Quantum‐Memory‐Assisted Entropic Uncertainty Relations

Uncertainty relations take a crucial and fundamental part in the frame of quantum theory, and are bringing on many marvelous applications in the emerging field of quantum information sciences. Especially, as entropy is imposed into the uncertainty principle, entropy‐based uncertainty relations lead to a number of applications including quantum key distribution, entanglement witness, quantum steering, quantum metrology, and quantum teleportation. Herein, the history of the development of the uncertainty relations is discussed, especially focusing on the recent progress with regard to quantum‐memory‐assisted entropic uncertainty relations and dynamical characteristics of the measured uncertainty in some explicit physical systems. The aims are to help deepen the understanding of entropic uncertainty relations and prompt further explorations for versatile applications of the relations on achieving practical quantum tasks.     

The uncertainty and quantum correlation of measurement in double quantum-dot systems

In this work, we study the entropic uncertainty and quantum discord in two double-quantum-dot (DQD) system coupled via a transmission line resonator (TLR). Explicitly, the dynamics of the systemic quantum correlation and measured uncertainty are analysed with respect to a general X-type state as the initial state. Interestingly, it is found that the different parameters, including the eigenvalue α of the coherent state, detuning amount δ, frequency ω and the coupling constant g, have subtle effects on the dynamics of the entropic uncertainty, such as the oscillation period of the uncertainty. It is clear to reveal that the quantum discord and the lower bound of the entropic uncertainty are anti-correlated when the initial state of the system is the Werner-type state, while quantum discord and the lower bound of the entropic uncertainty are not anti-correlated when the initial state of the system is the Bell-diagonal state. Thereby, we claim that the current investigation would provide an insight into the entropic uncertainty and quantum correlation in DQDs system, and are basically of importance to quantum precision measurement in practical quantum information processing.     

Dynamical Measurement's Uncertainty in the Curved Space‐Time

The dynamical characteristics of measurement's uncertainty are investigated under two modes of Dirac field in the Garfinkle–Horowitz–Strominger dilation space‐time. It shows that the Hawking effect induced by the thermal field would result in an expansion of the entropic uncertainty with increasing dilation‐parameter value, as the systemic quantum coherence reduces, reflecting that the Hawking effect could undermine the systemic coherence. Meanwhile, the intrinsic relationship between the uncertainty and quantum coherence is obtained, and it is revealed that the uncertainty's bound is anti‐correlated with the system's quantum coherence. Furthermore, it is illustrated that the systemic mixedness is correlated with the uncertainty to a large extent. Via the information flow theory, various correlations including quantum and classical aspects, which can be used to form a physical explanation on the relationship between the uncertainty and quantum coherence, are also analyzed. Additionally, this investigation is extended to the case of multi‐component measurement, and the applications of the entropic uncertainty relation are illustrated on entanglement criterion and quantum channel capacity. Lastly, it is declared that the measurement uncertainty can be quantitatively suppressed through optimal quantum weak measurement. These investigations might pave an avenue to understand the measurement's uncertainty in the curved space‐time.     

Entanglement and discord assisted entropic uncertainty relations under decoherence

The uncertainty principle is a crucial aspect of quantum mechanics.It has been shown that quantum entanglement as well as more general notions of correlations,such as quantum discord,can relax or tighten the entropic uncertainty relation in the presence of an ancillary system.We explored the behaviour of entropic uncertainty relations for system of two qubits—one of which subjects to several forms of independent quantum noise,in both Markovian and non-Markovian regimes.The uncertainties and their lower bounds,identified by the entropic uncertainty relations,increase under independent local unital Markovian noisy channels,but they may decrease under non-unital channels.The behaviour of the uncertainties(and lower bounds)exhibit periodical oscillations due to correlation dynamics under independent non-Markovian reservoirs.In addition,we compare different entropic uncertainty relations in several special cases and find that discord-tightened entropic uncertainty relations offer in general a better estimate of the uncertainties in play.     

Unification theory of classical statistical uncertainty relation and quantum uncertainty relation and its applications

General classical statistical uncertainty relation is deduced and generalized to quantum uncertainty relation. We give a general unification theory of the classical statistical and quantum uncertainty relations, and prove that the classical limit of quantum mechanics is just classical statistical mechanics. It is shown that the classical limit of the general quantum uncertainty relation is the general classical uncertainty relation. Also, some specific applications show that the obtained theory is self-consistent and coincides with those from physical experiments.     

Entropic Uncertainty in Neutrino and Meson Systems

The dynamics of quantum‐memory‐assisted entropic uncertainty for the closed neutrino system in the context of two flavor oscillations and the meson system within the framework of open quantum system are investigated. It is found that the entropic uncertainty exists in close relation with the quantum correlation, and growing quantum correlation can decrease the uncertainty. The oscillatory behaviors of entropic uncertainty in neutrino system brought about by neutrino oscillating property are different from the decaying behaviors of entropic uncertainty in meson system induced by the meson decaying nature. In addition, the entropic uncertainty is always equal to its lower bound in the two subatomic systems. This study would throw light on the particle behavior characteristics of high energy physics, and may be useful to the tasks of quantum information‐processing implemented with subatomic system since the uncertainty principle plays vital role in quantum information science and technology.     

Complementary relation between quantum entanglement and entropic uncertainty

Quantum entanglement is regarded as one of the core concepts,which is used to describe the nonclassical correlation between subsystems,and entropic uncertainty relation plays a vital role in quantum precision measurement.It is well known that entanglement of formation can be expressed by von Neumann entropy of subsystems for arbitrary pure states.An interesting question is naturally raised:is there any intrinsic correlation between the entropic uncertainty relation and quantum entanglement?Or if the relation can be applied to estimate the entanglement.In this work,we focus on exploring the complementary relation between quantum entanglement and the entropic uncertainty relation.The results show that there exists an inequality relation between both of them for an arbitrary two-qubit system,and specifically the larger uncertainty will induce the weaker entanglement of the probed system,and vice versa.Besides,we use randomly generated states as illustrations to verify our results.Therefore,we claim that our observations might offer and support the validity of using the entropy uncertainty relation to estimate quantum entanglement.     

A rigorous uncertainty relation (Cauchy Inequality) for an electromagnetic field in quantum superpositions of coherent states and in a two-photon coherent state

It is shown that the Heisenberg uncertainty relation (or soft uncertainty relation) determined by the commutation properties of operators of electromagnetic field quadratures differs significantly from the Robertson–Schrödinger uncertainty relation (or rigorous uncertainty relation) determined by the quantum correlation properties of field quadratures. In the case of field quantum states, for which mutually noncommuting field operators are quantum-statistically independent or their quantum central correlation moment is zero, the rigorous uncertainty relation makes it possible to measure simultaneously and exactly the observables corresponding to both operators or measure exactly the observable of one of the operators at a finite measurement uncertainty for the other observable. The significant difference between the rigorous and soft uncertainty relations for quantum superpositions of coherent states and the two-photon coherent state of electromagnetic field (which is a state with minimum uncertainty, according to the rigorous uncertainty relation) is analyzed.     

Controlling the entropic uncertainty and quantum discord in two two-level systems by an ancilla in dissipative environments

The uncertainty principle is a crucial aspect of quantum mechanics.It has been shown that the uncertainty principle can be tightened by quantum discord and classical correlation in the presence of quantum memory.We investigate the control of the entropic uncertainty and quantum discord in two two-level systems by an ancilla in dissipative environment.Our results show that the entropic uncertainty of an observed system can be reduced and the quantum discord between the observed system and the quantum memory system can be enhanced in the steady state of the system by adding an dissipative ancilla.Particularly,via preparing the state of the system to the highest excited state with hight fidelity,the entropic uncertainty can be reduced markedly and the quantum discord can be enhanced obviously.We explain these results using the definition of state fidelity.Furthermore,we present an effective strategy to further reduce the the entropic uncertainty and to enhance the the quantum discord via quantum-jump-based feedback control.Therefore,our results may be of importance in the context of quantum information technologies.     

Uncertainty in prediction and in inference

The concepts of uncertainty in prediction and inference are introduced and illustrated using the diffraction of light as an example. The close relationship between the concepts of uncertainty in inference and resolving power is noted. A general quantitative measure of uncertainty in inference can be obtained by means of the so-called statistical distance between probability distributions. When applied to quantum mechanics, this distance leads to a measure of the distinguishability of quantum states, which essentially is the absolute value of the matrix element between the states. The importance of this result to the quantum mechanical uncertainty principle is noted. The second part of the paper provides a derivation of the statistical distance on the basis of the so-called method of support.     

The Generalized Uncertainty Principle

The uncertainty principle lies at the heart of quantum physics, and is widely thought of as a fundamental limit of the measurement precision of incompatible observables. Here it is shown that the traditional uncertainty relation in fact belongs to the leading order approximation of a generalized uncertainty relation. That is, the leading order linear dependence of observables gives the Heisenberg type of uncertainty relations, while higher order nonlinear dependence may reveal more different and interesting correlation properties. Applications of the generalized uncertainty relation and the high order nonlinear dependence between observables in quantum information science are also discussed.     

Reducing the Entropic Uncertainty via Non-Markovian Effect and Detuning in the Presence of Quantum Memory ∗

The influence of non-Markovian effect and detuning on the entropic uncertainty in the presence of quantum memory is studied by the time-convolutionless master-equation approach. The result shows that the entropic uncertainty in the presence of quantum memory is obviously dependent on both detuning and non-Markovian effect. The bigger the detuning is and the stronger the non-Markovian effect is, the smaller the entropic uncertainty is. Its physical explanation is that the known quantum information stored in the quantum memory can reduce or eliminate the entropic uncertainty about the measurement outcomes of another particle, which is entangled with the quantum memory.     

Effects of Hawking Radiation on the Entropic Uncertainty in a Schwarzschild Space‐Time

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle describes a basic restriction on an observer's ability of precisely predicting the measurement of a pair of noncommuting observables, and virtually is at the core of quantum mechanics. Herein, the aim is to study the entropic uncertainty relation (EUR) under the background of a Schwarzschild black hole and its control. Explicitly, dynamical features of the measuring uncertainty via entropy are developed in a practical model where a stationary particle interacts with its surrounding environment while another particle—serving as a quantum memory reservoir—undergoes free fall in the vicinity of the event horizon of the Schwarzschild space‐time. It shows higher Hawking temperatures would give rise to an inflation of the entropic uncertainty on the measured particle. This is suggestive of the fact the measurement uncertainty is strongly correlated with degree of mixing present in the evolving particles. Additionally, based on information flow theory, a physical interpretation for the observed dynamical behaviors related with the entropic uncertainty in such a genuine scenario is provided. Finally, an efficient strategy is proposed to reduce the uncertainty by non‐tracing‐preserved operations. Therefore, our explorations may improve the understanding of the dynamic entropic uncertainty in a curved space‐time, and illustrate predictions of quantum measurements in relativistic quantum information sciences.     

Bound on Efficiency of Heat Engine from Uncertainty Relation Viewpoint

Quantum cycles in established heat engines can be modeled with various quantum systems as working substances. For example, a heat engine can be modeled with an infinite potential well as the working substance to determine the efficiency and work done. However, in this method, the relationship between the quantum observables and the physically measurable parameters—i.e., the efficiency and work done—is not well understood from the quantum mechanics approach. A detailed analysis is needed to link the thermodynamic variables (on which the efficiency and work done depends) with the uncertainty principle for better understanding. Here, we present the connection of the sum uncertainty relation of position and momentum operators with thermodynamic variables in the quantum heat engine model. We are able to determine the upper and lower bounds on the efficiency of the heat engine through the uncertainty relation.     

Averaged Wigner-Yanase-Dyson information as a quantum uncertainty measure

The average of the skew information over the observables was proposed by Luo as a quantum uncertainty measure. In this paper, we investigate the interesting properties of Wigner-Yanase-Dyson (WYD) information, which is a generalization of skew information. Then, by averaging WYD information over the observables we propose a general quantum uncertainty measure of mixed states, and study the properties of the measure. Note that the general quantum uncertainty measure depends on the parameter α and reduces to Luo’s measure when α is equal to 1/2. To get rid of the parameter α, we propose the average of the general measure over the parameter α as a quantum uncertainty measure of mixed states and discuss its properties. The two measures can be considered as the intrinsic properties of mixed state. The construction is reminiscent of the generalized entropies that have shown to be useful in many applications.     

Uncertainty Relations for Coherence

Quantum mechanical uncertainty relations are fundamental consequences of the incompatible nature of noncommuting observables. In terms of the coherence measure based on the Wigner-Yanase skew information, we establish several uncertainty relations for coherence with respect to von Neumann measurements, mutually unbiased bases(MUBs), and general symmetric informationally complete positive operator valued measurements(SIC-POVMs),respectively. Since coherence is intimately connected with quantum uncertainties, the obtained uncertainty relations are of intrinsically quantum nature, in contrast to the conventional uncertainty relations expressed in terms of variance,which are of hybrid nature(mixing both classical and quantum uncertainties). From a dual viewpoint, we also derive some uncertainty relations for coherence of quantum states with respect to a fixed measurement. In particular, it is shown that if the density operators representing the quantum states do not commute, then there is no measurement(reference basis) such that the coherence of these states can be simultaneously small.     

Controlling of entropic uncertainty in open quantum system via proper placement of quantum register

We investigate the dynamical behaviors of quantum-memory-assisted entropic uncertainty and its lower bound in the amplitude-damping channel. The influences of different placement positions of the quantum register on the dynamics of quantum coherence, quantum entanglement, and quantum discord are analyzed in detail. The numerical simulation results show that the quantum register should be placed in the channel of the non-Markovian effect. This option is beneficial to reduce the entropic uncertainty and its lower bound. We also find that this choice does not change the evolution of the quantum coherence and quantum entanglement, but changes the dynamical process of the quantum discord of the system.These results show that quantum coherence, quantum entanglement, and quantum discord are different quantum resources with unique characteristics and properties, and quantum discord can play a key role in reducing the uncertainty of quantum systems.     

Measurement Uncertainty and Its Connection to Quantum Coherence in an Inertial Unruh–DeWitt Detector

The dynamic characteristics of measured uncertainty and quantum coherence are explored for an inertial Unruh–DeWitt detector model in an expanding de Sitter space. Using the entropic uncertainty relation, the uncertainty of interest is correlated with the evolving time t, the energy level spacing δ, and the Hubble parameter H. The investigation shows that, for short time, a strong energy level spacing and small Hubble parameter can result in a relatively small uncertainty. The evolution of quantum coherence versus the evolving time and Hubble parameter, which varies almost inversely to that of the uncertainty, is then discussed, and the relationship between uncertainty and the coherence is explicitly derived. With respect to the l₁ norm of coherence, it is found that the environment for the quantum system considered possesses a strong non-Markovian property. The dynamic behavior of coherence non-monotonously decreases with the growth of evolving time. The dynamic features of uncertainty and coherence in the expanding space with those in flat space are also compared. Furthermore, quantum weak measurement is utilized to effectively reduce the magnitude of uncertainty, which offers realistic and important support for quantum precision measurements during the undertaking of quantum tasks.     

海森堡XYZ自旋链系统的热纠缠与局域量子不确定性研究

研究了热平衡温度,自旋交换相互作用,Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya(DM)相互作用及外加非一致性磁场对两比特海森堡XYZ自旋链量子系统的热纠缠与局域量子不确定度的影响,对比分析了并发度量子纠缠与局域量子不确定度描述自旋链系统量子关联的差别.结果表明自旋链系统的量子纠缠在热平衡温度,DM相互作用及外加磁场的非一致性参数的变化情况下均会出现纠缠突然死亡的再生现象,而自旋链系统的局域量子不确定度随着这些参数呈连续变化现象.并且,自旋交换相互作用,DM相互作用及外加横向磁场作用强度较小时,他们的变化对自旋链系统的量子纠缠与局域量子不确定度的影响有着明显的差别.