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arXiv:2110.11705 · Quantum

Measurement disturbance and conservation laws in quantum mechanics

Majid Mohammady, Takayuki Miyadera, Leon Loveridge

Published Jun 5, 2023• 9 citations
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Abstract

Measurement error and disturbance, in the presence of conservation laws, are analysed in general operational terms. We provide novel quantitative bounds demonstrating necessary conditions under which accurate or non-disturbing measurements can be achieved, highlighting an interesting interplay between incompatibility, unsharpness, and coherence. From here we obtain a substantial generalisation of the Wigner-Araki-Yanase (WAY) theorem. Our findings are further refined through the analysis of the fixed-point set of the measurement channel, some extra structure of which is characterised here for the first time.

DOI
10.22331/q-2023-06-05-1033

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Measurement error and disturbance, in the presence of conservation laws, are analysed in general operational terms. We provide novel quantitative bounds demonstrating necessary conditions under which accurate or non-disturbing measurements can be achieved, highlighting an interesting interplay between incompatibility, unsharpness, and coherence. From here we obtain a substantial generalisation of the Wigner-Araki-Yanase (WAY) theorem. Our findings are further refined through the analysis of the fixed-point set of the measurement channel, some extra structure of which is characterised here for the first time.
The Wigner-Araki-Yanase (WAY) theorem states a remarkable limitation to quantum mechanical measurements in the presence of additive conserved quantities. Discovered by Wigner in 1952, this limitation is known to induce constraints on the control of individual quantum systems in the context of information processing. It is therefore important to understand the precise conditions and scope of the WAY theorem. Here we elucidate its crucial assumptions, briefly review some generalizations, and show how a particular extension can already be obtained by a simple modification of the original proofs. We also describe the evolution of the WAY theorem from a strict no-go verdict for certain, highly idealized, precise measurements into a quantitative constraint on the accuracy and approximate repeatability of imprecise measurements.
It is important to improve the accuracy of quantum measurements and operations both in engineering and fundamental physics. It is known, however, that the achievable accuracy of measurements and unitary operations are generally limited by conservation laws according to the Wigner-Araki-Yanase theorem (WAY theorem) and its generalizations. Although many researches have extended the WAY theorem quantitatively, most of them, as well as the original WAY theorem, concern only additive conservation laws like the angular momentum conservation law. In this paper, we explore the limitation incurred by the energy conservation law, which is universal but is one of the non-additive conservation laws. We present a lower bound for the error of a quantum measurement using a scattering process satisfying the energy conservation law. We obtain conditions that a control system Hamiltonian must fulfill in order to implement a controlled unitary gate with zero error when a scattering process is considered. We also show the quantitative relationship between the upper bound of the gate fidelity of a controlled unitary gate and the energy fluctuation of systems when a target system and a control system are both one qubit.
The ability to measure every quantum observable is ensured by a fundamental result in quantum measurement theory. Nevertheless, additive conservation laws associated with physical symmetries, such as the angular momentum conservation, may lead to restrictions on the measurability of the observables. Such limitations are imposed by the theorem of Wigner, Araki, and Yanase (WAY). In this paper a formulation of the WAY theorem is presented rephrasing the measurability limitations in terms of quantum incompatibility. This broader mathematical basis enables us to both capture and generalize the WAY theorem by allowing us to drop the assumptions of additivity and even conservation of the involved quantities. Moreover, we extend the WAY theorem to the general level of positive operator-valued measures.
Defining an error of measurement has long been a foundational problem in science: even in classical experiments, data are statistical and admit no single universally optimal definition of error. In quantum mechanics, the challenge deepens: observed entities often lack preexisting definite values, and the act of measurement unavoidably disturbs the system of interest. Consequently, both error and disturbance must be quantified, and various definitions have been proposed to date. However, a unified perspective for understanding the differences and similarities among these diverse definitions of error and disturbance, and an operational framework for distinguishing between them, remain elusive. In this Letter, we propose a novel framework for defining error and disturbance using irreversibility. Our framework converts the error and disturbance of a quantum measurement of a system under consideration into the irreversibility of an ancillary qubit system, using a quantum comb composed of loss and recovery processes. The mechanism enables us to make the operational distinction that error uses the classical outputs, while disturbance uses the quantum outputs of the measurement in the recovery process. Furthermore, our framework yields several key consequences: (i) it encompasses existing definitions, (ii) it establishes a universal constraint on error and disturbance defined by any measure of an arbitrary quantum process under a conservation law, and (iii) it reveals an operational connection between irreversibility and the out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC), a metric of quantum chaos. It also provides a constraint on the OTOC under a conservation law and a method for its experimental evaluation, which is demonstrated on a quantum processor.
Uncertainty relations are one of the fundamental principles in physics. It began as a fundamental limitation in quantum mechanics, and today the word {\it uncertainty relation} is a generic term for various trade-off relations in nature. In this letter, we improve the Kennard-Robertson uncertainty relation, and clarify how much coherence we need to implement quantum measurement under conservation laws. Our approach systematically improves and reproduces the previous various refinements of the Kennard-Robertson inequality. As a direct consequence of our inequalities, we improve a well-known limitation of quantum measurements, the Wigner-Araki-Yanase-Ozawa theorem. This improvement gives an asymptotic equality for the necessary and sufficient amount of coherence to implement a quantum measurement with the desired accuracy under conservation laws.