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Uncertainty Relations: Curiosities and Inconsistencies

Krzysztof Urbanowski

Analyzing general uncertainty relations one can find that there can exist such pairs of non-commuting observables A and B and such vectors that the lower bound for the product of standard deviations ΔA and ΔB calculated for these vectors is zero: ΔA·ΔB≥0. Here we discuss examples of such cases and some other inconsistencies which can be found performing a rigorous analysis of the uncertainty relations in some special cases. As an illustration of such cases matrices (2×2) and (3×3) and the position–momentum uncertainty relation for a quantum particle in the box are considered. The status of the uncertainty relation in PT–symmetric quantum theory and the problems associated with it are also studied.

arXiv:2010.08339SymmetryOct 6, 20202 citations

Critical Look at the Time--Energy Uncertainty Relations

K. Urbanowski

The Heisenberg and Mandelstam-Tamm time-energy uncertainty relations are analyzed. The conlusion resulting from this analysis is that within the Quantum Mechanics of Schrödinger and von Neumann, the status of these relations can not be considered as the same as the status of the position-momentum uncertainty relations, which are rigorous. The conclusion is that the time--energy uncertainty relations can not be considered as universally valid.

arXiv:1908.05273Acta Physica Polonica BDec 19, 20192 citations

On some states minimizing uncertainty relations: A new look at these relations

K. Urbanowski

The Heisenberg–Robertson (HR) and Robertson–Schrödinger (RS) uncertainty relations are studied. Analyzing the RS uncertainty relation we found, that there can exist a large set of states of the quantum system under considerations, for which the lower bound of the product of the standard deviations of a pair of noncommuting observables, A and B, is zero, and which differ from those described in the literature for the HR uncertainty relation. These states are not eigenstates of either the observable A or B. The correlation function for these observables in such states is equal to zero. We have also shown that the so-called “sum uncertainty relations” also do not provide any information about lower bounds on the standard deviations calculated for these states. We additionally show that the uncertainty principle in its most general form has two faces: One is that it is a lower bound on the product of standard deviations, and the other is that the product of standard deviations is an upper bound on the modulus of the correlation function of a pair of the noncommuting observables in the state under consideration.

arXiv:2411.08131Modern Physics Letters AMar 25, 20260 citations

Heisenberg uncertainty relation for three canonical observables

Spiros Kechrimparis, Stefan Weigert

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 uncertainty relation for the product of three standard deviations. We derive the smallest possible value of this bound and determine the specific squeezed state which saturates the triple uncertainty relation. Quantum optical experiments are proposed to verify our findings.

arXiv:1407.0083Physical Review ADec 15, 201451 citations

Closer look at sum uncertainty relations and related relations

K. Urbanowski

We analyze the weak and critical points of various uncertainty relations that follow from the inequalities for the norms of vectors in the Hilbert space of states of a quantum system. There are studied uncertainty relations for sums of standard deviations, for sums of variances, and other relations between standard deviations or variances. The obtained results are compared with the conclusions obtained in similar cases using the standard Heisenberg-Robertson uncertainty relation. We also show that there exists an upper bound on the product of standard deviations that appears in the Heisenberg-Robertson uncertainty relation.

arXiv:2504.09122Apr 12, 20250 citations

Generalized Uncertainty Relations: Theory, Examples, and Lorentz Invariance

Samuel L. Braunstein, Carlton M. Caves, Gerard J Milburn

The quantum-mechanical framework in which observables are associated with Hermitian operators is too narrow to discuss measurements of such important physical quantities as elapsed time or harmonic-oscillator phase. We introduce a broader framework that allows us to derive quantum-mechanical limits on the precision to which a parameter---e.g., elapsed time---may be determined via arbitrary data analysis of arbitrary measurements on N identically prepared quantum systems. The limits are expressed as generalized Mandelstam-Tamm uncertainty relations, which involve the operator that generates displacements of the parameter---e.g., the Hamiltonian operator in the case of elapsed time. This approach avoids entirely the problem of associating a Hermitian operator with the parameter. We illustrate the general formalism, first, with nonrelativistic uncertainty relations for spatial displacement and momentum, harmonic-oscillator phase and number of quanta, and time and energy and, second, with Lorentz-invariant uncertainty relations involving the displacement and Lorentz-rotation parameters of the Poincar\\'e group.

Jul 7, 1995331 citations

Remarks on the uncertainty relations

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Remarks on the uncertainty relations

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