One of the most remarkable features of quantum physics is that attributes of quantum objects, such as the wavelike and particlelike behaviors of single photons, can be complementary in the sense that they are equally real but cannot be observed simultaneously. Quantum measurements, serving as windows providing views into the abstract edifice of quantum theory, are basic tools for manifesting the intrinsic behaviors of quantum objects. However, a quantitative formulation of complementarity that highlights its manifestations in general measurement scenarios remains elusive. Here we develop a general framework for demonstrating quantum complementarity in the form of information exclusion relations (IERs), which incorporates the wave-particle duality relations as particular examples. Moreover, we explore the applications of our theory in entanglement detection and elucidate that our IERs lead to an extended form of entropic uncertainty relations, providing insights into the connection between quantum complementarity and the preparation uncertainty.
One of the most remarkable features of quantum physics is that attributes of quantum objects, such as the wavelike and particlelike behaviors of single photons, can be complementary in the sense that they are equally real but cannot be observed simultaneously. Quantum measurements, serving as windows providing views into the abstract edifice of quantum theory, are basic tools for manifesting the intrinsic behaviors of quantum objects. However, a quantitative formulation of complementarity that highlights its manifestations in general measurement scenarios remains elusive. Here we develop a general framework for demonstrating quantum complementarity in the form of information exclusion relations (IERs), which incorporates the wave-particle duality relations as particular examples. Moreover, we explore the applications of our theory in entanglement detection and elucidate that our IERs lead to an extended form of entropic uncertainty relations, providing insights into the connection between quantum complementarity and the preparation uncertainty.
A coherent account of the connections and contrasts between the principles of com-plementarity and uncertainty is developed starting from a survey of the various formalizations of these principles. The conceptual analysis is illustrated by means of a set of experimental schemes based on Mach-Zehnder interferometry. In particu-lar, path detection via entanglement with a probe system and (quantitative) quan-tum erasure are exhibited to constitute instances of joint unsharp measurements of complementary pairs of physical quantities, path and interference observables. The analysis uses the representation of observables as positive-operator-valued measures (POVMs). The reconciliation of complementary experimental options in the sense of simultaneous unsharp preparations and measurements is expressed in terms of uncertainty relations of different kinds. The feature of complementarity, manifest in the present examples in the mutual exclusivity of path detection and interference observation, is recovered as a limit case from the appropriate uncertainty relation. It is noted that the complementarity and uncertainty principles are neither completely logically independent nor logical consequences of one another. Since entanglement is an instance of the uncertainty of quantum properties (of compound systems), it is moot to play out uncertainty and entanglement against each other as possible mechanisms enforcing complementarity.
Uncertainty principle, which was first introduced by Werner Heisenberg in 1927, forms a fundamental component of quantum mechanics. A graceful aspect of quantum mechanics is that the uncertainty relations between incompatible observables allow for succinct quan- titative formulations of this revolutionary idea: it is impossible to simultaneously measure two complementary variables of a particle in precision. In particular, information theory offers two basic ways to express the Heisenberg’s principle: variance-based uncertainty relations and entropic uncertainty relations. We first investigate the uncertainty relations based on the sum of variances and derive a family of weighted uncertainty relations to provide an optimal lower bound for all situations. Our work indicates that it seems unreasonable to assume a priori that incompatible observables have equal contribution to the variance-based sum form uncertainty relations. We also study the role of mutually exclusive physical states in the recent work and generalize the variance-based uncertainty relations to mutually exclusive uncertainty relations. Next, we develop a new kind of entanglement detection criteria within the framework of marjorization theory and its matrix representation. By virtue of majorization uncertainty bounds, we are able to construct the entanglement criteria which have advantage over the scalar detect- ing algorithms as they are often stronger and tighter. Furthermore, we explore various expression of entropic uncertainty relations, including sum of Shannon entropies, majorization uncer- tainty relations and uncertainty relations in presence of quantum memory. For entropic uncertainty relations without quantum side information, we provide several tighter bounds for multi-measurements, with some of them also valid for Rényi and Tsallis entropies besides the Shannon entropy. We employ majorization theory and actions of the symmetric group to obtain an admixture bound for entropic uncertainty relations with multi-measurements. Comparisons among existing bounds for multi-measurements are also given. However,classical entropic uncertainty relations assume there has only classical side information. For modern uncertainty relations, those who allowed for non-trivial amount of quantum side information, their bounds have been strengthened by our recent result for both two and multi- measurements. Finally, we propose an approach which can extend all uncertainty relations on Shannon entropies to allow for quantum side information and discuss the applications of our entropic framework. Combined with our uniform entanglement frames, it is possible to detect entanglement via entropic uncertainty relations even if there is no quantum side in- formation. With the rising of quantum information theory, uncertainty relations have been established as important tools for a wide range of applications, such as quantum cryptography, quantum key distribution, entanglement detection, quantum metrology, quantum speed limit and so on. It is thus necessary to focus on the study of uncertainty relations.
The existence of observables that are incompatible or not jointly measurable is a characteristic feature of quantum mechanics, which lies at the root of a number of nonclassical phenomena, such as uncertainty relations, wave--particle dual behavior, Bell-inequality violation, and contextuality. However, no intuitive criterion is available for determining the compatibility of even two (generalized) observables, despite the overarching importance of this problem and intensive efforts of many researchers. Here we introduce an information theoretic paradigm together with an intuitive geometric picture for decoding incompatible observables, starting from two simple ideas: Every observable can only provide limited information and information is monotonic under data processing. By virtue of quantum estimation theory, we introduce a family of universal criteria for detecting incompatible observables and a natural measure of incompatibility, which are applicable to arbitrary number of arbitrary observables. Based on this framework, we derive a family of universal measurement uncertainty relations, provide a simple information theoretic explanation of quantitative wave--particle duality, and offer new perspectives for understanding Bell nonlocality, contextuality, and quantum precision limit.
Abstract The wave-particle duality, as a manifestation of Bohr’s complementarity, is usually quantified in terms of path predictability and interference visibility. Various characterizations of the wave-particle duality have been proposed from an operational perspective, most of them are in forms of inequalities, and some of them are expressed in forms of equalities by incorporating entanglement or coherence. In this work, we shed different insights into the nature of the wave-particle duality by casting it into a form of information conservation in a multi-path interferometer, with uncertainty as a unified theme. More specifically, by employing the simple yet fundamental concept of variance, we establish a resolution of unity, which can be interpreted as a complementarity relation among wave feature, particle feature, and mixedness of a quantum state. This refines or reinterprets some conventional approaches to wave-particle duality, and highlights informational aspects of the issue. The key idea of our approach lies in that a quantum state, as a Hermitian operator, can also be naturally regarded as an observable, with measurement uncertainty (in a state) and state uncertainty (in a measurement) being exploited to quantify particle feature and wave feature of a quantum state, respectively. These two kinds of uncertainties, although both are defined via variance, have fundamentally different properties and capture different features of a state. Together with the mixedness, which is a kind of uncertainty intrinsic to a quantum state, they add up to unity, and thus lead to a characterization of the wave-particle-mixedness complementarity. This triality relation is further illustrated by examples and compared with some popular wave-particle duality or triality relations.
The so-called preparation uncertainty that occurs in the quantum world can be understood well in purely operational terms, and its existence in any given theory, perhaps differently than in quantum mechanics, can be verified by examining only measurement statistics. Namely, one says that uncertainty occurs in some theory when for some pair of observables, there is no preparation that would exhibit deterministic statistics for both of them. However, the right-hand side of the uncertainty relation is not operational anymore if we do not insist that it is just the minimum of the left-hand side for a given theory. For example, in quantum mechanics, it is some function of two observables that must be computed within the quantum formalism. Also, while joint nonmeasurability of observables is an operational notion, the complementarity in Bohr's sense (i.e., in terms of information needed to describe the system) has not yet been expressed in purely operational terms. Here we propose a general operational framework that provides answers to the above issues. We introduce an operational definition of complementarity and further postulate that complementary observables have to exhibit uncertainty, which means that we propose to put the (operational) complementarity as the right-hand side of the uncertainty relation. In particular, we identify two different notions of uncertainty and complementarity for which the above principle holds in the quantum-mechanical realm. We also introduce postulates for the general measures of uncertainty and complementarity. In order to define quantifiers of complementarity we first turn to the simpler notion of independence that is defined solely in terms of the statistics of two observables. Importantly, for clean and extremal observables---i.e., ones that cannot be simulated irreducibly by other observables---any measure of independence reduces to the proper complementary measure. Finally, as an application of our general framework we define a number of complementarity indicators and show that they can be used to state uncertainty relations. One of them, assuming some natural symmetries, leads to the Tsirelson bound for the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) inequality. Lastly, we show that for a single system a variant of information causality called the information content principle, under the above symmetries, can be interpreted as an uncertainty relation in the above sense.
One of the milestones of quantum mechanics is Bohr's complementarity principle. It states that a single quantum can exhibit a particlelike or a wavelike behavior, but never both at the same time. These are mutually exclusive and complementary aspects of the quantum system. This means that we need distinct experimental arrangements in order to measure the particle or the wave nature of a physical system. One of the most known representations of this principle is the single-photon Mach-Zehnder interferometer. When the interferometer is closed an interference pattern is observed (wave aspect of the quantum) while if it is open, the quantum behaves like a particle. Here, using a molecular quantum information processor and employing nuclear magnetic resonant (NMR) techniques, we analyze the quantum version of this principle by means of an interferometer that is in a quantum superposition of being closed and open, and confirm that we can indeed measure both aspects of the system with the same experimental apparatus. More specifically, we observe with a single apparatus the interference between the particle and the wave aspects of a quantum system.