Quantum measurement retrodiction and entropic uncertainty relations

TL;DR

This paper develops a unified quantum retrodiction framework using quantum divergences, introduces mutual retrodictability, and derives entropic uncertainty relations that outperform existing bounds across various measurements and states.

Contribution

It introduces a divergence-independent quantum Bayesian inverse for POVMs, constructs a symmetric joint distribution, and derives tighter entropic uncertainty relations.

Findings

Retrodictive entropic uncertainty relations are valid independently of the retrodictive framework.

Numerical benchmarks show these relations provide tighter bounds than existing ones.

A divergence-independent quantum Bayesian inverse yields a unique retrodictive update for POVMs.

Abstract

We study quantum measurement retrodiction using the principle of minimum change. For quantum-to-classical measurement channels, we show that all standard quantum divergences select the same retrodictive update, yielding a unique and divergence-independent quantum Bayesian inverse for any POVM and prior state. Using this update, we construct a symmetric joint distribution for pairs of POVMs and introduce the mutual retrodictability, for which we also derive a general upper bound that depends only on the prior state and holds for all measurements. This structure leads to two retrodictive entropic uncertainty relations, expressed directly in terms of the prior state and the POVMs, but valid independently of the retrodictive framework and fully compatible with the conventional operational interpretation of entropic uncertainty relations. Finally, we benchmark these relations numerically and find that they provide consistently tighter bounds than existing entropic uncertainty relations over broad classes of measurements and states.