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arXiv:2109.06893 · Physical Review Research

Uncertainty relations with the variance and the quantum Fisher information based on convex decompositions of density matrices

Géza Tóth, Florian Fröwis

Published Jan 31, 2022• 31 citations
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Abstract

We present several inequalities related to the Robertson-Schr\"odinger uncertainty relation. In all these inequalities, we consider a decomposition of the density matrix into a mixture of states, and use the fact that the Robertson-Schr\"odinger uncertainty relation is valid for all these components. By considering a convex roof of the bound, we obtain an alternative derivation of the relation in Fr\"owis et al. [Phys. Rev. A 92, 012102 (2015)], and we can also list a number of conditions that are needed to saturate the relation. We present a formulation of the Cram\'er-Rao bound involving the convex roof of the variance. By considering a concave roof of the bound in the Robertson-Schr\"odinger uncertainty relation over decompositions to mixed states, we obtain an improvement of the Robertson-Schr\"odinger uncertainty relation. We consider similar techniques for uncertainty relations with three variances. Finally, we present further uncertainty relations that provide lower bounds on the metrological usefulness of bipartite quantum states based on the variances of the canonical position and momentum operators for two-mode continuous variable systems. We show that the violation of well-known entanglement conditions in these systems discussed in Duan et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 2722 (2000)] and Simon [Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 2726 (2000)] implies that the state is more useful metrologically than certain relevant subsets of separable states. We present similar results concerning entanglement conditions with angular momentum operators for spin systems.

DOI
10.1103/physrevresearch.4.013075

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We present several inequalities related to the Robertson-Schr"odinger uncertainty relation. In all these inequalities, we consider a decomposition of the density matrix into a mixture of states, and use the fact that the Robertson-Schr"odinger uncertainty relation is valid for all these components. By considering a convex roof of the bound, we obtain an alternative derivation of the relation in Fr"owis et al. [Phys. Rev. A 92, 012102 (2015)], and we can also list a number of conditions that are needed to saturate the relation. We present a formulation of the Cram'er-Rao bound involving the convex roof of the variance. By considering a concave roof of the bound in the Robertson-Schr"odinger uncertainty relation over decompositions to mixed states, we obtain an improvement of the Robertson-Schr"odinger uncertainty relation. We consider similar techniques for uncertainty relations with three variances. Finally, we present further uncertainty relations that provide lower bounds on the metrological usefulness of bipartite quantum states based on the variances of the canonical position and momentum operators for two-mode continuous variable systems. We show that the violation of well-known entanglement conditions in these systems discussed in Duan et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 2722 (2000)] and Simon [Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 2726 (2000)] implies that the state is more useful metrologically than certain relevant subsets of separable states. We present similar results concerning entanglement conditions with angular momentum operators for spin systems.
We discuss recent findings relating the quantum Fisher information to convex roofs of variances. We present several improvements on the Robertson-Schrodinger uncertainty relation. In all these improvements, we consider a decomposition of the density matrix into a mixture of pure states, and use the fact that the Robertson-Schrodinger uncertainty relation is valid for all these components. By considering a convex roof of the bound, we obtain an alternative derivation of the relation in F. Frowis, R. Schmied, and N. Gisin [Phys. Rev. A 92, 012102 (2015)], and we can also list a number of conditions that are needed to saturate the relations. We also gain new insights about the Cramer-Rao bound. By considering a concave roof of the bound in the Robertson-Schrodinger uncertainty relation, we obtain other type of improvements. We consider similar techniques for uncertainty relations with three variances. Finally, we present further uncertainty relations that provide lower bounds on the metrological usefulness of bipartite quantum states based on the variances of canonical position and momentum operators for two-mode continuous variable systems and angular momentum operators for spin systems.
We show how preparation uncertainty relations that are formulated as sums of variances may be tightened by using the quantum Fisher information to quantify quantum fluctuations. We apply this to derive stronger angular momentum uncertainty relations, which in the case of spin-1/21/21/2 turn into equalities involving the purity. Using an analogy between pure-state decompositions in the Bloch sphere and the moment of inertia of rigid bodies, we identify optimal decompositions that achieve the convex- and concave-roof decomposition of the variance. Finally, we illustrate how these results may be used to identify the classical and quantum limits on phase estimation precision with an unknown rotation axis.
Uncertainty relations (URs) such as the Heisenberg-Robertson or the time-energy UR are often considered to be hallmarks of quantum theory. Here, a simple derivation of these URs is presented based on a single classical inequality from estimation theory, a Cram\'er-Rao-like bound. The Heisenberg-Robertson UR is then obtained by using the Born rule and the Schr\"odinger equation. This allows a clear separation of the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics from the Hilbert space structure and the dynamical law. It also simplifies the interpretation of the bound. In addition, the Heisenberg-Robertson UR is tightened for mixed states by replacing one variance by the quantum Fisher information. Thermal states of Hamiltonians with evenly gapped energy levels are shown to saturate the tighter bound for natural choices of the operators. This example is further extended to Gaussian states of a harmonic oscillator. For many-qubit systems, we illustrate the interplay between entanglement and the structure of the operators that saturate the UR with spin-squeezed states and Dicke states.
The focus of the present investigation is uncertainty relations for quantum particles, which quantify the fundamental limitations on some of their properties due to their incompatibility. In the first, longer part, we are concerned with preparational uncertainty \nrelations, while in the second we touch upon measurement inequalities through a generalisation of a model of joint measurement of position and momentum. \nSpecifically, starting from a triple of canonical operators, we prove product and sum inequalities for their variances with bounds larger than those following from combining the pairwise ones. We extend these results to N observables for a quantum particle and prove uncertainty relations for the sums and products of their variances \nin terms of the commutators. \nFurthermore, we present a general theory of preparational uncertainty relations for a quantum particle in one dimension and derive conditions for a smooth function of the second moments to assume a lower bound. The Robertson-Schroedinger inequality \nis found to be of special significance and we geometrically study the space of second moments. We prove new uncertainty relations for various functions of the variances and covariance of position and momentum of a quantum particle. Some of our findings are shown to extend to more than one spatial degree of freedom and we derive \nvarious types of inequalities. \nFinally, we propose a generalisation of the Arthurs-Kelly model of joint measurement of position and momentum to incorporate the case of more than two observables and derive joint-measurement inequalities for the statistics of the probes. For the case of \nthree canonical observables and suitable definitions of error and disturbance we obtain a number of error-error-error and error-error-disturbance inequalities and show that the lower bound is identical to the preparational one.
Uncertainty relations are usually stated as bounds on selected combinations of variances, but the full covariance matrix contains substantially richer information about the geometry of quantum state space and about the operational capabilities of quantum systems. Here we characterize the covariance matrices attainable by a finite-dimensional canonical pair of observables related by the discrete Fourier transform, the natural analogue of position and momentum in a finite Hilbert space. We combine analytic arguments with convex-geometric and semidefinite-programming methods based on joint numerical ranges to describe the admissible region through unitary invariants, in particular the trace and determinant of the covariance matrix. This provides a systematic way to identify extremal states, generalizing the notion of minimum-uncertainty states, and to quantify how the discrete uncertainty geometry approaches its continuous counterpart with increasing dimension. We further show that the resulting covariance-matrix characterization has direct consequences for applications: it yields accuracy bounds for multi parameter estimation protocols and separability criteria for finite-dimensional bipartite systems, including discrete analogues of continuous-variable EPR-type witnesses. Our results establish a systematic and versatile platform for connecting uncertainty relations, convex quantum geometry, metrology, and entanglement detection in finite-dimensional systems.