Error-disturbance relation in Stern-Gerlach measurements

Abstract

Although Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is represented by a rigorously proven relation about intrinsic uncertainties in quantum states, Heisenberg's error-disturbance relation (EDR) has been commonly believed to be another aspect of the principle. Based on the recent development of universally valid reformulations of Heisenberg's EDR, we study the error and disturbance of Stern-Gerlach measurements of a spin-1/2 particle. We determine the range of the possible values of the error and disturbance for arbitrary Stern-Gerlach apparatuses with the orbital degree prepared in an arbitrary Gaussian state. We show that their error-disturbance region is close to the theoretical optimal and actually violates Heisenberg's EDR in a broad range of experimental parameters. We also show the existence of orbital states in which the error is minimized by the screen at a finite distance from the magnet, in contrast to the standard assumption.