Incompatibility of observables as state-independent bound of uncertainty relations

Abstract

For a pair of observables, they are called “incompatible” if and only if their commutator does not vanish, which represents one of the key features in quantum mechanics. The question is, how can we characterize the incompatibility among three or more observables? Here, we explore one possible route towards this goal through uncertainty relations, which impose fundamental constraints on the measurement precisions for incompatible observables. Specifically, we propose to measure the incompatibility by the optimal state-independent bounds of additive variance-based uncertainty relations. In this way, the degree of incompatibility becomes an intrinsic property among the operators, i.e., state independent. In particular, we focus on the incompatibility of spin-1/2 systems as an illustration. For an arbitrary, including nonorthogonal, setting of a finite number Pauli-spin operators, the incompatibility is analytically solved; the spins are maximally incompatible if and only if they are orthogonal to each other. On the other hand, our measure of incompatibility represents a versatile tool for applications such as testing the entanglement of bipartite states, and EPR-steering criteria.