Controlling the entropic uncertainty lower bound in two-qubit systems under decoherence

Abstract The uncertainty principle is an inherent characteristic of quantum mechanics. This principle can be formulated in various forms. Fundamentally, this principle can be expressed in terms of the standard deviation of the measured observables. In quantum information theory, the preferred mathematical quantity to express the entropic uncertainty relation is Shannon’s entropy. In this work, we consider the generalized entropic uncertainty relation in which there is an additional particle as a quantum memory. Alice measures on her particle A and Bob, with memory particle B , predicts Alice’s measurement outcomes. It has a wide range of applications, for example, entanglement witnessing and quantum key distribution. We study the effects of the environment on the entropic uncertainty lower bound in the presence of weak measurement and measurement reversal. The dynamical model that is intended in this work is as follows: first the weak measurement is performed, second, the decoherence affects the system and finally the measurement reversal is performed on the quantum system. Here, we consider the generalized amplitude damping channel and depolarizing channel as environmental noises. We will show that in the presence of weak measurement and measurement reversal, despite the presence of environmental factors, the entropic uncertainty lower bound drops to an optimal minimum value. In fact, weak measurement and measurement reversal enhance the quantum correlation between the subsystems A and B , and thus the uncertainty of Bob regarding Alice’s measurement outcomes reduces. Based on the entropic uncertainty relation, one can also show that the weak measurement and measurement reversal can preserve the quantum secret key rate lower bound from decoherence.