Quantum speed limits: from Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle to optimal quantum control

TLDR

Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, particularly the energy–time relation, establishes a fundamental bound on how quickly any quantum system can evolve. This review surveys key milestones—Mandelstam–Tamm and Margolus–Levitin bounds—and recent applications across quantum information, computing, and thermodynamics. The authors organize the field into a minimal‑time approach based on quantum control theory and a geometric approach based on state distinguishability. The review highlights selected works to serve as a representative starting point for readers.

Abstract

One of the most widely known building blocks of modern physics is Heisenberg's indeterminacy principle. Among the different statements of this fundamental property of the full quantum mechanical nature of physical reality, the uncertainty relation for energy and time has a special place. Its interpretation and its consequences have inspired continued research efforts for almost a century. In its modern formulation, the uncertainty relation is understood as setting a fundamental bound on how fast any quantum system can evolve. In this Topical Review we describe important milestones, such as the Mandelstam-Tamm and the Margolus-Levitin bounds on the quantum speed limit, and summarise recent applications in a variety of current research fields -- including quantum information theory, quantum computing, and quantum thermodynamics amongst several others. To bring order and to provide an access point into the many different notions and concepts, we have grouped the various approaches into the minimal time approach and the geometric approach, where the former relies on quantum control theory, and the latter arises from measuring the distinguishability of quantum states. Due to the volume of the literature, this Topical Review can only present a snapshot of the current state-of-the-art and can never be fully comprehensive. Therefore, we highlight but a few works hoping that our selection can serve as a representative starting point for the interested reader.