Quantum Mechanical Observables Research Articles

Entropy as a bound for expectation values and variances of a general quantum mechanical observable

Quantum information-theoretic approach had been identified as a way to understand the foundations of quantum mechanics as early as 1950 due to Shannon. However, there hasn’t been enough advancement or rigorous development of the subject. In the following paper we try to find the relationship between a general quantum mechanical observable and von Neumann entropy. We find that the expectation values and the uncertainties of the observables have bounds which depend on the entropy. The results also show that von Neumann entropy is not just the uncertainty of the state but also encompasses the information about expectation values and uncertainties of any observable which depend on the observers choice for a particular measurement. Also a reverse uncertainty relation is derived for [Formula: see text] quantum mechanical observables.

Investigating and improving student understanding of quantum mechanical observables and their corresponding operators in Dirac notation

In quantum mechanics, for every physical observable, there is a corresponding Hermitian operator. According to the most common interpretation of quantum mechanics, measurement of an observable collapses the quantum state into one of the possible eigenstates of the operator and the corresponding eigenvalue is measured. Since Dirac notation is an elegant notation that is commonly used in upper-level quantum mechanics, it is important that students learn to express quantum operators corresponding to observables in Dirac notation in order to apply the quantum formalism effectively in diverse situations. Here we focus on an investigation that suggests that, even though Dirac notation is used extensively, many advanced undergraduate and PhD students in physics have difficulty expressing the identity operator and other Hermitian operators corresponding to physical observables in Dirac notation. We first describe the difficulties students have with expressing the identity operator and a generic Hermitian operator corresponding to an observable in Dirac notation. We then discuss how the difficulties found via written surveys and individual interviews were used as a guide in the development of a quantum interactive learning tutorial (QuILT) to help students develop a good grasp of these concepts. The QuILT strives to help students become proficient in expressing the identity operator and a generic Hermitian operator corresponding to an observable in Dirac notation. We also discuss the effectiveness of the QuILT based on in-class evaluations.

Probability Representation of Quantum Observables and Quantum States

We introduce the probability distributions describing quantum observables in conventional quantum mechanics and clarify their relations to the tomographic probability distributions describing quantum states. We derive the evolution equation for quantum observables (Heisenberg equation) in the probability representation and give examples of the spin-1/2 (qubit) states and the spin observables. We present quantum channels for qubits in the probability representation.

Tighter uncertainty and reverse uncertainty relations

We prove a few state-dependent uncertainty relations for the product as well as the sum of variances of two incompatible observables. These uncertainty relations are shown to be tighter than the Robertson-Schr\"odinger uncertainty relation and other ones existing in the current literature. Also, we derive a state-dependent upper bound to the sum and the product of variances using the reverse Cauchy-Schwarz inequality and the Dunkl-Williams inequality. Our results suggest that not only can we not prepare quantum states for which two incompatible observables can have sharp values, but also we have both the lower and the upper limits on the variances of quantum mechanical observables at a fundamental level.

Investigating and improving student understanding of the expectation values of observables in quantum mechanics

The expectation value of an observable is an important concept in quantum mechanics since measurement outcomes are, in general, probabilistic and we only have information about the probability distribution of measurement outcomes in a given quantum state of a system. However, we find that upper-level undergraduate and PhD students in physics have both conceptual and procedural difficulties when determining the expectation value of a physical observable in a given quantum state in terms of the eigenstates and eigenvalues of the corresponding operator, especially when using Dirac notation. Here we first describe the difficulties that these students have with determining the expectation value of an observable in Dirac notation. We then discuss how the difficulties found via student responses to written surveys and individual interviews were used as a guide in the development of a quantum interactive learning tutorial (QuILT) to help students develop a good grasp of the expectation value. The QuILT strives to help students integrate conceptual understanding and procedural skills to develop a coherent understanding of the expectation value. We discuss the effectiveness of the QuILT in helping students learn this concept from in-class evaluations.

Investigating and improving student understanding of the probability distributions for measuring physical observables in quantum mechanics

A solid grasp of the probability distributions for measuring physical observables is central to connecting the quantum formalism to measurements. However, students often struggle with the probability distributions of measurement outcomes for an observable and have difficulty expressing this concept in different representations. Here we first describe the difficulties that upper-level undergraduate and PhD students have with the probability distributions for measuring physical observables in quantum mechanics. We then discuss how student difficulties found in written surveys and individual interviews were used as a guide in the development of a quantum interactive learning tutorial (QuILT) to help students develop a good grasp of the probability distributions of measurement outcomes for physical observables. The QuILT strives to help students become proficient in expressing the probability distributions for the measurement of physical observables in Dirac notation and in the position representation and be able to convert from Dirac notation to position representation and vice versa. We describe the development and evaluation of the QuILT and findings about the effectiveness of the QuILT from in-class evaluations.

Relativity of quantum states and observables

Under the principle that quantum-mechanical observables are invariant under relevant symmetry transformations, we explore how the usual, non-invariant quantities may capture measurement statistics. Using a relativisation mapping, viewed as the incorporation of a quantum reference frame, we show that the usual quantum description approximates the relative one precisely when the reference system admits an appropriate localisable quantity and a localised state. From this follows a new perspective on the nature and reality of quantum superpositions and optical coherence.

Quantum-chemical insights from deep tensor neural networks

Learning from data has led to paradigm shifts in a multitude of disciplines, including web, text and image search, speech recognition, as well as bioinformatics. Can machine learning enable similar breakthroughs in understanding quantum many-body systems? Here we develop an efficient deep learning approach that enables spatially and chemically resolved insights into quantum-mechanical observables of molecular systems. We unify concepts from many-body Hamiltonians with purpose-designed deep tensor neural networks, which leads to size-extensive and uniformly accurate (1 kcal mol−1) predictions in compositional and configurational chemical space for molecules of intermediate size. As an example of chemical relevance, the model reveals a classification of aromatic rings with respect to their stability. Further applications of our model for predicting atomic energies and local chemical potentials in molecules, reliable isomer energies, and molecules with peculiar electronic structure demonstrate the potential of machine learning for revealing insights into complex quantum-chemical systems.

A project to measure quantum spin correlations of relativistic electron pairs in Møller scattering

A project to measure quantum spin correlations for relativistic particles with mass is presented. It aims at testing spin observables in relativistic quantum mechanics. The measurement will be performed for pairs of entangled electrons originating from Moller scattering. A double Mott polarimeter, allowing for simultaneous measurement of the spin projections of both electrons, was designed for this purpose.

Loops, projective invariants, and the realization of the Borromean topological link in quantum mechanics

All the typical global quantum mechanical observables are complex relative phases obtained by interference phenomena. They are described by means of some global geometric phase factor, which is thought of as the “memory” of a quantum system undergoing a “cyclic evolution” after coming back to its original physical state. The origin of a geometric phase factor can be traced to the local phase invariance of the transition probability assignment in quantum mechanics. Beyond this invariance, transition probabilities also remain invariant under the operation of complex conjugation. Most important, geometric phase factors distinguish between unitary and antiunitary transformations in terms of complex conjugation. These two types of invariance functions as an anchor point to investigate the role of loops and based loops in the state space of a quantum system as well as their links and interrelations. We show that arbitrary transition probabilities can be calculated using projective invariants of loops in the space of rays. The case of the double slit experiment serves as a model for this purpose. We also represent the action of one-parameter unitary groups in terms of oppositely oriented-based loops at a fixed ray. In this context, we explain the relation among observables, local Boolean frames of projectors, and one-parameter unitary groups. Next, we exploit the non-commutative group structure of oriented-based loops in 3-d space and demonstrate that it carries the topological semantics of a Borromean link. Finally, we prove that there exists a representation of this group structure in terms of one-parameter unitary groups that realizes the topological linking properties of the Borromean link.

Chains of topological oscillators with instantons and calculable topological observables in topological quantum mechanics

We extend to a possibly infinite chain the conformally invariant mechanical system that was introduced earlier as a toy model for understanding the topological Yang–Mills theory. It gives a topological quantum model that has interesting and computable zero modes and topological invariants. It confirms the recent conjecture by several authors that supersymmetric quantum mechanics may provide useful tools for understanding robotic mechanical systems (Vitelli et al.) and condensed matter properties (Kane et al.), where trajectories are allowed or not by the conservation of topological indices. The absences of ground state and mass gaps are special features of such systems.

Sum uncertainty relations based on Wigner–Yanase skew information

We study sum uncertainty relations for arbitrary finite $N$ quantum mechanical observables. Some uncertainty inequalities are presented by using skew information introduced by Wigner and Yanase. These uncertainty inequalities are nontrivial as long as the observables are mutually noncommutative. The relations among these new and existing uncertainty inequalities have been investigated. Detailed examples are presented.

Refinement of Robertson-type uncertainty principles with geometric interpretation

A generalization of the classical covariance for quantum mechanical observables has previously been presented by Gibilisco et al. Gibilisco and Isola has proved that the usual quantum covariance gives the sharpest inequalities for the determinants of covariance matrices. We introduce a new generalization of the classical covariance which gives better inequalities than the classical one, furthermore it has a direct geometric interpretation.

A variant of the Kochen-Specker theorem localising value indefiniteness

The Kochen-Specker theorem proves the inability to assign, simultaneously, noncontextual definite values to all (of a finite set of) quantum mechanical observables in a consistent manner. If one assumes that any definite values behave noncontextually, one can nonetheless only conclude that some observables (in this set) are value indefinite. In this paper, we prove a variant of the Kochen-Specker theorem showing that, under the same assumption of noncontextuality, if a single one-dimensional projection observable is assigned the definite value 1, then no one-dimensional projection observable that is incompatible (i.e., non-commuting) with this one can be assigned consistently a definite value. Unlike standard proofs of the Kochen-Specker theorem, in order to localise and show the extent of value indefiniteness, this result requires a constructive method of reduction between Kochen-Specker sets. If a system is prepared in a pure state ψ, then it is reasonable to assume that any value assignment (i.e., hidden variable model) for this system assigns the value 1 to the observable projecting onto the one-dimensional linear subspace spanned by ψ, and the value 0 to those projecting onto linear subspaces orthogonal to it. Our result can be interpreted, under this assumption, as showing that the outcome of a measurement of any other incompatible one-dimensional projection observable cannot be determined in advance, thus formalising a notion of quantum randomness.

Partial-wave decomposition of the ground-state wavefunction of the two-electron harmonium atom

An exact formula for the collective occupancy of natural orbitals with an angular momentum l is derived for the ground state of the two-electron harmonium atom. For confinement strengths $$\omega $$ that correspond to polynomial correlation factors as well as at the weak ( $$\omega \rightarrow \infty $$ ) and strong ( $$\omega \rightarrow 0$$ ) correlations limits, it reduces to closed-form expressions. At the former limit, a similar result obtains for the partial-wave contributions to the ground-state energy. Slow convergence of the collective occupancies to their leading large-l asymptotics provided by Hill’s formula is uncovered. As the rate of convergence decreases strongly with $$\omega $$ , a complete breakdown of Hill’s formula ensues upon the confinement strength becoming infinitesimally small. The relevance of these findings to the performance of the extrapolation schemes for the estimation of the complete-basis-set limits of quantum-mechanical observables is discussed.

Machine Learning for Quantum Mechanical Properties of Atoms in Molecules

We introduce machine learning models of quantum mechanical observables of atoms in molecules. Instant out-of-sample predictions for proton and carbon nuclear chemical shifts, atomic core level excitations, and forces on atoms reach accuracies on par with density functional theory reference. Locality is exploited within non-linear regression via local atom-centered coordinate systems. The approach is validated on a diverse set of 9k small organic molecules. Linear scaling of computational cost in system size is demonstrated for saturated polymers with up to sub-mesoscale lengths.

Imprecise probability for non-commuting observables

It is known that non-commuting observables in quantum mechanics do not have joint probability. This statement refers to the precise (additive) probability model. I show that the joint distribution of any non-commuting pair of variables can be quantified via upper and lower probabilities, i.e. the joint probability is described by an interval instead of a number (imprecise probability). I propose transparent axioms from which the upper and lower probability operators follow. The imprecise probability depend on the non-commuting observables, is linear over the state (density matrix) and reverts to the usual expression for commuting observables.

Quantum gravity and causal structures: Second quantization of conformal Dirac algebras

It is postulated that quantum gravity is a sum over causal structures coupled to matter via scale evolution. Quantized causal structures can be described by studying simple matrix models where matrices are replaced by an algebra of quantum mechanical observables. In particular, previous studies constructed quantum gravity models by quantizing the moduli of Laplace, weight and defining-function operators on Fefferman-Graham ambient spaces. The algebra of these operators underlies conformal geometries. We extend those results to include fermions by taking an osp(1|2) "Dirac square root" of these algebras. The theory is a simple, Grassmann, two-matrix model. Its quantum action is a Chern-Simons theory whose differential is a first-quantized, quantum mechanical BRST operator. The theory is a basic ingredient for building fundamental theories of physical observables.

Decoherence and the paradox of the observed observer in quantum mechanics

If an atomic system is being observed, and its observer is also observed, would the first observer be in a superposition of states and evolve deterministically before being observed? In this paper, a simple model of non-demolition measurement is analyzed in order to elucidate the so-called ‘Wigner's friend’ paradox. The model illustrates the decoherence of an atomic system and its observer (the ‘friend’) as the latter is being observed (by Wigner).

Weak value and the wave–particle duality

The weak value, introduced by Aharonov et al. (Phys Rev Lett 60:1351, 1988), extends the conventional scope of physical observables in quantum mechanics, allowing them to bear values outside the range of eigenvalues. On one hand, the weak value sheds new light on understanding quantum paradoxes, and also the method of obtaining it—the weak measurement—is expected to be useful for precision measurement. On the other hand, it poses serious questions on its physical meaning due to the unconventional features including the possible complexity of its value. In this paper, we point out that this complexity of the weak value has relevance to the wave–particle duality of quantum mechanics, at least in the nonrelativistic regime of a massive particle system. Namely, we show that the wave nature manifests itself in the imaginary part of the weak value while the particle nature appears in the real part. This is illustrated by the double slit experiment, where we find, without conflicting with complementarity, that the trajectory of the particle is inferable from the weak value even under the presence of interference.