Measurement Uncertainty: Reply to Critics

TL;DR

This paper defends a previous proof of a Heisenberg error-disturbance relation against criticisms, clarifying misunderstandings and counterarguments from Ozawa and Rozema et al.

Contribution

It provides a detailed rebuttal to critiques of their earlier work, reaffirming the validity of their measurement uncertainty proof.

Findings

Reaffirmed the validity of the original error-disturbance relation

Refuted Ozawa's claims of counterexamples and errors

Clarified misunderstandings in the debate on measurement uncertainty

Abstract

In a recent publication [PRL 111, 160405 (2013)] we proved a version of Heisenberg's error-disturbance tradeoff. This result was in apparent contradiction to claims by Ozawa of having refuted these ideas of Heisenberg. In a direct reaction [arXiv:1308.3540] Ozawa has called our work groundless, and has claimed to have found both a counterexample and an error in our proof. Here we answer to these allegations. We also comment on the submission [arXiv:1307.3604] by Rozema et al, in which our approach is unfavourably compared to that of Ozawa.