Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Physical Review A

Uncertainty relation based on unbiased parameter estimations

Liang-Liang Sun, Yongshun Song, Cong‐Feng Qiao, Sixia Yu, Zeng‐Bing Chen

Published Feb 10, 2017• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Heisenberg's uncertainty relation has been extensively studied in spirit of its well-known original form, in which the inaccuracy measures used exhibit some controversial properties and don't conform with quantum metrology, where the measurement precision is well defined in terms of estimation theory. In this paper, we treat the joint measurement of incompatible observables as a parameter estimation problem, i.e., estimating the parameters characterizing the statistics of the incompatible observables. Our crucial observation is that, in a sequential measurement scenario, the bias induced by the first unbiased measurement in the subsequent measurement can be eradicated by the information acquired, allowing one to extract unbiased information of the second measurement of an incompatible observable. In terms of Fisher information we propose a kind of information comparison measure and explore various types of trade-offs between the information gains and measurement precisions, which interpret the uncertainty relation as surplus variance trade-off over individual perfect measurements instead of a constraint on extracting complete information of incompatible observables.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.95.022112

Related papers

Experimental Test of Heisenberg’s Measurement Uncertainty Relation Based on Statistical Distances

Wenchao Ma, Zhihao Ma, Hengyan Wang +9 more

Incompatible observables can be approximated by compatible observables in joint measurement or measured sequentially, with constrained accuracy as implied by Heisenberg's original formulation of the uncertainty principle. Recently, Busch, Lahti, and Werner proposed inaccuracy trade-off relations based on statistical distances between probability distributions of measurement outcomes [P. Busch et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 160405 (2013); P. Busch et al., Phys. Rev. A 89, 012129 (2014)]. Here we reformulate their theoretical framework, derive an improved relation for qubit measurement, and perform an experimental test on a spin system. The relation reveals that the worst-case inaccuracy is tightly bounded from below by the incompatibility of target observables, and is verified by the experiment employing joint measurement in which two compatible observables designed to approximate two incompatible observables on one qubit are measured simultaneously.

arXiv:1512.07407•Physical Review Letters•Apr 22, 2016•59 citations

Incorporating Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle into Quantum Multiparameter Estimation

Xiao-Ming Lu, Xiaoguang Wang

The quantum multiparameter estimation is very different from the classical multiparameter estimation due to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics. When the optimal measurements for different parameters are incompatible, they cannot be jointly performed. We find a correspondence relationship between the inaccuracy of a measurement for estimating the unknown parameter with the measurement error in the context of measurement uncertainty relations. Taking this correspondence relationship as a bridge, we incorporate Heisenberg's uncertainty principle into quantum multiparameter estimation by giving a trade-off relation between the measurement inaccuracies for estimating different parameters. For pure quantum states, this trade-off relation is tight, so it can reveal the true quantum limits on individual estimation errors in such cases. We apply our approach to derive the trade-off between attainable errors of estimating the real and imaginary parts of a complex signal encoded in coherent states and obtain the joint measurements attaining the trade-off relation. We also show that our approach can be readily used to derive the trade-off between the errors of jointly estimating the phase shift and phase diffusion without explicitly parametrizing quantum measurements.

arXiv:2008.08888•Physical Review Letters•Mar 26, 2021•84 citations

Uncertainty and trade-offs in quantum multiparameter estimation

Ilya Kull, Philippe Allard Guérin, Frank Verstraete

Abstract Uncertainty relations in quantum mechanics express bounds on our ability to simultaneously obtain knowledge about expectation values of non-commuting observables of a quantum system. They quantify trade-offs in accuracy between complementary pieces of information about the system. In quantum multiparameter estimation, such trade-offs occur for the precision achievable for different parameters characterizing a density matrix: an uncertainty relation emerges between the achievable variances of the different estimators. This is in contrast to classical multiparameter estimation, where simultaneous optimal precision is attainable in the asymptotic limit. We study trade-off relations that follow from known tight bounds in quantum multiparameter estimation. We compute trade-off curves and surfaces from Cramér–Rao type bounds which provide a compelling graphical representation of the information encoded in such bounds, and argue that bounds on simultaneously achievable precision in quantum multiparameter estimation should be regarded as measurement uncertainty relations. From the state-dependent bounds on the expected cost in parameter estimation, we derive a state-independent uncertainty relation between the parameters of a qubit system.

arXiv:2002.05961•Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical•Mar 13, 2020•25 citations

Saturating the Quantum Cramér--Rao Bound in Prioritised Parameter Estimation

Simon K. Yung, Aritra Das, Jun Suzuki +4 more

Measurement incompatibility is a cornerstone of quantum mechanics. In the context of estimating multiple parameters of a quantum system, this manifests as a fundamental trade-off between the precisions with which different parameters can be estimated. Often, a parameter can be optimally measured, but at the cost of gaining no information about incompatible parameters. Here, we report that there are systems where one parameter's information can be maximised while not completely losing information about the other parameters. In doing so, we find attainable trade-off relations for quantum parameter estimation with a structure that is different to typical Heisenberg-type trade-offs. We demonstrate our findings by implementing an optimal entangling measurement on a Quantinuum trapped-ion quantum computer.

quant-pharXiv:2511.06704•Nov 11, 2025•0 citations

Error-tradeoff and error-disturbance relations for incompatible quantum measurements

Cyril Branciard

Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is one of the main tenets of quantum theory. Nevertheless, and despite its fundamental importance for our understanding of quantum foundations, there has been some confusion in its interpretation: Although Heisenberg's first argument was that the measurement of one observable on a quantum state necessarily disturbs another incompatible observable, standard uncertainty relations typically bound the indeterminacy of the outcomes when either one or the other observable is measured. In this paper, we quantify precisely Heisenberg's intuition. Even if two incompatible observables cannot be measured together, one can still approximate their joint measurement, at the price of introducing some errors with respect to the ideal measurement of each of them. We present a tight relation characterizing the optimal tradeoff between the error on one observable vs. the error on the other. As a particular case, our approach allows us to characterize the disturbance of an observable induced by the approximate measurement of another one; we also derive a stronger error-disturbance relation for this scenario.

arXiv:1304.2071•Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences•Apr 5, 2013•144 citations

Measurement uncertainty relation for three observables

Sixia Yu, Ya-Li Mao, Chang Niu +3 more

We establish rigorously in this work a measurement uncertainty relation (MUR) for three unbiased qubit observables, which was previously shown to hold true under some presumptions. The triplet MUR states that the uncertainty, which is quantified by the total statistical distance between the target observables and the jointly implemented observables, is lower bounded by an incompatibility measure that reflects the joint measurement conditions. We derive a necessary and sufficient condition for the triplet MUR to be saturated and the corresponding optimal measurement. To facilitate experimental tests of MURs we propose a straightforward implementation of the optimal joint measurements. Lastly, by a symmetry argument, the exact values of incompatibility measure are analytically calculated for some symmetric triplets. We anticipate that our work may enrich the understanding of quantum incompatibility in terms of MURs and inspire further applications in quantum information science. This work presents a complete theory relevant to a parallel work [Y.-L. Mao et al., Testing Heisenberg-type measurement uncertainty relations of three observables, Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 150203 (2023)] on experimental tests.

arXiv:2211.09816•Physical Review A•Oct 13, 2023•3 citations
Heisenberg's uncertainty relation has been extensively studied in spirit of its well-known original form, in which the inaccuracy measures used exhibit some controversial properties and don't conform with quantum metrology, where the measurement precision is well defined in terms of estimation theory. In this paper, we treat the joint measurement of incompatible observables as a parameter estimation problem, i.e., estimating the parameters characterizing the statistics of the incompatible observables. Our crucial observation is that, in a sequential measurement scenario, the bias induced by the first unbiased measurement in the subsequent measurement can be eradicated by the information acquired, allowing one to extract unbiased information of the second measurement of an incompatible observable. In terms of Fisher information we propose a kind of information comparison measure and explore various types of trade-offs between the information gains and measurement precisions, which interpret the uncertainty relation as surplus variance trade-off over individual perfect measurements instead of a constraint on extracting complete information of incompatible observables.
Incompatible observables can be approximated by compatible observables in joint measurement or measured sequentially, with constrained accuracy as implied by Heisenberg's original formulation of the uncertainty principle. Recently, Busch, Lahti, and Werner proposed inaccuracy trade-off relations based on statistical distances between probability distributions of measurement outcomes [P. Busch et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 160405 (2013); P. Busch et al., Phys. Rev. A 89, 012129 (2014)]. Here we reformulate their theoretical framework, derive an improved relation for qubit measurement, and perform an experimental test on a spin system. The relation reveals that the worst-case inaccuracy is tightly bounded from below by the incompatibility of target observables, and is verified by the experiment employing joint measurement in which two compatible observables designed to approximate two incompatible observables on one qubit are measured simultaneously.
The quantum multiparameter estimation is very different from the classical multiparameter estimation due to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics. When the optimal measurements for different parameters are incompatible, they cannot be jointly performed. We find a correspondence relationship between the inaccuracy of a measurement for estimating the unknown parameter with the measurement error in the context of measurement uncertainty relations. Taking this correspondence relationship as a bridge, we incorporate Heisenberg's uncertainty principle into quantum multiparameter estimation by giving a trade-off relation between the measurement inaccuracies for estimating different parameters. For pure quantum states, this trade-off relation is tight, so it can reveal the true quantum limits on individual estimation errors in such cases. We apply our approach to derive the trade-off between attainable errors of estimating the real and imaginary parts of a complex signal encoded in coherent states and obtain the joint measurements attaining the trade-off relation. We also show that our approach can be readily used to derive the trade-off between the errors of jointly estimating the phase shift and phase diffusion without explicitly parametrizing quantum measurements.
Abstract Uncertainty relations in quantum mechanics express bounds on our ability to simultaneously obtain knowledge about expectation values of non-commuting observables of a quantum system. They quantify trade-offs in accuracy between complementary pieces of information about the system. In quantum multiparameter estimation, such trade-offs occur for the precision achievable for different parameters characterizing a density matrix: an uncertainty relation emerges between the achievable variances of the different estimators. This is in contrast to classical multiparameter estimation, where simultaneous optimal precision is attainable in the asymptotic limit. We study trade-off relations that follow from known tight bounds in quantum multiparameter estimation. We compute trade-off curves and surfaces from Cramér–Rao type bounds which provide a compelling graphical representation of the information encoded in such bounds, and argue that bounds on simultaneously achievable precision in quantum multiparameter estimation should be regarded as measurement uncertainty relations. From the state-dependent bounds on the expected cost in parameter estimation, we derive a state-independent uncertainty relation between the parameters of a qubit system.
Measurement incompatibility is a cornerstone of quantum mechanics. In the context of estimating multiple parameters of a quantum system, this manifests as a fundamental trade-off between the precisions with which different parameters can be estimated. Often, a parameter can be optimally measured, but at the cost of gaining no information about incompatible parameters. Here, we report that there are systems where one parameter's information can be maximised while not completely losing information about the other parameters. In doing so, we find attainable trade-off relations for quantum parameter estimation with a structure that is different to typical Heisenberg-type trade-offs. We demonstrate our findings by implementing an optimal entangling measurement on a Quantinuum trapped-ion quantum computer.
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is one of the main tenets of quantum theory. Nevertheless, and despite its fundamental importance for our understanding of quantum foundations, there has been some confusion in its interpretation: Although Heisenberg's first argument was that the measurement of one observable on a quantum state necessarily disturbs another incompatible observable, standard uncertainty relations typically bound the indeterminacy of the outcomes when either one or the other observable is measured. In this paper, we quantify precisely Heisenberg's intuition. Even if two incompatible observables cannot be measured together, one can still approximate their joint measurement, at the price of introducing some errors with respect to the ideal measurement of each of them. We present a tight relation characterizing the optimal tradeoff between the error on one observable vs. the error on the other. As a particular case, our approach allows us to characterize the disturbance of an observable induced by the approximate measurement of another one; we also derive a stronger error-disturbance relation for this scenario.
We establish rigorously in this work a measurement uncertainty relation (MUR) for three unbiased qubit observables, which was previously shown to hold true under some presumptions. The triplet MUR states that the uncertainty, which is quantified by the total statistical distance between the target observables and the jointly implemented observables, is lower bounded by an incompatibility measure that reflects the joint measurement conditions. We derive a necessary and sufficient condition for the triplet MUR to be saturated and the corresponding optimal measurement. To facilitate experimental tests of MURs we propose a straightforward implementation of the optimal joint measurements. Lastly, by a symmetry argument, the exact values of incompatibility measure are analytically calculated for some symmetric triplets. We anticipate that our work may enrich the understanding of quantum incompatibility in terms of MURs and inspire further applications in quantum information science. This work presents a complete theory relevant to a parallel work [Y.-L. Mao et al., Testing Heisenberg-type measurement uncertainty relations of three observables, Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 150203 (2023)] on experimental tests.