurement error ε(x_0). This difference …
This paper presents the uncertainty related to position and momentum localization of a quantum state in terms of entropic uncertainty relations. We slightly improve the inequality given in [Phys. Rev. A 74, 052101 (2006)] and introduce a new entropic measure with corresponding uncertainty relation.
Commutator-based entropic uncertainty relations in multidimensional position and momentum spaces are derived, twofold generalizing previous entropic uncertainty relations for one-mode states. They provide optimal lower bounds and imply the multidimensional variance-based uncertainty principle. The article concludes with an open conjecture.
The position-momentum uncertainty-like inequality based on moments of arbitrary order for d-dimensional quantum systems, which is a generalization of the celebrated Heisenberg formulation of the uncertainty principle, is improved here by use of the Renyi-entropy-based uncertainty relation. The accuracy of the resulting lower bound is physico-computationally analyzed for the two main prototypes in d-dimensional physics: the hydrogenic and oscillator-like systems.
In this study, we explore the validity of the original Heisenberg position- momentum uncertainty relation for a macroscopic harmonic oscillator interacting with environmental micro particles. Our results show that, in the quasi-classical situation, the original uncertainty relation does not hold when the number of particles in the environment is small. Nonetheless, increasing the environmental degrees of freedom resolves the violation in the region of our investigation.
We point out two interesting features of position-momentum uncertainty product: $U=Δx Δp$. We show that two special (non-differentiable) eigenstates of the Schr{ö}dinger operator with the Dirac Delta potential $[V(x)=-V_0 δ(x)],V_0>0$, also satisfy the Heisenberg's uncertainty principle by yielding $U> \frac{\hbar}{2}$. One of these eigenstates is a zero-energy and zero-curvature bound state.
An indirect measurement model is constructed for an approximately repeatable, precise position measuring apparatus that violates the assertion, sometimes called the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, that any position measuring apparatus with noise epsilon brings the momentum disturbance no less than hbar/2epsilon in any input state of the apparatus.
It is suggested that a measurement of the products of photoemission by alkali atoms excited after extraction from a trap, might, using the EPR strategy, show a significant violation of the momentum-position uncertainty relation. If this failed, as is quite likely, possible causes, such as retroactive propagation of influences and retrodiction failure, could be tested on the proposed apparatus.
Position uncertainty (delocalization) measures for a particle on the sphere are proposed and illustrated on several examples of states. The new measures are constructed using suitably the standard multiplication angle operator variances. They are shown to depend solely on the state of the particle and to obey uncertainty relations of the Schroedinger--Robertson type. A set of Hermitian operators with continuous spectrum is pointed out the variances of which are complementary to the longitudinal angle uncertainty measure.
For a quantum particle with a single degree of freedom, we derive preparational sum and product uncertainty relations satisfied by $N$ linear combinations of position and momentum observables. The state-independent bounds depend on their degree of incompatibility defined by the area of a parallelogram in an $N$-dimensional coefficient space. Maximal incompatibility occurs if the observables give rise to regular polygons in phase space. We also conjecture a Hirschman-type uncertainty relation for N observables linear in position and momentum, generalizing the original relation which lower-bound…
The adiabatic perturbation is shown to be singular from the exact solution of a spin-1/2 particle in a uniformly rotating magnetic field. Due to a non-adiabatic effect, its quantum trajectory on a Bloch sphere is a cycloid traced by a circle rolling along an adiabatic path. As the magnetic field rotates more and more slowly, the time-energy uncertainty, proportional to the distance of the quantum trajectory, calculated by the exact solution is entirely different from the one obtained by the adiabatic path traced by the instantaneous state. However, the non-adiabatic Aharonov-Anandan geometric …
We consider two entropic uncertainty relations of position and momentum recently discussed in literature. By a suitable rescaling of one of them, we obtain a smooth interpolation of both for high-resolution and low-resolution measurements respectively. Because our interpolation has never been mentioned in literature before, we propose it as a candidate for an improved entropic uncertainty relation of position and momentum. Up to now, the author has neither been able to falsify nor prove the new inequality. In our opinion it is a challenge to do either one.
We prove an uncertainty relation, which imposes a bound on any joint measurement of position and momentum. It is of the form $(ΔP)(ΔQ)\geq C\hbar$, where the `uncertainties' quantify the difference between the marginals of the joint measurement and the corresponding ideal observable. Applied to an approximate position measurement followed by a momentum measurement, the uncertainties become the precision $ΔQ$ of the position measurement, and the perturbation $ΔP$ of the conjugate variable introduced by such a measurement. We also determine the best constant $C$, which is attained for a unique p…
This paper is prepared as a contribution to the proceedings after the 12th ICSSUR/Feynfest Conference held in Foz do Iguacu (Brazil) from 2 to 6 May 2011. In the first part I briefy report the topic of entropic uncertainty relations for position and momentum variables. Then I investigate the discrete Shannon entropies related to the case of fnite number of detectors set to measure probability distributions in position and momentum spaces. I derive an uncertainty relation for the sum of the Shannon entropies which generalizes previous approaches [Phys. Lett. 103 A, 253 (1984)] based on an infni…
In quantum theory, measuring process is an important physical process; it is a quantum description of the interaction between the system of interest and the measuring device. Error and disturbance are used to quantitatively check the performance of the measurement, and are defined by using measuring process. Uncertainty relations are a general term for relations that provide constraints on them, and actively studied. However, the true error-disturbance bound for position measurements is not known yet. Here we concretely construct linear position measurements with minimum error-disturbance in e…
We consider particles prepared by the von Neumann-Lüders projection. For those particles the standard deviation of the momentum is discussed. We show that infinite standard deviations are not exceptions but rather typical. A necessary and sufficient condition for finite standard deviations is given. Finally, a new uncertainty relation is derived and it is shown that the latter cannot be improved.
Recently it was shown in [New J. Phys. 8, 330 (2006)] that the three dimensional Heisenberg uncertainty principle might be signifficantly sharpened if the relevant quantum state describes the particle in a central potential. I extend that result to the case of states which are not the eigenstates of the square of the angular momentum operator. I derive a new lower bound which involves the mean value and the variance of the $\hat{L}^2$ operator.
So-called quantum limits and their achievement are important themes in physics. Heisenberg's uncertainty relations are the most famous of them but are not universally valid and violated in general. In recent years, the reformulation of uncertainty relations is actively studied, and several universally valid uncertainty relations are derived. On the other hand, several measuring models, in particular, spin-1/2 measurements, are constructed and quantitatively examined. However, there are not so many studies on simultaneous measurements of position and momentum despite their importance. Here we s…
We define an uncertainty observable, acting on several replicas of a continuous-variable bosonic state, whose trivial uncertainty lower bound induces nontrivial phase-space uncertainty relations for a single copy of the state. By exploiting the Schwinger representation of angular momenta in terms of bosonic operators, we construct such an observable that is invariant under symplectic transformations (rotation and squeezing in phase space). We first design a two-copy uncertainty observable, which is a discrete-spectrum operator vanishing with certainty if and only if it is applied on (two copie…
At the recent QSCP XIX, the author claimed a procedure of using a scaled Fourier transform (the scaling being determined by the detailed interaction and particle mass for a harmonic oscillator) to achieve simultaneous resolution of position and momentum greater than the standard Heisenberg value of 1/2. The procedure is, in fact, invalid for quantum mechanics. The purpose of this paper is simply to give the correct analysis of the uncertainty product, thereby clarifying the error made.
The squeezed states are states of minimum uncertainty, but unlike the coherent states, in which the uncertainty in the position and the momentum are the same, these allow to reduce the uncertainty, either in the position or in the momentum, while maintaining the principle of uncertainty in its minimum. It seems that this property of the squeezed states would allow you to get the position eigenstates as a limit case of them, doing null the uncertainty in the position and infinite at the momentum. However, there are two equivalent ways to define the squeezed states, which lead to different expre…
The uncertainty relation for continuous variables due to Byalinicki-Birula and Mycielski expresses the complementarity between two $n$-uples of canonically conjugate variables $(x_1,x_2,\cdots x_n)$ and $(p_1,p_2,\cdots p_n)$ in terms of Shannon differential entropy. Here, we consider the generalization to variables that are not canonically conjugate and derive an entropic uncertainty relation expressing the balance between any two $n$-variable Gaussian projective measurements. The bound on entropies is expressed in terms of the determinant of a matrix of commutators between the measured varia…
Every energy level of a charged quantum particle confined in a region threaded by a magnetic flux line with quantum flux one-half must be degenerate for some position of the semifluxon within the boundary B. This is illustrated by computations for which B is a circle and a conformal transformation of a circle without symmetry. As the shape of B is varied, two degeneracies between the same pair of levels can collide and annihilate. Degeneracy of three levels requires three shape parameters, or the positions of three semifluxons; degeneracy of N levels can be generated by int{N(N+1)/4} semifluxo…
$1+1$-dimensional Dirac oscillator with minimal uncertainty in position and maximal in momentum is investigated. To obtain energy spectrum SUSY QM technique is applied. It is shown that the Dirac oscillator has two branches of spectrum, the first one gives the standard spectrum of the Dirac oscillator when the parameter of deformation goes to zero and the second branch does not have nondeformed limit. Maximal momentum brings an upper bound for the energy and it gives rise to the conclusion that the energy spectrum contains a finite number of eigenvalues. We also calculate partition function fo…
A new approach in solution of simple quantum mechanical problems in deformed space with minimal length is presented. We propose the generalization of Schroëdinger equation in momentum representation on the case of deformed Heisenberg algebra with minimal length. Assuming that the kernel of potential energy operator do not change in the case of deformation, we obtain exact solution of eigenproblem of a particle in delta potential as well as double delta potential. Particle in Coulomb like potential is revisited and the problem of inversibility and hermicity of inverse coordinate operator is sol…
We investigate the uncertainty relation for estimating the position of one electron in a uniform magnetic field in the framework of the quantum estimation theory. Two kinds of momenta, canonical one and mechanical one, are used to generate a shift in the position of the electron. We first consider pure state models whose wave function is in the ground state with zero angular momentum. The model generated by the two-commuting canonical momenta becomes the quasi-classical model, in which the symmetric logarithmic derivative quantum Cramér-Rao bound is achievable. The model generated by the two n…
A prominent formulation of the uncertainty principle identifies the fundamental quantum feature that no particle may be prepared with certain outcomes for both position and momentum measurements. Often the statistical uncertainties are thereby measured in terms of entropies providing a clear operational interpretation in information theory and cryptography. Recently, entropic uncertainty relations have been used to show that the uncertainty can be reduced in the presence of entanglement and to prove security of quantum cryptographic tasks. However, much of this recent progress has been focused…
In this paper, the interaction between a $Λ$-type three-level atom and two-mode cavity field is discussed. The detuning parameters and cross-Kerr nonlinearity are taken into account and it is assumed that atom-field coupling and Kerr medium to be $f$-deformed. Even though the system seems to be complicated, the analytical form of the state vector of the entire system for considered model is exactly obtained. The time evolution of nonclassical properties such as quantum entanglement and position-momentum entropic uncertainty relation (entropy squeezing) of the field are investigated. In each ca…
An entangled pair of photons (1 and 2) are emitted to opposite directions. A narrow slit is placed in the path of photon 1 to provide precise knowledge of its position on the $y$ axis and this also determines the precise $y$ position of its twin, photon 2, due to quantum entanglement. Is photon 2 going to experience a greater uncertainty in momentum, i.e., a greater $Δp_{y}$, due to the precise knowledge of its position $y$? The experimental data shows $ΔyΔp_{y}<\hbar $ for photon 2. Can this recent realization of the historical thought experiment of Karl Popper signal a violation of the uncer…
Based on the statistical concept of the median, we propose a quantum uncertainty relation between semi-interquartile ranges of the position and momentum distributions of arbitrary quantum states. The relation is universal, unlike that based on the mean and standard deviation, as the latter may become non-existent or ineffective in certain cases. We show that the median-based one is not saturated for Gaussian distributions in position. Instead, the Cauchy-Lorentz distributions in position turn out to be the one with the minimal uncertainty, among the states inspected, implying that the minimum-…
Simultaneous measurements of position and momentum are considered in $n$ dimensions. We find, that for a particle whose position is strictly localized in a compact domain $D\subset \mathbb{R}^n$ (spatial uncertainty) with non-empty boundary, the standard deviation of its momentum is sharply bounded by $σ_p \geq λ_1^{1/2}\hbar$, while $λ_1$ is the first Dirichlet eigenvalue of the Laplacian on $D$.
We consider wave packets of free particles with a general energy-momentum dispersion relation $E(p)$. The spreading of the wave packet is determined by the velocity $v = \p_p E$. The position-velocity uncertainty relation $Δx Δv \geq {1/2} |< \p_p^2 E >|$ is saturated by minimal uncertainty wave packets $Φ(p) = A \exp(- αE(p) + βp)$. In addition to the standard minimal Gaussian wave packets corresponding to the non-relativistic dispersion relation $E(p) = p^2/2m$, analytic calculations are presented for the spreading of wave packets with minimal position-velocity uncertainty product for the la…
Historically, Kennard was the first to choose the standard deviation as a quantitative measure of uncertainty, and neither he nor Heisenberg explicitly explained why this choice should be appropriate from the experimental physical point of view. If a particle is prepared by a single slit of spatial width $Δx$, it has been shown that a finite standard deviation $σ_p<\infty$ can only be ensured if the wave-function is zero at the edge of $Δx$, otherwise it does not exist [8]. Under this circumstances the corresponding sharp inequality is $σ_p Δx\geq π\hbar$. This bound will be reconsidered from …
Uncertainty relations provide fundamental limits on what can be said about the properties of quantum systems. For a quantum particle, the commutation relation of position and momentum observables entails Heisenberg's uncertainty relation. A third observable is presented which satisfies canonical commutation relations with both position and momentum. The resulting triple of pairwise canonical observables gives rise to a Heisenberg-type uncertainty relation for the product of three standard deviations. We derive the smallest possible value of this bound and determine the specific squeezed state …
It has been suggested that the uncertainty in the measurement of a particle's momentum could be made arbitrarily small by observing the particle at two ends of an arbitrarily long flight path. However, consideration of the nature of the detection process shows that the usual limits of the uncertainty principle hold independent of the length of the flight path.
The usual Heisenberg uncertainty relation for position and momentum may be replaced by an exact equality, for suitably chosen measures of position and momentum uncertainty. This "exact" uncertainty relation is valid for_all_ pure states, and is sufficiently strong to provide an axiomatic basis for moving from classical mechanics to quantum mechanics. In particular, the assumption of a nonclassical momentum fluctuation, having a strength which scales inversely with uncertainty in position, leads from the classical equations of motion to the Schroedinger equation.
The radial expectation values of the probability density of a quantum system in position and momentum spaces allow one to describe numerous physical quantities of the system as well as to find generalized Heisenberg-like uncertainty relations and to bound entropic uncertainty measures. It is known that the position and momentum expectation values of the main prototype of the $D$-dimensional Coulomb systems, the $D$-dimensional hydrogenic system, can be expressed in terms of some generalized hypergeometric functions of the type $_{p+1}F_p(z)$ evaluated at unity with $p=2$ and $p=3$, respectivel…
It is often said that measuring a system's position must disturb the complementary property, momentum, by some minimum amount due to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Using a "weak-measurement", this disturbance can be reduced. One might expect this comes at the cost of also reducing the measurement's precision. However, it was recently demonstrated that a sequence consisting of a weak position measurement followed by a regular momentum measurement can probe a quantum system at a single point, with zero width, in position-momentum space. Here, we study this "joint weak-measurement" and rec…
We analyze the position and momentum uncertainties of the energy eigenstates of the harmonic oscillator in the context of a deformed quantum mechanics, namely, that in which the commutator between the position and momentum operators is given by [x,p]=i\hbar(1+βp^2). This deformed commutation relation leads to the minimal length uncertainty relation Δx > (\hbar/2)(1/Δp +βΔp), which implies that Δx ~ 1/Δp at small Δp while Δx ~ Δp at large Δp. We find that the uncertainties of the energy eigenstates of the normal harmonic oscillator (m>0), derived in Ref. [1], only populate the Δx ~ 1/Δp branch.…
This paper proposes a new high-order generalized uncertainty principle, which can modify the momentum operator and position operator simultaneously. Moreover, the new form of GUP is consistent with the viewpoint of the existence of the minimum length uncertainty and the maximum observable momentum proposed by the mainstream quantum gravity theory. By using the new GUP, the maximum localization state and position eigenfunction are discussed, and the corresponding conclusions are compared with the existing literature. The harmonic oscillator is further discussed at the end of this article as an …
We propose a procedure for defining all single-photon observables in terms of Positive-Operator Valued Measures (POVMs), in particular spin and position. We identify the suppression of $0$-helicity photon states as a projection from an extended Hilbert space onto the photon Hilbert space. We show that all single-photon observables are in general described by POVMs, obtained by applying this projection to opportune Projection-Valued Measures (PVMs), defined on the extended Hilbert space. The POVMs associated to momentum and helicity reduce to PVMs, unlike those associated to position and spin, …
The equality in the uncertainty principle for linear momentum and position is obtained for states which also minimize the uncertainty product. However, in the uncertainty relation for angular momentum and angular position both sides of the inequality are state dependent and therefore the intelligent states, which satisfy the equality, do not necessarily give a minimum for the uncertainty product. In this paper, we highlight the difference between intelligent states and minimum uncertainty states by investigating a class of intelligent states which obey the equality in the angular uncertainty r…
We consider the Heisenberg uncertainty principle of position and momentum in 3-dimensional spaces of constant curvature $K$. The uncertainty of position is defined coordinate independent by the geodesic radius of spherical domains in which the particle is localized after a von Neumann-Lüders projection. By applying mathematical standard results from spectral analysis on manifolds, we obtain the largest lower bound of the momentum deviation in terms of the geodesic radius and $K$. For hyperbolic spaces, we also obtain a global lower bound $σ_p\geq |K|^\frac{1}{2}\hbar$, which is non-zero and in…
