Minimum-uncertainty states and completeness of non-negative quasiprobability of finite-dimensional quantum systems

Abstract

We construct minimum-uncertainty states and a non-negative quasi probability distribution for quantum systems on a finite-dimensional space. We reexamine the theorem of Massar and Spindel for the uncertainty relationof the two unitary operators related by the discrete Fourier transformation. It is shown that some assumptions in their proof can be justified by the use of the Perron-Frobenius theorem. The minimum-uncertainty states are the ones that saturate this uncertainty inequality. The continuum limit is closely analyzed by introducing a scale factor in the limiting scheme. Using the minimum-uncertainty states, we construct a non-negative quasi probability distribution. Its marginal distributions are smeared out. However, we show that this quasi probability is optimal in the sense that there does not exist a non-negative quasi probability distribution with sharper marginal properties if the translational covariance in the phase space is assumed. Generally, it is desirable that the quasi probability is complete, i.e., it contains full information of the state. We show that the obtained quasi probability is indeed complete if the dimension of the state space is odd, whereas it is not if the dimension is even.