Quantification of complementarity in multi-qubit systems

Xinhua Peng, Xiwen Zhu, Dieter Suter, Jiangfeng Du, Maili Liu, Kelin Gao

Published 2005-07-19, updated 2005-07-20Version 2

Complementarity was originally introduced as a qualitative concept for the discussion of properties of quantum mechanical objects that are classically incompatible. More recently, complementarity has become a \emph{quantitative} relation between classically incompatible properties, such as visibility of interference fringes and "which-way" information, but also between purely quantum mechanical properties, such as measures of entanglement. We discuss different complementarity relations for systems of 2-, 3-, or \textit{n} qubits. Using nuclear magnetic resonance techniques, we have experimentally verified some of these complementarity relations in a two-qubit system.