Conventional quantum uncertainty relations (URs) contain dispersions of two observables. Generalized URs are known which contain three or more dispersions. They are derived here starting with suitable generalized Cauchy inequalities. It is shown what new information the generalized URs provide. Similar interpretation is given to generalized Cauchy inequalities.
Uncertainty relations describe the lower bound of product of standard deviations of observables. By revealing a connection between standard deviations of quantum observables and numerical radius of operators, we establish a universal uncertainty relation for any $k$ observables, of which the formulation depends on the even or odd quality of $k$. This universal uncertainty relation is tight at least for the cases $k=2n$ and $k=3$. For two observables, the uncertainty relation is exactly a simpler reformulation of Schrödinger's uncertainty principle.
We investigate the product form uncertainty relations of variances for $n\,(n\geq 3)$ quantum observables. In particular, tight uncertainty relations satisfied by three observables has been derived, which is shown to be better than the ones derived from the strengthened Heisenberg and the generalized Schrödinger uncertainty relations, and some existing uncertainty relation for three spin-half operators. Uncertainty relation of arbitrary number of observables is also derived. As an example, the uncertainty relation satisfied by the eight Gell-Mann matrices is presented.
We study the sum uncertainty relations based on variance and skew information for arbitrary finite N quantum mechanical observables. We derive new uncertainty inequalities which improve the exiting results about the related uncertainty relations. Detailed examples are provided to illustrate the advantages of our uncertainty inequalities.
Uncertainty relation lies at the heart of quantum mechanics, characterizing the incompatibility of non-commuting observables in the preparation of quantum states. An important question is how to improve the lower bound of uncertainty relation. Here we present a variance-based sum uncertainty relation for $N$ incompatible observables stronger than the simple generalization of the uncertainty relation for two observables derived by Maccone and Pati [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf113}, 260401 (2014)]. Further comparisons of our uncertainty relation with other related ones for spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ and spin-$…
The local uncertainty relation (LUR) criteria for quantum entanglement, which is dependent on chosen observables, is developed recent. In the paper, applying the uncertainty principle, an entanglement criteria for multipartite Gaussian states is given, which is implemented by a minimum optimization computer program and independent on observalbes.
The uncertainty relation is a distinguishing feature of quantum theory, characterizing the incompatibility of noncommuting observables in the preparation of quantum states. Recently, many uncertainty relations were proposed with improved lower bounds and were deemed capable of incorporating multiple observables. Here we report an experimental verification of seven uncertainty relations of this type with single-photon measurements. The results, while confirming these uncertainty relations, show as well the relative stringency of various uncertainty lower bounds.
We formulate uncertainty relations for arbitrary finite number of incompatible observables. Based on the sum of variances of the observables, both Heisenberg-type and Schrödinger-type uncertainty relations are provided. These new lower bounds are stronger in most of the cases than the ones derived from some existing inequalities. Detailed examples are presented.
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…
Uncertainty principle is the basis of quantum mechanics. It reflects the basic law of the movement of microscopic particles. Wigner-Yanase skew information, as a measure of quantum uncertainties, is used to characterize the intrinsic features of the state and the observable. In this paper, we mainly investigate the sum uncertainty relations for both quantum mechanical observables and quantum channels based on skew information. We establish a new uncertainty relation in terms of Wigner-Yanase skew information for $n$ observables, which is saturated (thus it holds as equality) for two incompatib…
We construct a multi-observable uncertainty equality as well as an inequality based on the sum of standard deviations in the qubit system. The obtained equality indicates that the uncertainty relation can be expressed more accurately, and also can be used to detect the mixedness of the system. Meanwhile, the new uncertainty inequality can provide a tighter lower bound, and the tightness can be maintained at a high level even in an open system. Furthermore, the deficiency of the uncertainty relation, that the lower bound of the product form uncertainty relations can be null even for two incompa…
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…
A new lower boundary for the product of variances of two observables is obtained in the case, when these observables are entangled with the third one. This boundary can be higher than the Robertson--Schrödinger one. The special case of the two-dimensional pure Gaussian state is considered as an example.
The uncertainty relation, as one of the fundamental principles of quantum physics, captures the incompatibility of noncommuting observables in the preparation of quantum states. In this work, we derive two strong and universal uncertainty relations for $N(N\ge2)$ observables with discrete and bounded spectra, one in multiplicative form and the other in additive form. To verify their validity, for illustration, we implement in the spin-1/2 system an experiment with single-photon measurement. The experimental results exhibit the validity and robustness of these uncertainty relations, and indicat…
The Heisenberg-Robertson uncertainty relation quantitatively expresses the impossibility of jointly sharp preparation of incompatible observables. However it does not capture the concept of incompatible observables because it can be trivial even for two incompatible observables. We experimentally demonstrate the new stronger uncertainty relations proposed by Maccone and Pati [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 260401 (2014)] relating on that sum of variances are valid in a state-dependent manner and the lower bound is guaranteed to be nontrivial for two observables being incompatible on the state of the sy…
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 …
New sum and product uncertainty relations, containing variances of three or four observables, but not containing explicitly their covariances, are derived. One of consequences is the new inequality, giving a nonzero lower bound for the product of two variances in the case of zero mean value of the commutator between the related operators. Moreover, explicit examples show that in some cases this new bound can be better than the known Robertson--Schrödinger one.
Reality of quantum observables, a feature of long-standing interest within foundations of quantum mechanics, has recently been quantified and deeply studied by means of entropic measures [Phys. Rev. A 97, 022107 (2018)]. However, there is no state-independent "reality trade-off" between noncommuting observables, as in certain systems all observables are real [Europhys. Lett. 112, 40005 (2015)]. We show that the entropic uncertainty relation in the presence of quantum memory [Nature Phys. 6, 659 (2010)] perfectly supplements the discussed notion of reality, rendering trade-offs between reality …
One of the most important and useful entropic uncertainty relations concerns a $d$ dimensional system and two mutually unbiased measurements. In such a setting, the sum of two information entropies is lower bounded by $\ln d$. It has recently been shown that projective measurements subject to operational mutual unbiasedness can also be constructed in a continuous domain, with the help of periodic coarse graining. Here we consider the whole family of Rényi entropies applied to these discretized observables and prove that such a scheme does also admit the uncertainty relation mentioned above.
Quantum uncertainty relations have deep-rooted significance on the formalism of quantum mechanics. Heisenberg's uncertainty relations attracted a renewed interest for its applications in quantum information science. Robertson derived a general form of Heisenberg's uncertainty relations for a pair of arbitrary observables represented by Hermitian operators. In the present work, we discover a temporal version of the Heisenberg-Robertson uncertainty relations for the measurement of two observables at two different times, where the dynamical uncertainties crucially depend on the time evolution of …
In this work we establish rigorously a measurement uncertainty relation (MUR) for three unbiased qubit observables, which was previously shown to hold true under some presumptions. The triplet MUR states that the uncertainty, which is quantified by the total statistic distance between the target observables and the jointly implemented observables, is lower bounded by an incompatibility measure that reflects the joint measurement conditions. We derive a necessary and sufficient condition for the triplet MUR to be saturated and the corresponding optimal measurement. To facilitate experimental te…
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…
Uncertainties in successive measurements of general canonically conjugate variables are examined. Such operators are approached within a limiting procedure of the Pegg-Barnett type. Dealing with unbounded observables, we should take into account a finiteness of detector resolution. An appropriate reformulation of two scenarios of successive measurements is proposed and motivated. Uncertainties are characterized by means of generalized entropies of both the Rényi and Tsallis types. The Rényi and Tsallis formulations of uncertainty relations are obtained for both the scenarios of successive meas…
The uncertainty principle is the most important for the foundations of quantum mechanics but it still remains failed to reach a consensus of its interpretation, which gives rise to debates upon its physical nature. In this work, we address the problem of its foundation from a different aspect to present an alternative formulation for proving the uncertainty relations in a general way in terms of commutation relations and action function. The relationship between the de Broglie relation and the uncertainty principle is studied from a new angle. As a result, it is demonstrated that the de Brogli…
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 discuss the information entropy for a general open pointer-based simultaneous measurement and show how it is bound from below. This entropic uncertainty bound is a direct consequence of the structure of the entropy and can be obtained from the formal solution of the measurement dynamics. Furthermore, the structural properties of the entropy allow us to give an intuitive interpretation of the noisy influence of the pointers and the environmental heat bath on the measurement results.
The canonical Robertson-Schrödinger uncertainty relation provides a loose bound for the product of variances of two non-commuting observables. Recently, several tight forward and reverse uncertainty relations have been proved which go beyond the traditional uncertainty relations. Here we experimentally test multifold of state-dependent uncertainty relations for the product as well as the sum of variances of two incompatible observables for photonic qutrits. These uncertainty relations are independent of any optimization and still tighter than the Robertson-Schrödinger uncertainty relation and …
Uncertainty relations involving complementary observables are one of the cornerstones of quantum mechanics. Aside from their fundamental significance, they play an important role in practical applications, such as detection of quantum correlations and security requirements in quantum cryptography. In continuous variable systems, the spectra of the relevant observables form a continnuum and this necessitates the coarse graining of measurements. However, these coarse-grained observables do not necessarily obey the same uncertainty relations as the original ones, a fact that can lead to false res…
We introduce a new concept called as the mutual uncertainty between two observables in a given quantum state which enjoys similar features like the mutual information for two random variables. Further, we define the conditional uncertainty as well as conditional variance and show that conditioning on more observable reduces the uncertainty. Given three observables, we prove a 'strong sub-additivity' relation for the conditional uncertainty under certain condition. As an application, we show that using the conditional variance one can detect bipartite higher dimensional entangled states. The ef…
We prove a few novel state-dependent uncertainty relations for product as well the sum of variances of two incompatible observables. These uncertainty relations are shown to be tighter than the Roberson-Schrödinger uncertainty relation and other ones existing in the current literature. Also, we derive state dependent upper bound to the sum and the product of variances using the reverse Cauchy-Schwarz inequality and the Dunkl-Williams inequality. Our results suggest that not only we cannot prepare quantum states for which two incompatible observables can have sharp values, but also we have both…
