Wave-particle duality as an uncertainty relation for the average confidence width
Abstract
We introduce the average confidence width : the confidence width -- the smallest position interval carrying a fraction of the probability -- averaged over all levels. It is the first moment of the decreasing rearrangement of , an mean-absolute-deviation measure of localization, so the product is dilation invariant and obeys . Reading as a particle character and as a wave character, this lower bound on combined spread is identically an upper bound on combined particle-and-wave character: uncertainty and wave-particle duality are two faces of one inequality. A mean-entropy argument with the Bialynicki-Birula-Mycielski relation gives the rigorous , while the achievable constant is set by the ground state of the Fourier-invariant operator , . Hence : the optimal state is sub-Gaussian, so the Gaussian -- optimal for the Heisenberg and entropic relations -- is not the duality optimum.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2606.31443,
title = {Wave-particle duality as an uncertainty relation for the average confidence width},
author = {Shengjun Wu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2606.31443},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
7 pages, 4 figures