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arXiv:quant-ph/0207081 · Physical Review A

Uncertainty reconciles complementarity with joint measurability

Paul Busch, C. R. Shilladay

Published Sep 19, 2003• 11 citations
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Abstract

The fundamental principles of complementarity and uncertainty are shown to be related to the possibility of joint unsharp measurements of pairs of noncommuting quantum observables. A joint measurement scheme for complementary observables is proposed. The measured observables are represented as positive operator valued measures (POVMs), whose intrinsic fuzziness parameters are found to satisfy an intriguing pay-off relation reflecting the complementarity. At the same time, this relation represents an instance of a Heisenberg uncertainty relation for measurement imprecisions. A model-independent consideration shows that this uncertainty relation is logically connected with the joint measurability of the POVMs in question.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.68.034102

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•Dec 26, 2014•0 citations
The fundamental principles of complementarity and uncertainty are shown to be related to the possibility of joint unsharp measurements of pairs of noncommuting quantum observables. A joint measurement scheme for complementary observables is proposed. The measured observables are represented as positive operator valued measures (POVMs), whose intrinsic fuzziness parameters are found to satisfy an intriguing pay-off relation reflecting the complementarity. At the same time, this relation represents an instance of a Heisenberg uncertainty relation for measurement imprecisions. A model-independent consideration shows that this uncertainty relation is logically connected with the joint measurability of the POVMs in question.
A coherent account of the connections and contrasts between the principles of com-plementarity and uncertainty is developed starting from a survey of the various formalizations of these principles. The conceptual analysis is illustrated by means of a set of experimental schemes based on Mach-Zehnder interferometry. In particu-lar, path detection via entanglement with a probe system and (quantitative) quan-tum erasure are exhibited to constitute instances of joint unsharp measurements of complementary pairs of physical quantities, path and interference observables. The analysis uses the representation of observables as positive-operator-valued measures (POVMs). The reconciliation of complementary experimental options in the sense of simultaneous unsharp preparations and measurements is expressed in terms of uncertainty relations of different kinds. The feature of complementarity, manifest in the present examples in the mutual exclusivity of path detection and interference observation, is recovered as a limit case from the appropriate uncertainty relation. It is noted that the complementarity and uncertainty principles are neither completely logically independent nor logical consequences of one another. Since entanglement is an instance of the uncertainty of quantum properties (of compound systems), it is moot to play out uncertainty and entanglement against each other as possible mechanisms enforcing complementarity.
This thesis is concerned with the notions of complementarity and uncertainty encountered in quantum mechanics. Its starting point is an assessment of how these concepts have been represented and illustrated by various writers dating back to their inception. Following the survey a coherent account of the connections and contrasts between complementarity and uncertainty is developed in the context of Mach-Zehnder interferometry. The effect on the interference pattern contrast of path detection via entanglement with a probe system, is explored and a joint unsharp measurement scheme of the complementary pairs, path and interference, described. The Mach-Zehnder set-up proves sufficiently versatile to show that quantum erasure and quantitative quantum erasure constitute instances of joint unsharp measurement of complementary observables. The analysis uses the representation of observables as positive operator valued measures.Path detection and interference observation require different experimental set-ups but can be reconciled in the simultaneous unsharp measurement and preparation. This reconciliation is expressed as an uncertainty relation however the mutually exclusive feature of complementarity is not discarded. It is possible to recover strict complementarity as a limit case of the appropriate uncertainty relation.One motivation for this study is the effort some authors have made in trying to express the founding features of quantum mechanics in the form of a hierarchy of significance. Here it is shown that complementarity and uncertainty have separate identities but are not completely independent of each other. Consequently, establishing a hierarchy of these features within the present formalism of quantum mechanics is not possible.
We give an overview of joint unsharp measurements of non-commuting observables using positive operator valued measures (POVMs). We exemplify the role played by joint measurability of POVMs in entropic uncertainty relation for Alice's pair of non-commuting observables in the presence of Bob's entangled quantum memory. We show that Bob should record the outcomes of incompatible (non-jointly measurable) POVMs in his quantum memory so as to beat the entropic uncertainty bound. In other words, in addition to the presence of entangled Alice-Bob state, implementing incompatible POVMs at Bob's end is necessary to beat the uncertainty bound and hence, predict the outcomes of non-commuting observables with improved precision. We also explore the implications of joint measurability to {\em validate} a moment matrix constructed from average pairwise correlations of three dichotomic non-commuting qubit observables. We prove that a classically acceptable moment matrix -- which ascertains the existence of a legitimate joint probability distribution for the outcomes of all the three dichotomic observables -- could be realized if and only if compatible POVMs are employed.
We give an overview of joint unsharp measurements of non-commuting observables using positive operator valued measures (POVMs). We exemplify the role played by joint measurability of POVMs in entropic uncertainty relation for Alice’s pair of non-commuting observables in the presence of Bob’s entangled quantum memory. We show that Bob should record the outcomes of incompatible (non-jointly measurable) POVMs in his quantum memory so as to beat the entropic uncertainty bound. In other words, in addition to the presence of entangled Alice–Bob state, implementing incompatible POVMs at Bob’s end is necessary to beat the uncertainty bound and hence predict the outcomes of non-commuting observables with improved precision. We also explore the implications of joint measurability to validate a moment matrix constructed from average pairwise correlations of three dichotomic non-commuting qubit observables. We prove that a classically acceptable moment matrix – which ascertains the existence of a legitimate joint probability distribution for the outcomes of all the three dichotomic observables – could be realized if and only if compatible POVMs are employed.
refer to the joint measurement problem for noncommuting quantum observables: “One of the aspects of quantum theory which has attracted the most general attention, is the novelty of the logical notions which it presupposes. It asserts that even a complete mathematical description of a physical system S does not in general enable one to predict with certainty the result of an experiment on S, and that in particular one can never predict with certainty both the position and the momentum of S (Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle). It further asserts that most pairs of observations are incompatible, and cannot be made on S simultaneously (Principle of Non-commutativity of Observations).” The object of the present paper is to consider what approximate solution one may hope to find to the joint measurement problem. Our main conclusion, based on a rigorous notion of unsharp observable, is that one can reasonably expect to find approximate joint measurements for any pair of noncommuting sharp observables, provided a trade-off in the sense of a Heisenberg uncertainty relation for measurement inaccuracies is taken into account. In addition, it will be seen that as a consequence of the noncom-mutativity of the given observables, the approximating observables must have degrees of unsharpness that obey yet another trade-off relation in the spirit of Heisenberg’s principle. These connections will be