Universal Quantum Measurements

TL;DR

This paper introduces universal quantum measurements applicable to all finite-dimensional systems, including tomographic, disentangling, and directional measurements, with implications for state reconstruction and entanglement management.

Contribution

It presents a unified framework for universal quantum measurements, including new operations like disentangling and directional measurements, expanding the tools for quantum state analysis.

Findings

Disentangling operation exists for non-prime Hilbert space dimensions.

Tomographic measurements enable state reconstruction from outcome statistics.

Measurement of spin direction involves embedding CP(1) as a rational curve in CP(2s).

Abstract

We introduce a family of operations in quantum mechanics that one can regard as "universal quantum measurements" (UQMs). These measurements are applicable to all finite-dimensional quantum systems and entail the specification of only a minimal amount of structure. The first class of UQM that we consider involves the specification of the initial state of the system---no further structure is brought into play. We call operations of this type "tomographic measurements", since given the statistics of the outcomes one can deduce the original state of the system. Next, we construct a disentangling operation, the outcome of which, when the procedure is applied to a general mixed state of an entangled composite system, is a disentangled product of pure constituent states. This operation exists whenever the dimension of the Hilbert space is not a prime, and can be used to model the decay of a composite system. As another example, we show how one can make a measurement of the direction along which the spin of a particle of spin s is oriented (s = 1/2, 1, ...). The required additional structure in this case involves the embedding of CP(1) as a rational curve of degree 2s in CP(2s).