Balance between information gain and reversibility in weak measurement

Yong Wook Cheong, Seung-Woo Lee

Published 2012-03-22, updated 2012-10-11Version 2

We derive a tight bound between the quality of estimating a quantum state by measurement and the success probability of undoing the measurement in arbitrary dimensional systems, which completely describes the tradeoff relation between the information gain and reversibility. In this formulation, it is clearly shown that the information extracted from a weak measurement is erased through the reversing process. Our result broadens the information-theoretic perspective on quantum measurement as well as provides a standard tool to characterize weak measurements and reversals.