# Experimental study of optimal measurements for quantum state tomography

## TL;DR

This paper compares various quantum measurement strategies for state tomography, highlighting the tradeoffs between accuracy, efficiency, and robustness to measurement errors.

## Contribution

It provides a systematic comparison of measurement strategies, emphasizing the robustness of informationally complete methods versus the efficiency of pure-state complete methods.

## Key findings

- Informationally complete strategies are accurate and reliable despite measurement errors.
- Pure-state complete strategies are more efficient but highly sensitive to measurement errors.
- Tradeoffs between accuracy and efficiency are inherent in quantum tomography.

## Abstract

Quantum tomography is a critically important tool to evaluate quantum hardware, making it essential to develop optimized measurement strategies that are both accurate and efficient. We compare a variety of strategies using nearly pure test states. Those that are informationally complete for all states are found to be accurate and reliable even in the presence of errors in the measurements themselves, while those designed to be complete only for pure states are far more efficient but highly sensitive to such errors. Our results highlight the unavoidable tradeoffs inherent to quantum tomography.