A pair of quantum observables diagonal in the same ``incoherent'' basis can be measured jointly, so some coherence is obviously required for measurement incompatibility. Here we first observe that coherence in a single observable is linked to the diagonal elements of any observable jointly measurable with it, leading to a general criterion for the coherence needed for incompatibility. Specializing to the case where the second observable is incoherent (diagonal), we develop a concrete method for solving incompatibility problems, tractable even in large systems by analytical bounds, without resorting to numerical optimization. We verify the consistency of our method by a quick proof of the known noise bound for mutually unbiased bases, and apply it to study emergent classicality in the spin-boson model of an $N$-qubit open quantum system. Finally, we formulate our theory in an operational resource-theoretic setting involving ``genuinely incoherent operations'' used previously in the literature, and show that if the coherence is insufficient to sustain incompatibility, the associated joint measurements have sequential implementations via incoherent instruments.
A pair of quantum observables diagonal in the same incoherent'' basis can be measured jointly, so some coherence is obviously required for measurement incompatibility. Here we first observe that coherence in a single observable is linked to the diagonal elements of any observable jointly measurable with it, leading to a general criterion for the coherence needed for incompatibility. Specializing to the case where the second observable is incoherent (diagonal), we develop a concrete method for solving incompatibility problems, tractable even in large systems by analytical bounds, without resorting to numerical optimization. We verify the consistency of our method by a quick proof of the known noise bound for mutually unbiased bases, and apply it to study emergent classicality in the spin-boson model of an $N$-qubit open quantum system. Finally, we formulate our theory in an operational resource-theoretic setting involving genuinely incoherent operations'' used previously in the literature, and show that if the coherence is insufficient to sustain incompatibility, the associated joint measurements have sequential implementations via incoherent instruments.
A pair of quantum observables diagonal in the same basis can be measured jointly, so some coherence is obviously needed for measurement incompatibility. It is equally clear that these quantum resources are not comparable for general observables. However, in the spirit of complementarity between path and superposition, one expects a precise measurement of the incoherent basis label to be incompatible with sufficiently coherent observables. Here we formalise this idea in a very general framework, involving pairs where one observable is incoherent (diagonal), and the coherence in the other is adjusted by damping via genuinely incoherent operations. An extreme case is a basis measurement mutually unbiased to the incoherent basis, leading to an interesting interplay between coherence and complementarity. In terms of measurement theory, we show that if coherence is insufficient to sustain incompatibility, the associated joint measurements have sequential implementations via incoherent instruments. This yields a concrete method for solving joint measurability problems, tractable even in large systems without resorting to numerical optimisation: we find analytical bounds for the coherence needed for incompatibility, in terms of a divergence measure characterising basis state distinguishability of incoherent observables. We verify the consistency of our theory by a quick proof of the known noise bound for the incompatibility of mutually unbiased bases, and then apply it to study emergent classicality in the spin-boson model of pure decoherence on an N-qubit open quantum system.
Pivotal within quantum physics, the concept of quantum incompatibility is generally related to algebraic aspects of the formalism, such as commutation relations and unbiasedness of bases. Recently, the concept was identified as a resource in tasks involving quantum state discrimination and quantum programmability. Here, we link quantum incompatibility with the amount of information that can be extracted from a system upon successive measurements of noncommuting observables, a scenario related to communication tasks. This approach leads us to characterize incompatibility as a resource encoded in a physical context, which involves both the quantum state and observables. Moreover, starting with a measure of context incompatibility we derive a measurement-incompatibility quantifier that is easily computable, admits a geometrical interpretation, and is maximum only if the eigenbases of the involved observables are mutually unbiased.
Quantum coherence is known as an important resource in many quantum information tasks, which is a basis-dependent property of quantum states. In this paper, we discuss quantum incoherence based simultaneously on k bases using Matrix Theory Method. First, by defining a correlation function m(e,f) of two orthonormal bases e and f, we investigate the relationships between sets I(e) and I(f) of incoherent states with respect to e and f. We prove that I(e)=I(f) if and only if the rank-one projective measurements generated by e and f are identical. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for the intersection I(e)⋂I(f) to include a state except the maximally mixed state. Especially, if two bases e and f are mutually unbiased, then the intersection has only the maximally mixed state. Secondly, we introduce the concepts of strong incoherence and weak coherence of a quantum state with respect to a set B of k bases and propose a measure for the weak coherence. In the two-qubit system, we prove that there exists a maximally coherent state with respect to B when k=2 and it is not the case for k=3.
Abstract In standard formulations of the uncertainty principle, two fundamental features are typically cast as impossibility statements: two noncommuting observables cannot in general both be sharply defined (for the same state), nor can they be measured jointly. The pioneers of quantum mechanics were acutely aware and puzzled by this fact, and it motivated Heisenberg to seek a mitigation, which he formulated in his seminal paper of 1927. He provided intuitive arguments to show that the values of, say, the position and momentum of a particle can at least be unsharply defined, and they can be measured together provided some approximation errors are allowed. Only now, nine decades later, a working theory of approximate joint measurements is taking shape, leading to rigorous and experimentally testable formulations of associated error tradeoff relations. Here we briefly review this new development, explaining the concepts and steps taken in the construction of optimal joint approximations of pairs of incompatible observables. As a case study, we deduce measurement uncertainty relations for qubit observables using two distinct error measures. We provide an operational interpretation of the error bounds and discuss some of the first experimental tests of such relations.
Decoherence, when viewed in the Heisenberg picture, can turn incompatible measurements into jointly measurable ones. This provides an observable-level description of emergent classicality in terms of the incompatibility destroyed by a noise channel. The corresponding loss of incompatibility can be captured by the channel's \emph{compatibility region}---the observables in a probe class that become jointly measurable with every noisy observable. The geometry and volume of this region provide a refined operational way to compare noise channels. We apply this framework to decoherence channels, each of which acts by Schur multiplication with extreme points of the convex set of unit-diagonal positive semidefinite matrices. Restricting to extremals eliminates convex mixing and reveals subtle phase-dependent decoherence effects thar are not captured by damping rates or conventional coherence quantifiers. Such channels have a rigid dilation structure described by a rank-one operator frame, which reduces joint measurability to a positivity test, making the compatibility region analytically tractable, and its volume computable from the frame's Gram matrix. If the frame can be normalised to a minimal informationally complete (MIC) POVM, the compatibility region acquires a geometric interpretation in the associated probability representation of the quantum state space, familiar with Qbism. Among maximal-rank extremals, those associated with symmetric informationally complete (SIC) POVMs maximise the compatibility volume and hence destroy the greatest amount of incompatibility, providing an operational characterisation of the special role of SICs in terms of joint measurability. This leads to a new formulation of the well-known SIC existence problem as a joint measurability question for noisy mutually unbiased bases.
This thesis is concerned with several topics related to concept of incompatibility of quan- tum observables. The operational description of quantum theory is given, in which incom- patibility is expressed in terms of joint measurability. A connection between symmetric informationally complete positive operator-valued measures and mutually unbiased bases is given, and examples of this connection holding based on investigations in Mathematica are presented. An extension of the Arthurs-Kelly measurement model is then given, where the measured observable is calculated, thereby generalising the results given previously in the literature. It is shown that in the case of prior correlations between measurement probes there exists the possibility that a measurement of both probes leads to marginal observables with smaller statistical spread than if measurements are performed on the individual probes. This concept is then highlighted by considering two probe states that allow for this reduction in spread, and the required conditions for success are given. Fi- nally, error-error relations for incompatible dichotomic qubit observables are considered in the case of state-dependent and independent error measures. Quantities that arise in the state-independent measures case, which were previously presented geometrically, have been given operational meaning, and optimal approximating schemes in both cases are compared. Limitations regarding the state-dependent optimal approximations, and experimental work built upon this construction are also discussed.