Experimental study of quantum uncertainty from lack of information

Experimental study of quantum uncertainty from lack of information

Zhao, Yuan Yuan (University of Science and Technology of China)
Rozpedek, F.D. (TU Delft QID/Wehner Group; TU Delft QuTech Advanced Research Centre; University of Chicago; Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft)
Hou, Zhibo (University of Science and Technology of China)
Wu, Kang Da (University of Science and Technology of China)
Xiang, Guo Yong (University of Science and Technology of China)
Li, Chuan Feng (University of Science and Technology of China)
Guo, Guang Can (University of Science and Technology of China)

2022-12

Quantum uncertainty is a well-known property of quantum mechanics that states the impossibility of predicting measurement outcomes of multiple incompatible observables simultaneously. In contrast, the uncertainty in the classical domain comes from the lack of information about the exact state of the system. One may naturally ask, whether the quantum uncertainty is indeed a fully intrinsic property of the quantum theory, or whether similar to the classical domain lack of knowledge about specific parts of the physical system might be the source of this uncertainty. This question has been addressed in the previous literature where the authors argue that in the entropic formulation of the uncertainty principle that can be illustrated using the so-called, guessing games, indeed such lack of information has a significant contribution to the arising quantum uncertainty. Here we investigate this issue experimentally by implementing the corresponding two-dimensional and three-dimensional guessing games. Our results confirm that within the guessing-game framework, the quantum uncertainty to a large extent relies on the fact that quantum information determining the key properties of the game is stored in the degrees of freedom that remain inaccessible to the guessing party. Moreover, we offer an experimentally compact method to construct the high-dimensional Fourier gate which is a major building block for various tasks in quantum computation, quantum communication, and quantum metrology.

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:189f3911-d610-45e2-96fc-10793f7f3d1a

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-022-00572-w

2056-6387

NPJ Quantum Information, 8 (1)

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2022 Yuan Yuan Zhao, F.D. Rozpedek, Zhibo Hou, Kang Da Wu, Guo Yong Xiang, Chuan Feng Li, Guang Can Guo