In quantum mechanics the statistics of the outcomes of a measuring apparatus is described by a positive operator valued measure (POVM). A quantum channel transforms POVM's into POVM's, generally irreversibly, thus loosing some of the information retrieved from the measurement. This poses the problem of which POVM's are "undisturbed", namely they are not irreversibly connected to another POVM. We will call such POVM clean. In a sense, the clean POVM's would be "perfect", since they would not have any additional "extrinsical" noise. Quite unexpectedly, it turns out that such cleanness property is largely unrelated to the convex structure of POVM's, and there are clean POVM's that are not extremal and vice-versa. In this paper we solve the cleannes classification problem for number n of outcomes n<=d (d dimension of the Hilbert space), and we provide a a set of either necessary or sufficient conditions for n>d, along with an iff condition for the case of informationally complete POVM's for n=d^2.
In a recent paper, Buscemi and al. defined a notion of clean positive operator valued measures (POVMs). We here characterize which POVMs are clean in some class that we call quasi-qubit POVMs, namely POVMs whose elements are all rank-one or full-rank. We give an algorithm to check whether a given quasi-qubit POVM satisfies to this condition. We describe explicitely all the POVMs that are clean for the qubit. On the way we give a sufficient condition for a general POVM to be clean.
Given an irreducible representation of a group G, we show that all the covariant positive operator valued measures based on G/Z, where Z is a central subgroup, are described by trace class, trace one positive operators.
An implementation of the positive operator valued measure (POVM) is given. By using this POVM one can realize the probabilistic teleportation of an unknown two-particle state.
Given a unitary representation $U$ of an Abelian group $G$ and a subgroup $H$, we characterise the positive operator valued quotient group $G/H$ and covariant with respect to $U$.
A proof of the Kochen-Specker theorem for a single two-level system is presented. It employs five eight-element positive operator-valued measures and a simple algebraic reasoning based on the geometry of the dodecahedron.
We present an experimental scheme for the implementation of arbitrary generalized measurements, represented by positive-operator valued measures, on the polarization of single photons, using linear optical devices. Further, we experimentally test a Kochen-Specker theorem for single qubits using positive operator-valued measures. Our experimental results for the first time disprove non-contextual hidden-variable theories, even for single qubits.
A limitation on simultaneous measurement of two arbitrary positive operator valued measures is discussed. In general, simultaneous measurement of two noncommutative observables is only approximately possible. Following Werner's formulation, we introduce a distance between observables to quantify an accuracy of measurement. We derive an inequality that relates the achievable accuracy with noncommutativity between two observables. As a byproduct a necessary condition for two positive operator valued measures to be simultaneously measurable is obtained.
In this paper, we propose concurrence classes for an arbitrary multi-qubit state based on orthogonal complement of a positive operator valued measure, or POVM in short, on quantum phase. In particular, we construct concurrence for an arbitrary two-qubit state and concurrence classes for the three- and four-qubit states. And finally, we construct $W^{m}$ and $GHZ^{m}$ class concurrences for multi-qubit states. The unique structure of our POVM enables us to distinguish different concurrence classes for multi-qubit states.
We present a local-hidden-variable model for positive-operator-valued measurements (an LHVPOV model) on a class of entangled generalized Werner states, thus demonstrating that such measurements do not always violate a Bell-type inequality. We also show that, in general, if the state $ρ'$ can be obtained from $ρ$ with certainty by local quantum operations without classical communication then an LHVPOV model for the state $ρ$ implies the existence of such a model for $ρ'$.
We perform generalized measurements of a qubit by realizing the qubit as a coin in a photonic quantum walk and subjecting the walker to projective measurements. Our experimental technique can be used to realize photonically any rank-1 single-qubit positive operator-valued measure via constructing an appropriate interferometric quantum-walk network and then projectively measuring the walker's position at the final step.
We provide a twofold extension of Landau--Pollak uncertainty relations for mixed quantum states and for positive operator-valued measures, by recourse to geometric considerations. The generalization is based on metrics between pure states, having the form of a function of the square of the inner product between the states. The triangle inequality satisfied by such metrics plays a crucial role in our derivation. The usual Landau--Pollak inequality is thus a particular case (derived from Wootters metric) of the family of inequalities obtained, and, moreover, we show that it is the most restricti…
We propose a scheme that can realize a class of positive-operator-valued measures (POVMs) by performing a sequence of projective measurements on the original system, in the sense that for an arbitrary input state the probability distribution of the measurement outcomes is faithfully reproduced. A necessary and sufficient condition for a POVM to be realizable in this way is also derived. In contrast to the canonical approach provided by Neumark's theorem, our method has the advantage of requiring no auxiliary system. Moreover, an arbitrary POVM can be realized by utilizing our protocol on an ex…
Positive operator valued measurements (POVMs) play an important role in efficient quantum communication and computation. While optical systems are one of the strongest candidates for long distance quantum communication and information processing, efficient methods to implement POVMs in these systems are scarce. Here we propose an all-optical scheme to implement an arbitrary POVM using linear optical components on m-dimensional Hilbert space of internal degrees of freedom. Linear optical nature of the proposed scheme makes it efficient and robust. We show how the scheme can be applied for state…
We report an optical detector with tunable positive operator-valued measures (POVMs). The device is based on a combination of weak-field homodyne techniques and photon-number-resolving detection. The resulting POVMs can be continuously tuned from Fock-state projectors to a variety of phase-dependent quantum-state measurements by adjusting different system parameters such as local oscillator coupling, amplitude and phase, allowing thus not only detection but also preparation of exotic quantum states. Experimental tomographic reconstructions of classical benchmark states are presented as a demon…
We introduce a concept of a minimal sufficient positive-operator valued measure (POVM), which is the least redundant POVM among the POVMs that have the equivalent information about the measured quantum system. Assuming the system Hilbert space to be separable, we show that for a given POVM a sufficient statistic called a Lehmann-Scheffé-Bahadur statistic induces a minimal sufficient POVM. We also show that every POVM has an equivalent minimal sufficient POVM and that such a minimal sufficient POVM is unique up to relabeling neglecting null sets. We apply these results to discrete POVMs and inf…
Evaluating the amount of information obtained from non-orthogonal quantum states is an important topic in the field of quantum information. The commonly used evaluation method is Holevo bound, which only provides a loose upper bound for quantum measurement. In this paper, we provide a theoretical study of the positive operator-valued measure (POVM) for discriminating nonorthogonal states. We construct a generalized POVM measurement operation, and derive the optimal one for state discrimination by Lagrange multiplier method. With simulation, we find that the optimal POVM measurement provides a …
Here we present a reconstruction of the Positive Operator-Value Measurement of a photon-number-resolving detector comprised of three 50:50 beamsplitters in a tree configuration, terminated with four single-photon avalanche detectors. The four detectors' outputs are processed by an electronic board that discriminates detected photon number states from 0 to 4 and implements a "smart counting" routine to compensate for dead time issues at high count rates.
We tackle the dynamical description of the quantum measurement process, by explicitly addressing the interaction between the system under investigation with the measurement apparatus, the latter ultimately considered as macroscopic quantum object. We consider arbitrary Positive Operator Valued Measures (POVMs), such that the orthogonality constraint on the measurement operators is relaxed. We show that, likewise the well-known von-Neumann scheme for projective measurements, it is possible to build up a dynamical model holding a unitary propagator characterized by a single time-independent Hami…
The principal aim of this Comment is to correct those entropic uncertainty relations that are presented in a paper by Massar [arXiv:quant-ph/0703036v2 (current version)], concerning two approaches to a study of the noise produced by POVM's. It is next emphasized that the first of the entropic bounds for POVM obtained by the above author has been already presented in Ref. [8]. Some exposition obscurity with equation (14) of the commented paper is elucidated. Finally, some more specific remarks on the paper content are given.
How much unavoidable randomness is generated by a Positive Operator Valued Measure (POVM)? We address this question using two complementary approaches. First we study the variance of a real variable associated to the POVM outcomes. In this context we introduce an uncertainty operator which measures how much additional noise is introduced by carrying out a POVM rather than a von Neumann measurement. We illustrate this first approach by studying the variances of joint estimates of σ_x and σ_z for spin 1/2 particles. We show that for unbiased measurements the sum of these variances is lower bound…
A general symmetric-informationally-complete (GSIC)-positive-operator-valued measure (POVM) is known to provide an optimal quantum state tomography among minimal IC POVMs with a fixed average purity. In this paper we provide a general construction of a GSIC POVM by means of a complete orthogonal basis (COB), also interpreted as a normal quasiprobability representation. A spectral property of a COB is shown to play a key role in the construction of SIC POVMs and also for the bound of the mean-square error of the state tomography. In particular, a necessary and sufficient condition to construct …
In this paper we present a protocol for the implementation of a positive-operator-valued measure (POVM) on massive fermionic qubits. We present methods for implementing non-dispersive qubit transport, spin rotations and spin polarizing beam-splitter operations. Our scheme attains linear optics-like control of the spatial extent of the qubits by considering groundstate electrons trapped in the minima of surface acoustic waves in semiconductor heterostructures. Furthermore, we numerically simulate a high-fidelity POVM that carries out Procrustean entanglement distillation in the framework of our…
3G and 4G mobile are based on CDMA technology. In order to increase the effectiveness of CDMA receivers large amount of effort is invested to develop suitable multi-user detector techniques. However, at this moment there are only suboptimal solutions available because of the rather high complexity of optimal detectors. One of the possible receiver technologies can be the quantum assisted computing devices which allows high level parallelism in computation. The first commercial devices are estimated by 2004, which meets the advert of 3G and 4G systems. In this paper we introduce a novel quantum…
Quantum coherence is a fundamental feature of quantum mechanics and an underlying requirement for most quantum information tasks. In the resource theory of coherence, incoherent states are diagonal with respect to a fixed orthonormal basis, i.e., they can be seen as arising from a von Neumann measurement. Here, we introduce and study a generalization to a resource theory of coherence defined with respect to the most general quantum measurement, i.e., to an arbitrary positive-operator-valued measure (POVM). We establish POVM-based coherence measures and POVM-incoherent operations which coincide…
We address the problem of quantum nonlocality with positive operator valued measures (POVM) in the context of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen quantum steering. We show that, given a candidate for local hidden state (LHS) ensemble, the problem of determining the steerability of a bipartite quantum state of finite dimension with POVMs can be formulated as a nesting problem of two convex objects. One consequence of this is the strengthening of the theorem that justifies choosing the LHS ensemble based on symmetry of the bipartite state. As a more practical application, we study the classic problem of the…
Spontaneous parametric down conversion (PDC), in the perturbative limit, can be considered as a probabilistic splitting of one input photon into two output photons. Conversely, sum-frequency generation (SFG) implements the reverse process of combining two input photons into one. Here we show that a single-photon projective measurement in the temporal-mode basis of the output photon of a two-photon SFG process effects a generalized measurement on the input two-photon state. We describe the positive-operator-valued measure (POVM) associated with such a measurement, and show that its elements are…
We mainly study the block-coherence measures based on resource theory of block-coherence and the coherence measures based on positive-operator-valued measures (POVM). Several block-coherence measures including a block-coherence measure based on maximum relative entropy, the one-shot block coherence cost under the maximally block-incoherent operations, and a coherence measure based on coherent rank have been introduced and the relationships between these block-coherence measures have been obtained. We also give the definition of the maximally block-coherent state and describe the deterministic …
It is crucial for various quantum information processing tasks that the state of a quantum system can be determined reliably and efficiently from general quantum measurements. One important class of measurements for this purpose is symmetric informationally complete positive operator-valued measurements (SIC-POVMs). SIC-POVMs have the advantage of providing an unbiased estimator for the quantum state with the minimal number of outcomes needed for full tomography. By virtue of Naimark's dilation theorem, any POVM can always be realized with a suitable coupling between the system and an auxiliar…
We derive a deterministic protocol to implement a general single-qubit POVM on near-term circuit-based quantum computers. The protocol has a modular structure, such that an $n$-element POVM is implemented as a sequence of $(n-1)$ circuit modules. Each module performs a $2$-element POVM. Two variations of the protocol are suggested, one optimal in terms of number of ancilla qubits, the other optimal in terms of number of qubit gate operations and quantum circuit depth. We use the protocol to implement $2$- and $3$-element POVMs on two publicly available quantum computing devices. The results we…
Manipulation of qudits in optical tables is a difficult and nonscalable task. The use of integrated optical circuits opens new possibilities for the generation, manipulation, and characterization of high dimensional states besides the ease of transmission of these states through an optical fiber. In this work we propose photonic circuits to perform minimum quantum state tomography of path qudits and show how to determine all the constituents parameters of these circuits (beam splitters and phase shifters). Our strategies were based on the symmetries of the involved POVMs (positive operator-val…
We consider positive operator valued measures whose image is the bounded operators acting on an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space, and we relax, when possible, the usual assumption of positivity of the operator valued measure seen in the quantum information theory literature. We define the Radon-Nikodym derivative of a positive operator valued measure with respect to a complex measure induced by a given quantum state; this derivative does not always exist when the Hilbert space is infinite dimensional in so much as its range may include unbounded operators. We define integrability of a positi…
Quantum resource theories provide a diverse and powerful framework for extensively studying the phenomena in quantum physics. Quantum coherence, a quantum resource, is the basic ingredient in many quantum information tasks. It is a subject of broad and current interest in quantum information, and many new concepts have been introduced and generalized since its establishment. Here we show that the block coherence can be transformed into entanglement via a block incoherent operation. Moreover, we find that the POVM-based coherence associated with block coherence through the Naimark extension act…
We examine the longstanding problem of introducing a time observable in Quantum Mechanics; using the formalism of positive-operator-valued measures we show how to define such an observable in a natural way and we discuss some consequences.
Given a unitary representation U of a compact group G and a transitive G-space $Ω$, we characterize the extremal elements of the convex set of all U-covariant positive operator valued measures.
We present a correspondence between positive operator valued measures (POVMs) and sets of generalized coherent states. Positive operator valued measures describe quantum observables and, similarly to quantum states, also quantum observables can be mixed. We show how the formalism of generalized coherent states leads to a useful characterization of extremal POVMs. We prove that covariant phase space observables related to squeezed states are extremal, while the ones related to number states are not extremal.
In this paper we review some properties of fuzzy observables, mainly as realized by commutative positive operator valued measures. In this context we discuss two representation theorems for commutative positive operator valued measures in terms of projection valued measures and describe, in some detail, the general notion of fuzzification. We also make some related observations on joint measurements.
In Ref. [Phys. Rev. A 100, 062317 (2019)], the authors reported an algorithm to implement, in a circuit-based quantum computer, a general quantum measurement (GQM) of a two-level quantum system, a qubit. Even though their algorithm seems right, its application involves the solution of an intricate non-linear system of equations in order to obtain the angles determining the quantum circuit to be implemented for the simulation. In this article, we identify and discuss a simple way to circumvent this issue and implement GQMs on any $d$-level quantum system through quantum state preparation algori…
We study the distinguishability of bipartite quantum states by Positive Operator-Valued Measures with positive partial transpose (PPT POVMs). The contributions of this paper include: (1). We give a negative answer to an open problem of [M. Horodecki $et. al$, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 047902(2003)] showing a limitation of their method for detecting nondistinguishability. (2). We show that a maximally entangled state and its orthogonal complement, no matter how many copies are supplied, can not be distinguished by PPT POVMs, even unambiguously. This result is much stronger than the previous known on…
Quantifying nonclassicality in qubit systems via positive operator-valued measures
Wilczek Quantum Center, School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学物理与天文学院斐兹克量子中心）；Department of Physics, Isfahan University of Technology（伊斯法罕理工大学物理系）
We study the positive-operator-valued measures on the projective real line covariant with respect to the projective group, assuming that the energy is a positive operator. This problem is similar to the more complicated problem of finding the positive-operator-valued measures on the compactified Minkowski space-time covariant with respect to the conformal group. It also describes a time-of-arrival observable for a free particle covariant with respect to linear canonical transformations.
The Landau-Pollak uncertainty relation treats a pair of rank one projection valued measures and imposes a restriction on their probability distributions. It gives a nontrivial bound for summation of their maximum values. We give a generalization of this bound (weak version of the Landau-Pollak uncertainty relation). Our generalization covers a pair of positive operator valued measures. A nontrivial but slightly weak inequality that can treat an arbitrary number of positive operator valued measures is also presented.
We show that the correct mathematical foundation of quantum decision theory, dealing with uncertain events, requires the use of positive operator-valued measure that is a generalization of the projection-valued measure. The latter is appropriate for operationally testable events, while the former is necessary for characterizing operationally uncertain events. In decision making, one has to distinguish composite non-entangled events from composite entangled events. The mathematical definition of entangled prospects is based on the theory of Hilbert-Schmidt spaces and is analogous to the definit…
We show that a partition of the unity (or POVM) on a Hilbert space that is almost orthogonal is close to an orthogonal POVM in the same von Neumann algebra. This generalizes to infinite dimension previous results in matrix algebras by Kempe-Vidick and Ji-Natarajan-Vidick-Wright-Yuen. Quantitatively, our result are also finer, as we obtain a linear dependance, which is optimal. We also generalize to infinite dimension a duality result between POVMs and minimal majorants of finite subsets in the predual of a von Neumann algebra.
We introduce several notions of random positive operator valued measures (POVMs), and we prove that some of them are equivalent. We then study statistical properties of the effect operators for the canonical examples, obtaining limiting eigenvalue distributions with the help of free probability theory. Similarly, we obtain the large system limit for several quantities of interest in quantum information theory, such as the sharpness, the noise content, and the probability range. Finally, we study different compatibility criteria, and we compare them for generic POVMs.
We introduce positive operator-valued measure (POVM) generated by the projective unitary representation of a direct product of locally compact Abelian group $G$ with its dual $\hat G$. The method is based upon the Pontryagin duality allowing to establish an isometrical isomorphism between the space of Hilbert-Schmidt operators in $L^2(G)$ and the Hilbert space $L^2(\hat G\times G)$. Any such a measure determines a pair of hybrid (containing classical and quantum parts) quantum channels consisting of the measurement channel and the channel transmitting an initial quantum state to the ensemble o…
The space of positive operator-valued measures on the Borel sets of a compact (or even locally compact) Hausdorff space with values in the algebra of linear operators acting on a d-dimensional Hilbert space is studied from the perspectives of classical and non-classical convexity through a transform $Γ$ that associates any positive operator-valued measure with a certain completely positive linear map of the homogeneous C*-algebra $C(X)\otimes B(H)$ into $B(H)$. This association is achieved by using an operator-valued integral in which non-classical random variables (that is, operator-valued fu…
A quantum probability measure is a function on a sigma-algebra of subsets of a (locally compact and Hausdorff) sample space that satisfies the formal requirements for a measure, but whose values are positive operators acting on a complex Hilbert space, and a quantum random variable is a measurable operator valued function. Although quantum probability measures and random variables are used extensively in quantum mechanics, some of the fundamental probabilistic features of these structures remain to be determined. In this paper we take a step toward a better mathematical understanding of quantu…
Symmetric informationally complete positive operator valued measures (SIC-POVMs) are studied within the framework of the probability representation of quantum mechanics. A SIC-POVM is shown to be a special case of the probability representation. The problem of SIC-POVM existence is formulated in terms of symbols of operators associated with a star-product quantization scheme. We show that SIC-POVMs (if they do exist) must obey general rules of the star product, and, starting from this fact, we derive new relations on SIC-projectors. The case of qubits is considered in detail, in particular, th…
Standard projective measurements represent a subset of all possible measurements in quantum physics, defined by positive-operator-valued measures. We study what quantum measurements are projective simulable, that is, can be simulated by using projective measurements and classical randomness. We first prove that every measurement on a given quantum system can be realised by classical processing of projective measurements on the system plus an ancilla of the same dimension. Then, given a general measurement in dimension two or three, we show that deciding whether it is projective-simulable can b…
