Heisenberg uncertainty relation Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
The Heisenberg uncertainty relation constrains the standard deviations of position and momentum in one preparation:
On the real line, the position operator acts by multiplication, and the momentum operator is , with the reduced Planck constant. Their canonical commutation relation and the Robertson uncertainty principle give the bound on normalized quantum states satisfying the moment and product-domain assumptions above; Schwartz functions are a convenient sufficient class. Thus making a preparation more sharply localized in position forces a wider momentum distribution, even for ideal measurement in quantum mechanics.
An explicit saturating example is the normalized Gaussian wave packet, for ,
The wavefunction is a probability amplitude; its squared magnitude is the probability density function, by the Born rule. That density is a normal distribution of mean zero and standard deviation , rather than a density whose width is read directly from the amplitude's exponent. With the unitary, negative-exponent convention for the Fourier transform, its momentum amplitude is
The Gaussian integral evaluates this Fourier transform. Consequently is another normal distribution, with mean zero and standard deviation
For example, in dimensionless units with , give . The Gaussian wave packets all saturate the same bound: narrowing one density broadens the other. More precisely, choose a reference length and set , ; then , and the plotted widths are and .
Figure 1.
Position and momentum probability densities for three minimum-uncertainty Gaussian preparations: dimensionless widths 0.5, 1, and 2 in position give reciprocal momentum widths 1, 0.5, and 0.25
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The Heisenberg uncertainty relation connects localization to the cost in kinetic energy. In a quantum harmonic oscillator with mass and angular frequency , the variance contribution to the expectation value of the energy is bounded using the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality:
The mean-dependent contributions are nonnegative. The Gaussian eigenstate for a quadratic potential with and zero means reaches this ground state energy. This is why the tradeoff is more than a limitation on preparation: it predicts an unavoidable positive minimum energy.
Heisenberg's original article appeared in March 1927 as "Über den anschaulichen Inhalt der quantentheoretischen Kinematik und Mechanik", Zeitschrift für Physik 43, pp. 172–198. Its abstract discusses simultaneous imprecision of canonically conjugate quantities and explanatory thought experiments. The precise standard deviation formulation here distinguishes preparation spreads from a slogan about measurement disturbance. [ref].
In the position representation, multiplies by and . Acting on an arbitrary differentiable test function shows the commutator explicitly:
Therefore , whose expectation value is in every normalized state in the relevant domains. The Robertson uncertainty principle gives
This is a lower bound, not a claim that every state saturates it.
The expectation value of an observable is the mean outcome of repeated measurements on identically prepared systems in the normalized state. For a self-adjoint it is real and equals . Assume the state belongs to the domains needed for the second moments and the commutator below, so all these quantities exist.
For real , positivity of the squared norm gives
The commutator expectation is purely imaginary, so this is a real quadratic in . If , its minimum is nonnegative exactly when its discriminant is nonpositive. If , nonnegativity for all real forces the linear coefficient to vanish, yielding the same conclusion. Thus
Replace the observables by their centred versions , . Their commutator is unchanged, and their second moments are the variances . Taking square roots gives the Robertson uncertainty principle
For the quantum harmonic oscillator, gives . The uncentred inequality above consequently gives . The arithmetic-geometric mean inequality now yields
This is a bound for every normalized state of finite oscillator energy, not just an eigenstate. It is attained by the centred Gaussian ground state, for which and the uncertainty product equals .
Take a normalized state for which the indicated variances and operator pairings exist. Set and . For real , positivity of the squared norm gives
The canonical commutation relations yield . Thus the quadratic polynomial in is nonnegative everywhere only if its discriminant is nonpositive. This gives the Robertson uncertainty principle
If either variance is zero, the same polynomial argument forces the commutator expectation to vanish, so that edge case is included. Centering the operators is essential to obtain variances rather than uncentered second moments.
The expectation value is the mean outcome over many identically prepared measurements of the observable. For real , positivity of the norm in the Hilbert space gives
This real quadratic has nonpositive quadratic discriminant, so
Apply this to the centered observables and to obtain the Robertson uncertainty principle
For the quantum harmonic oscillator, and
The arithmetic-geometric mean inequality and now give
An operator is Hermitian when
on its domain. Hermitian operators represent quantum observables because their expectation values and eigenvalues are real. In a normalized state,
Positivity of the norm of for every real gives
The middle expectation is real because is Hermitian. The discriminant of this quadratic is nonpositive, so
Apply this to the centered operators and , whose commutator is still . This yields the Robertson uncertainty principle
Noncommuting observables therefore cannot both have arbitrarily sharply concentrated measurement distributions in the same state.
For part (a), the adjoint operator is
Using the canonical commutation relation ,
Thus and are the annihilation and creation operators of the quantum harmonic oscillator.
For part (b), write
Since and , differentiation of the unitary conjugation gives
The initial conditions are and . Solving this pair of linear ordinary differential equations gives the Bogoliubov transformation
This is the transformation implemented by the single-mode squeeze operator.
For part (c), invert the definition of :
The transformation above implies
The ground state has zero position and momentum means and variances and . Hence the squeezed vacuum state has
The reciprocal squeezing factors cancel, so
The state therefore continues to saturate the Heisenberg uncertainty relation.
For a normalized state, write
Then and . The Schwarz inequality gives
Since and are Hermitian and their commutator equals ,
Therefore
which is the Robertson uncertainty principle.
Operators, quantization and rotations. Angular momentum is the generator of spatial rotations. In quantum mechanics, its components are Hermitian operators on their appropriate domains and obey
These angular momentum commutation relations prevent all three components from having simultaneous sharp values. For example, the Robertson uncertainty principle gives . One conventionally diagonalizes and a selected component :
The allowed labels are and . An angular-momentum multiplet has states. The magnitude differs from the largest possible component ; the remaining components fluctuate even in a state with maximal .
The angular momentum lowering operator and its raising counterpart, , satisfy
The ladder terminates at . A rotation through angle about unit vector acts through the unitary operator . Thus quantized components and the continuous rotation of a state are compatible.
Orbital angular momentum. The orbital contribution is associated with motion in space:
For a spinless spatial wavefunction, the simultaneous angular eigenfunctions are the spherical harmonics , with and . Single-valued ordinary scalar spatial wavefunctions give integer orbital labels. In a central potential energy, , so stationary states may be labelled by these angular quantum numbers. The angular kinetic contribution appears in the radial equation as , the centrifugal potential. Noncentral interactions need not conserve these orbital labels.
Intrinsic spin and addition. Spin angular momentum is an intrinsic internal degree of freedom with the same commutation algebra. It is not the angular momentum of a small classical charged sphere literally rotating about its centre. For an electron, and , so in terms of the Pauli matrices. Its squared spin is . Other particles can have integer or half-integer spin, including spin zero.
For one particle with orbital and spin degrees of freedom, ; the two component sets commute with each other. Addition of angular momentum permits . The coupled states are linear combinations of the uncoupled with , determined by Clebsch-Gordan coefficients. A rotationally invariant spin-orbit interaction can conserve while mixing the separate component labels.
Angular momentum also carries a magnetic moment. For an electron's orbital motion and intrinsic spin,
The minus signs reflect negative electric charge. With the Bohr magneton , a spin projection has . A magnetic field can therefore distinguish angular-momentum states through their interaction energy .
Stern–Gerlach measurement. In the Stern-Gerlach experiment, atoms emerge from a heated source, pass through collimating apertures, traverse a strongly inhomogeneous magnetic field, and strike a position-sensitive screen. The beam is neutral, so its separation is interpreted through the atomic magnetic moment rather than the ordinary charged-particle Lorentz force. Near a chosen quantization direction, the interaction gives
A uniform field can exert a torque but would not separate the beam by this translational force; the gradient is essential. Different allowed magnetic-moment components become correlated with different trajectories. A classical ensemble with continuously varying orientations would yield a continuous spread, whereas discrete quantum components yield separated channels.
In the modern electronic description of ground-state silver, filled shells cancel their electronic angular momenta and the unpaired electron has , , . The effective electronic measurement therefore has two components, approximately , rather than an orbital , which is not allowed. For positive field gradient the electronic component has negative and deflects downward in this coordinate convention. Nuclear spin and hyperfine structure are neglected in this simplified two-channel account. Historically the original splitting preceded the electron-spin interpretation, so the modern explanation should not be confused with the original investigators' interpretation.
Figure 1.
A neutral atomic beam separates into two electronic magnetic-moment channels in a field gradient
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More generally a prepared spin state gives the two outcomes with probabilities . Selecting one channel prepares a state for further measurements. An ideal second analyser along the same axis then gives a definite result, whereas one along a perpendicular axis gives two equally likely outcomes for a spin-one-half eigenstate. This connects the apparatus directly to incompatible spin components and the Born rule. Angular momentum is quantized through its operator algebra; the Stern–Gerlach gradient turns that discrete internal information into spatially distinguishable outcomes.
A Hermitian operator satisfies the adjoint symmetry condition
for vectors in its specified domain. For a finite matrix this means . For an unbounded differential operator, boundary conditions and domains matter: symmetry on a chosen domain is not alone sufficient for self-adjointness. Physical observables require the corresponding self-adjoint operator and its spectral measure. This distinction prevents purely formal integration by parts from being mistaken for a complete operator definition.
Real eigenvalues. If with nonzero norm, Hermiticity implies
so . Thus eigenvalues representing measurement outcomes are real.
Orthogonality. For eigenvectors ,
Hence , and distinct eigenvalues have orthogonal eigenvectors. Within a degenerate eigenspace, Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization can choose an orthonormal basis. In finite dimensions the spectral theorem gives a complete orthonormal eigenbasis and
where projects onto each eigenspace. In infinite dimensions a continuous spectrum may require a spectral integral rather than a normalizable eigenvector for every possible outcome; a position operator on the full line is a familiar example.
Measurements and probabilities. In the discrete case the Born rule assigns probability to the outcome . For a nondegenerate eigenbasis, gives probabilities , with
The variance vanishes precisely when the state lies in an eigenspace with a single sharp outcome. A repeatable ideal projective measurement prepares the corresponding eigenspace; superpositions of different eigenvalues do not have a preassigned sharp value of that observable in this description.
Compatibility and dynamics. Commuting Hermitian matrices admit simultaneous diagonalization, permitting a common set of sharp labels. For example commute, whereas do not. In the differential-operator setting the corresponding spectral compatibility requires appropriate domain conditions. Noncommuting observables obey the Robertson uncertainty principle
The canonical commutation relation then gives .
The Hamiltonian operator represents energy. A self-adjoint generates unitary time evolution, , preserving norm and total probability; its eigenvalues determine stationary-state phases and transition energies. Hermiticity supplies real outcomes and orthogonal eigenspaces, while self-adjointness and the spectral theorem make these measurement and evolution rules mathematically complete.
An observable is represented by a self-adjoint operator. For an ideal projective measurement, let be its spectral projector for outcome . The Born rule gives , or for a density matrix . Conditional on obtaining , the Lüders rule gives
For a degenerate outcome this projects onto the whole associated eigenspace, rather than arbitrarily selecting a vector within it. An immediate repeated ideal measurement returns the same outcome, provided there is no intervening evolution or disturbance.
Commuting finite-dimensional observables admit a common orthonormal eigenbasis; their projectors commute and ideal joint measurements are compatible. Noncommuting observables generally have no complete common eigenbasis, and measurement order can affect the subsequent statistics. Particular common eigenvectors can nevertheless exist, so a nonzero commutator does not mean that every state has a nonzero uncertainty in both quantities.
For a quantitative constraint, apply the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality to and . The imaginary part of their inner product is , giving the Robertson uncertainty principle
The canonical commutation relation gives . Retaining the real part of the same inner product gives the stronger Robertson-Schrödinger uncertainty relation, including a covariance term. These are constraints on the preparation of a quantum state, not simply statements about a poorly calibrated instrument.
A sequential spin one-half example makes the change in statistics explicit. Prepare . An immediate measurement is certainly positive. If an measurement is inserted first, its outcomes each have probability and leave states . Each then yields either result with probability , so the final positive fraction is . The change reflects projection onto incompatible spin eigenstates, even with ideal measuring apparatus. The theory of measurement in quantum mechanics allows more general state-update rules, but the operator description and the Born rule still constrain their probabilities.
Take a normalized vector in the required common operator domains. Expanding the squared norm and using self-adjointness gives
Thus its final term is . Set , , . If , minimizing the nonnegative quadratic at gives
Equality holds precisely when the minimum norm vanishes, that is . If , however, then and , so equality is automatic even when . The printed equality criterion needs this zero-vector exception. For example , , saturates the inequality but admits no such real . The exact general criterion is linear dependence of together with vanishing real part of their inner product, as in the uncentered second-moment commutator inequality.
Apply the same calculation to , , whose commutator is unchanged. This gives the Robertson uncertainty principle
If is an eigenvector of , its dispersion is zero; finite dispersion of then forces .
In the position representation, and . The product rule gives , hence . Since commutes with ,
For an energy eigenstate, , so . For the oscillator , and the same argument gives . These expectation identities require the stated finite moments and commutator domains; formal position eigenvectors are not normalizable exceptions.
Apply the Robertson uncertainty principle to each angular-momentum pair:
If is an eigenvector of , then . The inequalities for and force , assuming the relevant moments exist.
Quantum uncertainty Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-18
For a normalized state with finite second moment of a quantum observable , its uncertainty is the standard deviation of the measurement outcome: . This equals . The Robertson uncertainty principle bounds products of uncertainties using the expectation of the commutator.
The Robertson-Schrödinger uncertainty relation keeps the real part discarded in the proof of the Robertson uncertainty principle. Write and . Their quantum covariance is . On the same finite-moment and product operator domains used above, the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality gives
For position and momentum, form the real, symmetrized covariance matrix
A larger coordinatewise product can therefore encode a tilted covariance ellipse, rather than a larger determinant. This explains why the equality case of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation is more restrictive than equality in the Robertson-Schrödinger uncertainty relation.
Robertson uncertainty principle Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-20
The Robertson uncertainty principle bounds the product of the standard deviations of two observables in the same quantum state. For a normalized pure state and self-adjoint operators , write their expectation values and variances as
and similarly for , where is the identity operator. The quantum uncertainties then obey
Here is the commutator, and every expectation value is taken in the same . These standard deviations describe the outcome spreads when and are measured on separate ensembles prepared in that same quantum state. They are not instrument errors or the change caused by a preceding measurement in quantum mechanics. The definition and bound are developed in Barton Zwiebach, Uncertainty Principle and Compatible Observables, 2013, §§1–2.
For unbounded self-adjoint operators, the operator domains matter. Assume , so that both second moments are finite; here means the second moment of the measured probability distribution, equal to , even if is undefined. To use the displayed operator commutator, also assume . Without these product-domain assumptions, the always meaningful version on uses as its right-hand side. These qualifications prevent a formal commutator identity from being applied to an inadmissible quantum state.
The brief proof is Cauchy-Schwarz inequality applied to and :
The final equality uses self-adjointness and the product-domain assumptions. Thus a geometric statement about inner products becomes a constraint on experimental spreads. For nonzero , equality requires to be proportional with a purely imaginary proportionality factor; the equality case of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation turns this condition into a Gaussian wave packet.
The bound is useful because computing a single commutator and its expectation value can constrain two entire outcome distributions. Its right-hand side depends on the quantum state: the spin uncertainty state dependence example gives both a positive saturated bound and a zero bound for the same noncommuting observables. Robertson's paper, titled "The Uncertainty Principle", appeared on 1 July 1929 in Physical Review, volume 34, starting at page 163. [ref].
Spin uncertainty state dependence Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-20
For a qubit, use the dimensionless Pauli matrices as observables , . Their Pauli matrix multiplication law gives
These observables have eigenvalues ; the physical spin components are , where is the reduced Planck constant, so their standard deviations acquire a factor .
In the computational basis, prepare , an eigenstate of with eigenvalue . Direct multiplication gives
Both Pauli measurements return and with equal probabilities, and the Robertson uncertainty principle is saturated: .
Instead prepare . Now the expectation values are , , so , . The Pauli measurement of is certain, and both sides of the bound vanish. The commutator is still nonzero as an operator: noncommuting observables do not guarantee a positive lower bound independent of the quantum state. This example is useful for distinguishing the algebra of the observables from the expectation values in a particular preparation.
Figure 1.
Pauli standard deviations, their product, and the Robertson bound in two preparations: the same noncommuting observables give bounds of one and zero
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For self-adjoint operators and a normalized quantum state in their relevant product operator domains, put , , . With the inner product linear in its second entry, . The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality gives
Equality holds exactly when are linearly dependent and . This includes either zero vector; if both vectors are nonzero it is equivalent to for real nonzero . Applying this inequality to the centred observables and gives the Robertson uncertainty principle.