Phenomenological approaches to quantum gravity implement a minimum resolvable length-scale but do not link it to an underlying formalism describing geometric superpositions. Here, we introduce an intuitive approach in which points in the classical spatial background are delocalised, or 'smeared', giving rise to an entangled superposition of geometries. The model uses additional degrees of freedom to parameterise the superposed classical backgrounds. Our formalism contains both minimum length and minimum momentum resolutions and we naturally identify the former with the Planck length. In addition, we argue that the minimum momentum is determined by the de Sitter scale, and may be identified with the effects of dark energy in the form of a cosmological constant. Within the new formalism, we obtain both the generalised uncertainty principle (GUP) and extended uncertainty principle (EUP), which may be combined to give an uncertainty relation that is symmetric in position and momentum. Crucially, our approach does not imply a significant modification of the positionmomentum commutator, which remains proportional to the identity matrix. It therefore yields generalised uncertainty relations without violating the equivalence principle, in contradistinction to existing models based on nonlinear dispersion relations. Implications for cosmology and the black hole uncertainty principle correspondence are briefly discussed, and prospects for future work on the smeared-space model are outlined.

We derive generalised uncertainty relations (GURs) for orbital angular momentum and spin in the recently proposed smeared-space model of quantum geometry. The model implements a minimum length and a minimum linear momentum, and recovers both the generalised uncertainty principle (GUP) and extended uncertainty principle (EUP), previously proposed in the quantum gravity literature, within a single formalism. In this paper, we investigate the consequences of these results for particles with extrinsic and intrinsic angular momentum, and obtain generalisations of the canonical so(3) and su(2) algebras. We find that, although SO(3) symmetry is preserved on three-dimensional slices of an enlarged phase space, corresponding to a superposition of background geometries, individual subcomponents of the generalised generators obey nontrivial subalgebras. These give rise to GURs for orbital angular momentum while leaving the canonical commutation relations intact except for a simple rescaling, → + β. The value of the new parameter, β ≃ × 10 −61 , is determined by the ratio of the dark energy density to the Planck density and its existence is required by the presence of both minimum length and momentum uncertainties. Here, we assume the former to be of the order of the Planck length and the latter to be of the order of the de Sitter momentum ∼ √ Λ, where Λ is the cosmological constant, which is consistent with the existence of a finite cosmological horizon. In the smeared-space model, and β are interpreted as the quantisation scales for matter and geometry, respectively, and a quantum state vector is associated with the spatial background. We show that this also gives rise to a rescaled Lie algebra for generalised spin operators, together with associated subalgebras that are analogous to those for orbital angular momentum. Remarkably, consistency of the algebraic structure requires the quantum state associated with the background space to be fermionic. However, this is no way contradicts the standard result that the graviton is expected to be a spin-2 boson. (We explain why, at length, in the text.) Finally, the modified spin algebra leads to GURs for spin measurements. The potential implications of these results for cosmology and high-energy physics, and for the description of spin and angular momentum in relativistic theories of quantum gravity, are briefly discussed. Contents

Quantum backflow is usually understood as a quantum interference phenomenon where probability current of a quantum particle points in the opposite direction to particle's momentum. Here, we quantify the amount of quantum backflow for arbitrary momentum distributions, paving the way towards its experimental verification. We give examples of backflow in gravitational and harmonic potential, and discuss experimental procedures required for the demonstration using atomic gravimeters. Such an experiment would show that the probability of finding a free falling particle above initial level could grow for suitably prepared quantum state with most momentum downwards.

We study stable subspaces of positive extremal maps of finite dimensional matrix algebras that preserve trace and matrix identity (so-called bistochastic maps). We have established the existence of the isometric-sweeping decomposition for such maps. As the main result of the paper, we have shown that all extremal bistochastic maps acting on the algebra of matrices of size 3x3 fall into one of the three possible categories, depending on the form of the stable subspace of the isometric-sweeping decomposition. Our example of an extremal atomic positive map seems to be the first one that handles the case of that subspace being non-trivial. Lastly, we compute the entanglement witness associated with the extremal map and specify a large family of entangled states detected by it.

We demonstrate, both analytically and experimentally, the usefulness of non-Markovianity for preserving correlations and coherence in quantum systems. For this, we consider a broad class of qubit evolutions, having a decoherence matrix separated from zero for large times. While any such Markovian evolution leads to an exponential loss of correlations, non-Markovianity can help to preserve correlations even in the limit t → ∞. In fact, under general assumptions, eternally non-Markovian evolution naturally emerges as the one that allows for optimal preservation of quantum correlations. For covariant qubit evolutions, we also show that non-Markovianity can be used to preserve quantum coherence at all times, which is an important resource for quantum metrology. We explicitly demonstrate this effect experimentally with linear optics, by implementing the optimal non-Markovian quantum evolution.

In this short note we show how the Generalised Uncertainty Principle (GUP) and the Extended Uncertainty Principle (EUP), two of the most common generalised uncertainty relations proposed in the quantum gravity literature, can be derived within the context of canonical quantum theory, without the need for modified commutation relations. A generalised uncertainty principle-type relation naturally emerges when the standard position operator is replaced by an appropriate Positive Operator Valued Measure (POVM), representing a finite-accuracy measurement that localises the quantum wave packet to within a spatial region σg > 0. This length scale is the standard deviation of the envelope function, g, that defines the positive operator valued measure elements. Similarly, an extended uncertainty principle-type relation emerges when the standard momentum operator is replaced by a positive operator valued measure that localises the wave packet to within a region σ̃g>0 in momentum space. The usual generalised uncertainty principle and extended uncertainty principle are recovered by setting σg≃ℏG/c3, the Planck length, and σ̃g≃ℏΛ/3, where Λ is the cosmological constant. Crucially, the canonical Hamiltonian and commutation relations, and, hence, the canonical Schrödinger and Heisenberg equations, remain unchanged. This demonstrates that generalised uncertainty principle and extended uncertainty principle phenomenology can be obtained without modified commutators, which are known to lead to various pathologies, including violation of the equivalence principle, violation of Lorentz invariance in the relativistic limit, the reference frame-dependence of the “minimum” length, and the so-called soccer ball problem for multi-particle states.

Communicated by M. OhyaThe Horodeckis necessary and sufficient condition of separability of mixed states is generalized to arbitrary composite quantum systems.

An alternative, geometrical proof of a known theorem concerning the decomposition of positive maps of the matrix algebra M 2 (C) has been presented. The premise of the proof is the identification of positive maps with operators preserving the Lorentz cone in four dimensions, and it allows to decompose the positive maps with respect to those preserving the boundary of the cone. In addition, useful conditions implying complete positivity of a map of M 2 (C) have been given, together with a sufficient condition for complete positivity of an extremal Schwarz map of M n (C). Lastly, following the same geometrical approach, a description in topological terms of maps that are simultaneously completely positive and completely copositive has been presented.