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Physical Review Letters

Undecidability principle and the uncertainty principle even for classical systems

Ido Kanter

Published Jan 22, 1990• 29 citations
Publisher

Abstract

It is shown that for any physical system there is an infinite number of measurements which are related to one of the undecidable problems. The undecidability of the physical systems indicates that there is an infinite number of incomputable correlation functions for each physical system. These results show that there is an inherent and irreducible limitation on the knowledge of the nature of physical systems. This uncertainty principle is caused by the undecidability principle.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.64.332

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It is shown that for any physical system there is an infinite number of measurements which are related to one of the undecidable problems. The undecidability of the physical systems indicates that there is an infinite number of incomputable correlation functions for each physical system. These results show that there is an inherent and irreducible limitation on the knowledge of the nature of physical systems. This uncertainty principle is caused by the undecidability principle.
The uncertainty principle, formulated by Heisenberg in 1927, is a fundamental principle in quantum mechanics. It forces us to review key concepts of classical physics, and from this analysis are born the concepts of quantum physics. Consequences of the Uncertainty principle also introduces the concept of incompatible sizes, a completely new concept compared to classical physics. A state of the system, which we call a quantum state, will be determined from the knowledge of a set maximum of certain quantities that are independent and compatible with each other. A measurable physical quantity is called an observable. If at a given moment a measurement is performed by one or more compatible observables it is said they are performing an observation of the system. The basic principles of quantum mechanics are expressed by a number of postulates. Their numbers and can vary from one text to another.
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, which imposes intrinsic restrictions on our ability to predict the outcomes of incompatible quantum measurements to arbitrary precision, demonstrates one of the key differences between classical and quantum mechanics.The physical systems considered in the uncertainty principle are static in nature and described mathematically with a quantum state in a Hilbert space.However, many physical systems are dynamic in nature and described with the formalism of a quantum channel.In this paper, we show that the uncertainty principle can be reformulated to include process measurements that are performed on quantum channels.Since both the preparation of quantum states and the implementation of quantum measurements are themselves special cases of quantum channels, our formalism encapsulates the uncertainty principle in its utmost generality.More specifically, we obtain expressions that generalize the Maassen-Uffink uncertainty relation and the universal uncertainty relations from quantum states to quantum channels.
The principles of relativity and uncertainty represent two of the deepest and most encompassing propositions of the physical sciences. Indeed, much of our present knowledge of nature can be recapitulated in these important statements about the processes of motion and measurement. However, a question remains as to the precise logical connection between both principles. Here, we show a plausible and simple conceptual analysis linking the principles of relativity and uncertainty as logical requirements of the idea of physical measurement. The main conclusion points to the logical complementarity of both principles in order to justify the possibility of physical measurements, in which the uncertainty principle guarantees the applicability of the principle of relativity in all physically conceivable systems of reference.
The origin of the uncertainty inherent in quantum measurements has been discussed since quantum theory's inception, but to date the source of the indeterminacy of measurements performed at an angle with respect to a quantum state's preparation is unknown. Here I propose that quantum uncertainty is a manifestation of the indeterminism inherent in mathematical logic. By explicitly constructing pairs of classical Turing machines that write into each others' program space, I show that the joint state of such a pair is determined, while the state of the individual machine is not, precisely as in quantum measurement. In particular, the eigenstates of the individual machines appear to be superpositions of classical states, albeit with vanishing eigenvalue. Because these "classically entangled" Turing machines essentially implement undecidable "halting problems", this construction suggests that the inevitable randomness that results when interrogating such machines about their state is precisely the randomness inherent in the bits of Chaitin's halting probability. Because this classical construction mirrors quantum measurement, I argue that quantum uncertainty has the same origin.
In classical physics, the width, or uncertainty, in a set of experimental results is generally attributable to experimental variations, due to small differences in the objects being tested, or variations in the apparatus used, instrumental factors, environmental factors etc. Experiments in quantum physics also suffer from all these sorts of variations. Consequently, even if we have a collection of systems, all carefully prepared in the same eigenstate of the physical variable in question, we will not always get exactly the same measured value. The spread of this distribution is down to experimental uncertainty. People have not been afraid of drawing philosophical conclusions from the uncertainty principle, almost from the moment the result was first published. Heisenberg himself launched one of the earliest sallies, his target being the principle of causality. Causality, the notion that everything that happens has been caused by something happening previously, has been central to physics for hundreds of years.