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Journal of Physics Conference Series

Initial entanglement between detectors allows violating Heisenberg's uncertainty relations

Antonio Di Lorenzo

Published Jul 3, 2015• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Physics textbooks introduce an inequality derived by Kennard that concerns the impossibility of preparing a quantum state with well defined momentum and position. However, Heisenberg had formulated two different inequalities: one stating the impossibility of a simultaneous detection of position and momentum with arbitrary precision, and another one imposing a tradeoff between the precision on the measurement of a variable and the backaction on a subsequent measurement of a conjugated variable. Here, we explore the connections among these three inequalities, and we show that the latter can be violated, if the detectors are initially entangled. The results, besides being of fundamental interest, can be useful for building up an ideal momentum, or position, detector (i.e. one that introduces no noise in the measurement, besides the intrinsic statistical noise of the input state).

DOI
10.1088/1742-6596/626/1/012051

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Physics textbooks introduce an inequality derived by Kennard that concerns the impossibility of preparing a quantum state with well defined momentum and position. However, Heisenberg had formulated two different inequalities: one stating the impossibility of a simultaneous detection of position and momentum with arbitrary precision, and another one imposing a tradeoff between the precision on the measurement of a variable and the backaction on a subsequent measurement of a conjugated variable. Here, we explore the connections among these three inequalities, and we show that the latter can be violated, if the detectors are initially entangled. The results, besides being of fundamental interest, can be useful for building up an ideal momentum, or position, detector (i.e. one that introduces no noise in the measurement, besides the intrinsic statistical noise of the input state).
Heisenberg formulated a noise-disturbance principle stating that there is a tradeoff between noise and disturbance when a measurement of position and a measurement of momentum are performed sequentially, and another principle imposing a limitation on the product of the uncertainties in a joint measurement of position and momentum. We prove that the former, the Heisenberg sequential noise-disturbance principle, holds when the detectors are assumed to be initially uncorrelated from each other, but that it can be violated for some properly correlated initial preparations of the detectors.
An entangled EPR two-particle system is characterized by Δ(p 1 + p 2) = 0 and Δ(x 1 - x 2) = 0, simultaneously, with the momentum and position of each individual particle completely undefined. Statistically, however, the uncertainty of the correlation measurements on the two individual particles must obey Δ(p1 + p 2) > Δp 1,2 and Δ(x 1 - x 2) > Δx 1,2. While one sees the measurements of p 1 + p 2 and x 1 - x 2 of the two individual particles satisfying the EPR δ-function, and believes the classical statistical inequality, one might easily be trapped into concluding either there is a violation of the uncertainty principle or there exists action-at-a-distance. Through the analysis of three typical EPR experiments, we show that the measurement of p 1 + p 2 and x 1 - x 2 for an entangled system can indeed violate the classical statistical inequality. Based on the experimental results, we emphasize, again, the surprising physics of quantum coherent two-particle superposition. Although questions regarding fundamental issues of quantum theory still exist, quantum entanglement has brought us a novel concept in non-local timing and positioning measurements with ultra-high accuracy, even beyond the classical limit.
Following Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) original argument, we derive a pair of inequalities for the uncertainties in the sum of the momenta and in the difference of the positions of an entangled two-particle system. We prove that only entangled systems can satisfy both EPR-inequalities, in violation of the limits imposed by classical statistics. We propose an operational approach that allows applying the EPR inequalities to two-photon systems, as well. In particular, we demonstrate a scheme that allows implementing the EPR gedanken-experiment and verifying the EPR inequalities on systems of pairs of photons. We report the experimental results obtained in this kind of quantum interference and imaging experiment: SPDC two-photon system satisfies both EPR inequalities. The experimental verification of the EPR inequalities represents a practical way to experimentally distinguish entanglement from classical correlation in momentum and/or position variables for systems of two particles/photons. We emphasize the practical consequences of the EPR inequalities: only entanglement allows one to go beyond the limitations imposed by Heisenberg uncertainty on systems of classically correlated particles/photons. In this context we review a recent experiment of two-photon diffraction and quantum lithography.
Since the publication of Heisenberg’s paper1 on the “anschaulichen Inhalt” of quantum mechanics, discussions of the fundamental limitations on the accuracy of physical measurements have been much in the foreground. According to Heisenberg, the quantum mechanics implies that it is impossible to measure simultaneous values of a coordinate and its conjugate momentum with unlimited precision. Instead, if Δp be the estimated error or uncertainty in a momentum and Δq that in the associated coordinate one must have the inequality, ΔpΔq>h2π \Delta p\Delta q>\frac{h}{{2\pi}} ΔpΔq>2πh​ (1) This inequality has come to be known quite generally as Heisenberg’s uncertainty relation.
While the slogan "no measurement without disturbance" has established itself under the name of the Heisenberg effect in the consciousness of the scientifically interested public, a precise statement of this fundamental feature of the quantum world has remained elusive, and serious attempts at rigorous formulations of it as a consequence of quantum theory have led to seemingly conflicting preliminary results. Here we show that despite recent claims to the contrary [L. Rozema et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 100404 (2012)], Heisenberg-type inequalities can be proven that describe a tradeoff between the precision of a position measurement and the necessary resulting disturbance of momentum (and vice versa). More generally, these inequalities are instances of an uncertainty relation for the imprecisions of any joint measurement of position and momentum. Measures of error and disturbance are here defined as figures of merit characteristic of measuring devices. As such they are state independent, each giving worst-case estimates across all states, in contrast to previous work that is concerned with the relationship between error and disturbance in an individual state.
We prove an uncertainty relation, which imposes a bound on any joint measurement of position and momentum. It is of the form (\Delta P)(\Delta Q)\geq C\hbar, where the `uncertainties' quantify the difference between the marginals of the joint measurement and the corresponding ideal observable. Applied to an approximate position measurement followed by a momentum measurement, the uncertainties become the precision \Delta Q of the position measurement, and the perturbation \Delta P of the conjugate variable introduced by such a measurement. We also determine the best constant C, which is attained for a unique phase space covariant measurement.