Maximally non-projective measurements are not always symmetric informationally complete

TL;DR

This paper investigates the limitations of symmetric informationally complete (SIC) measurements in higher-dimensional quantum systems, introducing a semidefinite programming method to identify genuinely non-projective measurements and exploring their properties.

Contribution

It demonstrates that SIC measurements are not always the most non-projective in systems beyond qubits and proposes a new criterion for detecting genuinely non-projective measurements.

Findings

SIC measurements are not always the most non-projective in higher dimensions

Introduces a semidefinite programming criterion for measurement analysis

Provides thresholds for simulating POVMs and conjectures on non-projective measurements in qutrits and ququarts

Abstract

Standard quantum measurements are projective. However, the full scope of quantum measurements is represented by positive operator-valued measures (POVMs) and many of these break the limitations of projective measurements as resources in quantum information. It is therefore natural to consider how accurately an experimenter with access only to projective measurements and classical processing can simulate POVMs. The most well-known class of non-projective measurements is called symmetric informationally complete (SIC). Such measurements are both ubiquitous in the broader scope of quantum information theory and known to be the most strongly non-projective measurements in qubit systems. Here, we show that beyond qubit systems, the SIC property is in general not associated with the most non-projective measurement. For this, we put forward a semidefinite programming criterion for detecting genuinely non-projective measurements. This method allows us to determine quantitative simulability thresholds for generic POVMs and to put forward a conjecture on which qutrit and ququart measurements that are most strongly non-projective.