Comment on "Experimental Test of Error-Disturbance Uncertainty Relations by Weak Measurement"

TL;DR

This comment critiques a recent experimental claim against Heisenberg's error-disturbance relation, arguing that the claim is based on flawed measurement quantifications and that the relation remains valid with proper measures.

Contribution

It clarifies that the refutation of Heisenberg's relation is unfounded due to inappropriate error and disturbance measures used in the experiment.

Findings

The original claim's error measures are operationally problematic.

Proper measures restore Heisenberg's relation as a rigorous quantum inequality.

Heisenberg's error-disturbance relation remains valid with suitable quantifications.

Abstract

In this comment on the paper by F. Kaneda, S.-Y. Baek, M. Ozawa and K. Edamatsu [Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 020402, 2014, arXiv:1308.5868], we point out that the claim of having refuted Heisenberg's error-disturbance relation is unfounded since it is based on the choice of unsuitable and operationally problematical quantifications of measurement error and disturbance. As we have shown elsewhere [PRL 111, 160405, 2013], for appropriate choices of operational measures of error and disturbance, Heisenberg's heuristic relation can be turned into a precise inequality which is a rigorous consequence of quantum mechanics.