Information and entropy in quantum measurement processes (Q1303471)

Entropy of a physical system is one of the most important quantities in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Moreover, there is a relation between entropy and information shown by Szilard in 1929, and by Shannon in 1948. Quantum mechanical entropy was introduced by von Neumann in 1955, as \(S(\widehat \rho) =-Tr(\widehat \rho \ln \widehat \rho)\), where \(\widehat \rho\) is a statistical operator describing the quantum state of a physical system. If a physical system is prepared in the quantum state \(\widehat \rho\), and observable \(\widehat A\) of the physical system takes the value \(a\) with probability \(p_A(a) = \langle \psi(a)|\widehat \rho|\psi(a)\rangle, \) then for the Shannon entropy \(H(p_A) = -\sum_a p(a) \ln p(a)\) we have \(S(\widehat \rho) \leq H(p_A).\) Quantum information theory includes quantum computing, quantum coding and quantum cryptography, and it is one of the most important objects in nowadays quantum physics and information science. The main task of the present paper is the investigation of the relation between the amount of information about the physical system extracted from the measurement outcomes and the entropy change of the measured physical system. The condition for quantum measurement process under which the amount of information extracted from the measurement outcomes is equal to the decrease of the entropy of the measured physical systems. In addition, the comparison of the change of the Shannon entropy with that of von Neumann entropy is done. Position and momentum measurements of a physical system in one-dimensional space is presented as an example.