Which quantum states minimize the unavoidable uncertainty arising from the noncommutativity of two observables? The immediate answer to such a question is: it depends. Due to the plethora of uncertainty measures there are many answers. Here, instead of restricting our study to a particular measure, we present plausible axioms for the set $\mathcal{F}$ of bona fide information-theoretic uncertainty functions. Then, we discuss the existence of states minimizing uncertainty with respect to all members of $\mathcal{F}$, i.e., universal minimum uncertainty states (MUSs). We prove that such states do not exist within the full state space and study the effect of classical noise on the structure of minimum uncertainty states. We present an explicit example of a qubit universal MUS that arises when purity is constrained by introducing a threshold amount of noise. For higher dimensional systems we derive several no-go results limiting the existence of noisy universal MUSs. However, we conjecture that universality may emerge in an approximate sense. We conclude by discussing connections with thermodynamics, and highlight the privileged role that nonequilibrium free energy $F_2$ plays close to equilibrium.

• Received 26 April 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.93.062347