Heisenberg’s uncertainty relation may be violated in a single measurement

Abstract

The well-known Heisenberg’s uncertainty relation is an inequality between uncertainties of canonically conjugate observables in a given state. In this interpretation, the Heisenberg’s uncertainty relation is a rigorous mathematical theorem and is, therefore, always valid. However, the same inequality is often applied in the situation of measurement, where it is illustrated in a quite dierent way. The uncertainty relation is then an inequality connecting the precision (resolution) of the measurement of one observable and the uncertainty of the conjugate observable in the state arising after the measurement. It turns out that in such an interpretation the Heisenberg’s inequality may be violated for some measurement readouts that emerge with small but finite probabilities. Making use of the uncertainties averaged in a special way over all possible measurement readouts, one may formulate an inequality of the type of Heisenberg’s inequality but valid for any measurement.