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Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields

Set of Generalized Uncertainty Relations and the Nature of the Uncertainty Principle

William Silvert

Published Aug 15, 1970• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A set of generalized uncertainty relations is derived for periodic systems. In the appropriate limits, they reduce to results previously obtained. The uncertainty principle is seen to express a relationship between the Fourier components of the wave function, $\ensuremath{\psi}$, and those of the probability density, ${|\ensuremath{\psi}|}^{2}$.

DOI
10.1103/physrevd.2.633

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A set of generalized uncertainty relations is derived for periodic systems. In the appropriate limits, they reduce to results previously obtained. The uncertainty principle is seen to express a relationship between the Fourier components of the wave function, \ensuremathψ\ensuremath{\psi}\ensuremathψ, and those of the probability density, ∣\ensuremathψ∣2{|\ensuremath{\psi}|}^{2}∣\ensuremathψ∣2.
The conventional Fourier transform has a well-known uncertainty relation that is defined in terms of the first and second moments of both a function and its Fourier transform. It is also well known that Gaussian functions, when translated to an arbitrary centre and supplemented by a linear phase factor, provide a complete set of minimum uncertainty states (MUSs) that exactly achieves the lower bound set by this uncertainty relation. A similarly general set of MUSs and uncertainty relations are derived here for discrete and/or periodic generalizations of the Fourier transform, namely for the discrete Fourier transform and the Fourier series. These extensions require a modified definition for the width of a periodic distribution, and they lead to more complex uncertainty relations that turn out to depend on the centroid location and mean frequency of the distribution. The derivations lead to novel generalizations of Hermite–Gaussian functions and, like Gaussians, the MUSs can play a special role in a range of Fourier applications.
The mathematical content of the uncertainty principle is contained in special states akin to, and including, states of minimum uncertainty. Specific uncertainty relations are produced by averaging observables in these states. The approach is shown to give more flexible and complete expressions of indeterminacy than the familiar generalized Heisenberg inequality: statistical measures other than variances can be employed, the method is not limited to describing uncertainties in terms of products of statistical dispersions, and the resulting inequalities have the most stringent bounds attainable independent of the system state. Applications are then made to find uncertainty relations for position-momentum average displacements from the means, time-energy indeterminacy, and uncertainties in angular momentum components.
The phenomenon in the essence of classical uncertainty principles is well known since the thirties of the last century. We introduce a new phenomenon which is in the essence of a new notion that we introduce: "Generalized Uncertainty Principles". We show the relation between classical uncertainty principles and generalized uncertainty principles. We generalized "Landau-Pollak-Slepian" uncertainty principle. Our generalization relates the following two quantities and two scaling parameters: 1) The weighted time spreading ∫−∞∞∣f(x)∣2w1(x)dx\int_{-\infty}^\infty |f(x)|^2w_1(x)dx∫−∞∞​∣f(x)∣2w1​(x)dx, (w1(x)w_1(x)w1​(x) is a non-negative function). 2) The weighted frequency spreading ∫−∞∞∣f^(ω)∣2w2(ω)dω\int_{-\infty}^\infty |\hat{f}(ω)|^2w_2(ω)dω∫−∞∞​∣f^​(ω)∣2w2​(ω)dω. 3) The time weight scale aaa, w1a(x)=w1(xa−1){w_1}_a(x)=w_1(xa^{-1})w1​a​(x)=w1​(xa−1) and 4) The frequency weight scale bbb, w2b(ω)=w2(ωb−1){w_2}_b(ω)=w_2(ωb^{-1})w2​b​(ω)=w2​(ωb−1). "Generalized Uncertainty Principle" is an inequality that summarizes the constraints on the relations between the two spreading quantities and two scaling parameters. For any two reasonable weights w1(x)w_1(x)w1​(x) and w2(ω)w_2(ω)w2​(ω), we introduced a three dimensional set in R3R^3R3 that is in the essence of many uncertainty principles. The set is called "possibility body". We showed that classical uncertainty principles (such as the Heiseneberg-Pauli-Weyl uncertainty principle) stem from lower bounds for different functions defined on the possibility body. We investigated qualitative properties of general uncertainty principles and possibility bodies. Using this approach we derived new (quantitative) uncertainty principles for Landau-Pollak-Slepian weights. We found the general uncertainty principles related to homogeneous weights, w1(x)=w2(x)=xkw_1(x)=w_2(x)=x^kw1​(x)=w2​(x)=xk, k∈Nk\in Nk∈N, up to a constant.
A physicist’s intuition in Fourier theory is generally established from the parallels between Fourier series and transforms. Remarkably, one element of this theory that is especially significant in physics, namely the uncertainty principle, is never treated for Fourier series. We resolve this by first showing that a natural measure of spread for a periodic distribution follows simply upon regarding the distribution as a mass density on a ring. Even though the centroid of this ring is expressed in terms of just a first moment, its distance from the geometric center gives a close analog of variance. We then derive direct analogs of the uncertainty principle for both the Fourier series of a continuous periodic function as well as the fast Fourier transform of discrete data. The results have similar applications to those of the standard uncertainty principle.
Most physics books do not reveal clearly how the Heisenberg uncertainty principle was derived. This uncertainty comes from the consequence of the wave-particle duality of matter giving statement that position and momentum cannot be measured in the same time. This article tries to reveal mathematics background behind the expression the Heisenberg uncertainty using supported mathematics background such as Fourier transform, Fourier transform integral, the probability of Gaussian distribution and it ends up with the expression of wave function which describe the localized particle giving relation Heisenberg uncertainty principle.