Quantum incompatibility in collective measurements

Abstract

We study the compatibility (or joint measurability) of quantum observables in a setting where the experimenter has access to multiple copies of a given quantum system, rather than performing the experiments on each individual copy separately. We introduce the index of incompatibility as a quantifier of incompatibility in this multi-copy setting, as well as the notion of compatibility stack representing the various compatibility relations present in a given set of observables. We then prove a general structure theorem for multi-copy joint observables, and use it to prove that all abstract compatibility stacks with three vertices have realizations in terms of quantum observables.