Experimental characterization of qutrits using symmetric informationally complete positive operator-valued measurements
- Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control and Institute for Optical Sciences, Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A7 (Canada)
- Center for Optics and Photonics, Universidad de Concepcion, Casilla 160-C, Concepcion (Chile)
- Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 2Y5 (Canada)
Generalized quantum measurements [also known as positive operator-valued measures (POVMs)] are of great importance in quantum information and quantum foundations but are often difficult to perform. We present an experimental approach which can in principle be used to perform arbitrary POVMs in a linear-optical context. One of the most interesting POVMs, the symmetric informationally complete (SIC) POVM, is the most compact set of measurements that can be used to fully describe a quantum state. We use our technique to carry out the first experimental characterization of the state of a qutrit using SIC POVMs. Because of the highly symmetric nature of this measurement, such a representation has the unique property that it permits all other measurement outcomes to be predicted by a simple extension of the classical Bayesian sum rule, making no use of complex amplitudes or Hilbert-space operators. We demonstrate this approach on several qutrit states encoded in single photons.
- OSTI ID:
- 21546688
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. A, Vol. 83, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.83.051801; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 1050-2947
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
On approximately symmetric informationally complete positive operator-valued measures and related systems of quantum states
Super-symmetric informationally complete measurements