The states of the qubit, the basic unit of quantum information, are 2 × 2 positive semi-definite Hermitian matrices with trace 1. We contribute to the program to axiomatize quantum mechanics by characterizing these states in terms of an entropic uncertainty principle formulated on an eight-point phase space. We do this by employing Rényi entropy (a generalization of Shannon entropy) suitably defined for the signed phase-space probability distributions that arise in representing quantum states.
The states of the qubit, the basic unit of quantum information, are 2 × 2 positive semi-definite Hermitian matrices with trace 1. We contribute to the program to axiomatize quantum mechanics by characterizing these states in terms of an entropic uncertainty principle formulated on an eight-point phase space. We do this by employing Rényi entropy (a generalization of Shannon entropy) suitably defined for the signed phase-space probability distributions that arise in representing quantum states.
Phase-space versions of quantum mechanics -- from Wigner's original distribution to modern discrete-qudit constructions -- represent some states with negative quasi-probabilities. Conventional Shannon and Rényi entropies become complex-valued in this setting and lose their operational meaning. Building on the axiomatic treatments of Rényi (1961) and Daróczy (1963), we develop a conservative extension that applies to signed finite phase spaces and identify a single admissible entropy family, which we call signed Rényi α-entropy (for a free parameter α≥0). The obvious signed Shannon candidate is ruled out because it violates extensivity. We prove four results that bolster the usefulness of the new measure. (i) It serves as a witness of the presence of cancellation, detecting the coexistence of positive and negative weight in a signed measure. (ii) For α>1, it is Schur-concave, delivering the intuitive property that mixing increases entropy (iii) The same parametric family obeys a quantum H-theorem, namely, that under de-phasing dynamics entropy cannot decrease. (iv) The 2-entropy is conserved under discrete Moyal-bracket dynamics, mirroring conservation of von Neumann entropy under unitary evolution on Hilbert space. We also comment on interpreting the Rényi order parameter as an inverse temperature. Overall, we believe that our investigation provides good evidence that our axiomatically derived signed Rényi entropy may be a useful addition to existing entropy measures employed in quantum information, foundations, and thermodynamics.
We revisit generalized entropic formulations of the uncertainty principle for an arbitrary pair of quantum observables in two-dimensional Hilbert space. Rényi entropy is used as an uncertainty measure associated with the distribution probabilities corresponding to the outcomes of the observables. We derive a general expression for the tight lower bound of the sum of Rényi entropies for any couple of (positive) entropic indices (α, β). Thus, we have overcome the Hölder conjugacy constraint imposed on the entropic indices by Riesz–Thorin theorem. In addition, we present an analytical expression for the tight bound inside the square [0 , 1/2] 2 in the α–β plane, and a semi-analytical expression on the line β = α. It is seen that previous results are included as particular cases. Moreover we present a semi-analytical, suboptimal bound for any couple of indices. In all cases, we provide the minimizing states.
We revisit generalized entropic formulations of the uncertainty principle for an arbitrary pair of quantum observables in two-dimensional Hilbert space. Rényi entropy is used as uncertainty measure associated with the distribution probabilities corresponding to the outcomes of the observables. We derive a general expression for the tight lower bound of the sum of Rényi entropies for any couple of (positive) entropic indices (α, β). Thus, we have overcome the Hölder conjugacy constraint imposed on the entropic indices by Riesz–Thorin theorem. In addition, we present an analytical expression for the tight bound inside the square
From their conception to present times, different concepts and definitions of entropy take key roles in a variety of areas from thermodynamics to information science, and they can be applied to both classical and quantum systems. Among them is the Rényi entropy. It is able to characterize various properties of classical information with a unified concise form. We focus on the quantum counterpart, which unifies the von Neumann entropy, max- and min-entropy, collision entropy, etc. It can only be directly applied to Hermitian systems because it usually requires that the density matrices is normalized. For a non-Hermitian system, the evolved density matrix may not be normalized; i.e., the trace can be larger or less than one as the time evolution. However, it is not well-defined for the Rényi entropy with a non-normalized probability distribution relevant to the density matrix of a non-Hermitian system, especially when the trace of the non-normalized density matrix is larger than one. In this work, we investigate how to describe the Rényi entropy for non-Hermitian systems more appropriately. We obtain a concisely and generalized form of α-Rényi entropy, which we extend the unified order-α from finite positive real numbers to zero and infinity. Our generalized α-Rényi entropy can be directly calculated using both of the normalized and non-normalized density matrices so that it is able to describe non-Hermitian entropy dynamics. We illustrate the necessity of our generalization by showing the differences between ours and the conventional Rényi entropy for non-Hermitian detuning two-level systems.
Uncertainty is a fundamental characteristic of quantum system. The degree of uncertainty of an observable has long been investigated by the standard deviation of the observable. In recent years, however, by analyzing some special examples, researchers have found that the Shannon entropy of the measurement outcomes of an observable is more suitable to quantify its uncertainty. Formally, Shannon entropy is a special limit of a more general Rényi entropy. In this paper, we discuss the problem of how to predict the measurement outcome of an observable by the existing measurement results of the observable, and how to quantitatively describe the uncertainty of the observable from the perspective of the repeatable probability of the measurement results of this observable in an unknown state. We will argue that if the same observable of different systems in the same state is repeatedly and independently measured many times, then the probability of obtaining an identical measurement result is a decaying function of the number of measurements of obtaining the same result, and the decay rate of the repeatable probability for obtaining the same measurement results and the repeatable number of measurements can represent the degree of uncertainty of the observable in this state. It means that the greater the uncertainty of an observable, the faster the repeatable probability decays with the number of repeatable measurements; conversely, the smaller the uncertainty, the slower the repeatable probability decays with the number of repeatable measurements. This observation enables us to give the Shannon entropy and the Rényi entropy of an observable uniformly by the functional relation between the repeatable probability and the number of repeatable measurements. We show that the Shannon entropy and the Rényi entropy can be formally regarded as the “decay index” of the repeatable probability with the number of repeatable measurements. In this way we also define a generalized Rényi entropy by the repeatable probability for consecutively observing identical results of an observable, and therefore we give a proof of the Maassen-Uffink type entropic uncertainty relation by using this generalized Rényi entropy. This method of defining entropy shows that entropic uncertainty relation is a quantitative limitation for the decay rate of the total probability for obtaining identical measurement results when we simultaneously measure two observables many times.
The Rényi entropies constitute a family of information measures that generalizes the well-known Shannon entropy, inheriting many of its properties. They appear in the form of unconditional and conditional entropies, relative entropies, or mutual information, and have found many applications in information theory and beyond. Various generalizations of Rényi entropies to the quantum setting have been proposed, most prominently Petz's quasi-entropies and Renner's conditional min-, max-, and collision entropy. However, these quantum extensions are incompatible and thus unsatisfactory. We propose a new quantum generalization of the family of Rényi entropies that contains the von Neumann entropy, min-entropy, collision entropy, and the max-entropy as special cases, thus encompassing most quantum entropies in use today. We show several natural properties for this definition, including data-processing inequalities, a duality relation, and an entropic uncertainty relation.