Measurement uncertainty from no-signaling and non-locality

Abstract

One of the formulations of Heisenberg uncertainty principle, concerning so-called measurement uncertainty, states that the measurement of one observable modifies the statistics of the other. Here, we derive such a measurement uncertainty principle from two comprehensible assumptions: impossibility of instantaneous messaging at a distance (no-signaling), and violation of Bell inequalities (non-locality). The uncertainty is established for a pair of observables of one of two spatially separated systems that exhibit non-local correlations. To this end, we introduce a gentle form of measurement which acquires partial information about one of the observables. We then bound disturbance of the remaining observables by the amount of information gained from the gentle measurement, minus a correction depending on the degree of non-locality. The obtained quantitative expression resembles the quantum mechanical formulations, yet it is derived without the quantum formalism and complements the known qualitative effect of disturbance implied by non-locality and no-signaling.

4 pages main + 8 pages appendix; 3 figures

References in corpus (2)

• The uncertainty principle determines the non-locality of quantum mechanics
• Global information balance in quantum measurements

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• Uncertainty-Complementarity Balance as a General Constraint on Non-locality
• Universal quantum uncertainty relations: minimum-uncertainty wave packet depends on measure of spread