Quantum computation has been growing rapidly in both theory and experiments.In particular, quantum computing devices with a large number of qubits have been developed by IBM, Google, IonQ, and others.The current quantum computing devices are noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices, and so approaches to validate quantum processing on these quantum devices are needed.One of the most common ways of validation for an n-qubit quantum system is quantum tomography, which tries to reconstruct a quantum system's density matrix by a complete set of observables.However, the inherent noise in the quantum systems and the intrinsic limitations pose a critical challenge to precisely know the actual measurement operators that make quantum tomography impractical in experiments.Here, we propose an alternative approach to quantum tomography, based on the maximal information entropy, that can predict the values of unknown observables based on the available mean measurement data.This can then be used to reconstruct the density matrix with high fidelity even though the results for some observables are missing.Of additional contexts, a practical approach to the inference of the quantum mechanical state using only partial information is also needed.
Quantum computation has been growing rapidly in both theory and experiments.In particular, quantum computing devices with a large number of qubits have been developed by IBM, Google, IonQ, and others.The current quantum computing devices are noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices, and so approaches to validate quantum processing on these quantum devices are needed.One of the most common ways of validation for an n-qubit quantum system is quantum tomography, which tries to reconstruct a quantum system's density matrix by a complete set of observables.However, the inherent noise in the quantum systems and the intrinsic limitations pose a critical challenge to precisely know the actual measurement operators that make quantum tomography impractical in experiments.Here, we propose an alternative approach to quantum tomography, based on the maximal information entropy, that can predict the values of unknown observables based on the available mean measurement data.This can then be used to reconstruct the density matrix with high fidelity even though the results for some observables are missing.Of additional contexts, a practical approach to the inference of the quantum mechanical state using only partial information is also needed.
Impressive progress has been made in the past decade in the study of technological applications of varied types of quantum systems. With industry giants like IBM laying down their roadmap for scalable quantum devices with more than 1000-qubits by the end of 2023, efficient validation techniques are also being developed for testing quantum processing on these devices. The characterization of a quantum state is done by experimental measurements through the process called quantum state tomography (QST) which scales exponentially with the size of the system. However, QST performed using incomplete measurements is aptly suited for characterizing these quantum technologies especially with the current nature of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices where not all mean measurements are available with high fidelity. We, hereby, propose an alternative approach to QST for the complete reconstruction of the density matrix of a quantum system in a pure state for any number of qubits by applying the maximal entropy formalism on the pairwise combinations of the known mean measurements. This approach provides the best estimate of the target state when we know the complete set of observables, which is the case of convergence of the reconstructed density matrix to a pure state. Our goal is to provide a practical inference of a quantum system in a pure state that can find its applications in the field of quantum error mitigation on a real quantum computer that we intend to investigate further.
Quantum state tomography is an integral part of quantum computation and offers the starting point for the validation of various quantum devices. One of the central tasks in the field of state tomography is to reconstruct, with high fidelity, the quantum states of a quantum system. From an experiment on a real quantum device, one can obtain the mean measurement values of different operators. With such data as input, in this report we employ the maximal entropy formalism to construct the least biased mixed quantum state that is consistent with the given set of expectation values. Even though, in principle, the reported formalism is quite general and should work for an arbitrary set of observables, in practice we shall demonstrate the efficacy of the algorithm on an informationally complete (IC) set of Hermitian operators. Such a set possesses the advantage of uniquely specifying a single quantum state from which the experimental measurements have been sampled and hence renders the rare opportunity not only to construct a least-biased quantum state but even replicate the exact state prepared experimentally within a preset tolerance. The primary workhorse of the algorithm is reconstructing an energy function which we designate as the effective Hamiltonian of the system, and parameterizing it with Lagrange multipliers, according to the formalism of maximal entropy. These parameters are thereafter optimized variationally so that the reconstructed quantum state of the system converges to the true quantum state within an error threshold. To this end, we employ a parameterized quantum circuit and a hybrid quantum-classical variational algorithm to obtain such a target state, making our recipe easily implementable on a near-term quantum device.
Quantum state tomography (QST) is a fundamental technique for characterizing quantum states, traditionally employed in research laboratories with highly controlled environments. However, the burgeoning field of quantum computing faces the significant challenge of deploying and verifying quantum hardware in the presence of noise and decoherence, characteristics inherent in current Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices. This paper proposes an adapted QST algorithm designed to overcome these limitations. The core idea is to systematically reconstruct the density matrix of a qubit or a small quantum system using a series of carefully designed measurements. We address the impact of noise by incorporating error mitigation strategies within the reconstruction process. The algorithm's performance is evaluated through theoretical analysis and conceptual implementation, highlighting its potential to provide a practical and efficient method for hardware verification of NISQ computers. This work establishes a novel approach for characterizing and debugging NISQ hardware, a critical step toward realizing the full potential of quantum computation.
In quantum information transformation and quantum computation, the most critical issues are security and accuracy. These features, therefore, stimulate research on quantum state characterization. A characterization tool, Quantum state tomography, reconstructs the density matrix of an unknown quantum state. Theoretically, reconstructing an unknown state using this method can be arbitrarily accurate. However, this is less practical owing to the huge burden of measurements and data processing for large numbers of qubits. Even comprising an efficient estimator and a precise algorithm, an optimal tomographic framework can also be overburdened owing to the exponential growth of the measurements. Moreover, the consequential postprocessing of huge amounts of data challenges the capacity of computers. Thus, it is crucial to build an efficient framework that requires fewer measurements but yields an expected accuracy. To this end, we built a tomography schema by which only a few Pauli measurements enable an accurate tomographic reconstruction. Subsequently, this schema was verified as efficient and accurate through numerical simulations on the tomography of multi-qubit quantum states. Furthermore, this schema was proven to be robust through numerical simulations on a noisy superconducting qubit system. Therefore, the tomography schema paves an alternatively effective way to reconstruct the density matrix of a quantum state owing to its efficiency and accuracy, which are essential for quantum state tomography.
Quantum state tomography is a technique in quantum information science used to reconstruct the density matrix of an unknown quantum state, providing complete information about the quantum state. It is of significant importance in fields such as quantum computation, quantum communication, and quantum simulation. However, as the size of the quantum system increases, the number of measurement settings and sampling requirements for quantum state tomography grow exponentially with the number of qubits. This not only makes experimental design and implementation more complex, but also exacerbates the consumption of experimental resources. These limitations severely hinder the application of state tomography in large-scale quantum systems. To reduce measurement settings and improve sampling efficiency, this study proposes a state tomography method based on auxiliary systems. This method can be implemented through either entanglement between the quantum system to be measured and a quantum auxiliary system or through correlation between the quantum system and a probabilistic classical auxiliary system. Measurements on the entire joint system enable more efficient extraction of information about the quantum state to be measured. This method relies on standard quantum gate operations and requires only two measurement settings, with a total sampling complexity of O(d2), significantly simplifying experimental operations and measurement processes. Additionally, this study provides two schemes for measuring purity based on the proposed circuit, one of which achieves measurement precision at the Heisenberg limit. This study validates the effectiveness of the proposed method through a detailed theoretical analysis, a series of numerical simulations, and experiments.
In quantum information transformation and quantum computation, the most critical issues are security and accuracy. These features, therefore, stimulate research on quantum state characterization. A characterization tool, quantum state tomography, reconstructs the density matrix of an unknown quantum state. Theoretically, reconstructing an unknown state using this method can be arbitrarily accurate. However, this is not so practical owing to the huge burden of measurements and data processing for large numbers of qubits. Even comprising an efficient estimator and a precise algorithm, an optimal tomographic framework can also be overburdened owing to the exponential growth of the measurements. Moreover, the consequential postprocessing of huge amounts of data challenges the capacity of computers. Thus, it is crucial to build an efficient framework that requires fewer measurements but yields an expected accuracy. To this end, we built a tomography schema by which only a few Pauli measurements enable an accurate tomographic reconstruction. Subsequently, this schema was verified as efficient and accurate through numerical simulations on the tomography of multiqubit quantum states. Furthermore, it was proven to be robust through numerical simulations on a noisy superconducting qubit system. Therefore, the tomography schema paves an alternative effective way to reconstruct the density matrix of a quantum state owing to its efficiency and accuracy, which are essential for quantum state tomography.