Quantifying incompatibility of quantum measurements through non-commutativity

The existence of incompatible measurements, i.e. measurements which cannot be performed simultaneously on a single copy of a quantum state, constitutes an important distinction between quantum mechanics and classical theories. While incompatibility might at first glance seem like an obstacle, it turns to be a necessary ingredient to achieve the so-called quantum advantage in various operational tasks like random access codes or key distribution. To improve our understanding of how to quantify incompatibility of quantum measurements, we define and explore a family of incompatibility measures based on non-commutativity. We investigate some basic properties of these measures, we show that they satisfy some natural information-processing requirements and we fully characterize the pairs which achieve the highest incompatibility (in a fixed dimension). We also consider the behavior of our measures under different types of compositions. Finally, to link our new measures to existing results, we relate them to a robustness-based incompatibility measure and two operational scenarios: random access codes and entropic uncertainty relations.

Automated summary

The existence of incompatible measurements is an important distinction between quantum mechanics and classical theories, but it is also a necessary ingredient for achieving quantum advantage. To quantify incompatibility, a family of incompatibility measures based on non-commutativity is defined and explored. The basic properties of these measures are investigated, and the pairs achieving the highest incompatibility are fully characterized.