Uncertainty and complementarity in axiomatic quantum mechanics

PEKKA J. LAHTI

Hugo Adam Bedau, Paul Oppenheim

Marcos L. W. Basso

Bohr’s complementarity principle was introduced as a qualitative statement about quantum systems, which have properties that are equally real, but mutually exclusive. This principle, together with the uncertainty principle, is at the origin of Quantum Mechanics (QM), following the development of the theory since then. Another intriguing aspect of QM is entanglement, which is a type of correlation that is only possible within the mathematical formalism of QM. Its central importance in the Quantum foundations, as well as its important role in the fields of quantum information and quantum computation, has made the theory of entanglement achieve great progress in recent decades. In this dissertation we discuss the aspects and relations among complementarity relations, uncertainty, and entanglement. Such aspects are also investigated in relativistic scenarios, since the interest on how entanglement behaves in relativistic scenarios has grown more and more. First, by exploring the properties of the density operator, we obtain complementarity relations, using coherence measures well known in the literature. Next, we show that it is possible to obtain complete complementarity relations, i.e., relations that also take into account entanglement. For this, we explore the purity of a multipartite quantum system. In addition, we discuss the relation between complementarity and uncertainty of an observable, since it is possible to decompose uncertainty into its classical and quantum parts. We also obtain complementarity relations for uncertainty. Finally, we study the complete complementary relations and its Lorentz invariance. Although it is known that entanglement entropy does not remain invariant under Lorentz transformations, and neither does the measures that quantifies complementarity, we show that theses measures when taken together, in a complete complementarity relation, are Lorentz invariant.

Bob Coecke, Simon Perdrix

We present a both simple and comprehensive graphical calculus for quantum computing. In particular, we axiomatize the notion of an environment, which together with the earlier introduced axiomatic notion of classical structure enables us to define classical channels, quantum measurements and classical control. If we moreover adjoin the earlier introduced axiomatic notion of complementarity, we obtain sufficient structural power for constructive representation and correctness derivation of typical quantum informatic protocols.

Tapan Kumar Das

Luca Salasnich