Predictability of measurements

Abstract

The second law of thermodynamics states that entropy increases (or does not change) by time in an isolated system. As microscopic physical laws are reversible, the origin of irreversibility is not straightforward. Although the outcome of a measurement on a pure quantum state is not fully predictable due to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, quantum and finite entropy uncertainties are thought to be fundamentally different. We propose to calculate the predictability of measurements comprising both quantum and entropic uncertainties. We show that the unpredictability of measurements is identical to entropy in case of semiclassical statistical mechanics, and it increases by time in a pure entangled quantum state as a result of quantum measurement.