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arXiv:2105.09925 · Physical Review A

Minimal scheme for certifying three-outcome qubit measurements in the prepare-and-measure scenario

Jonathan Steinberg, H. Chau Nguyen, Matthias Kleinmann

Published Dec 17, 2021• 3 citations
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Abstract

The number of outcomes is a defining property of a quantum measurement, in particular, if the measurement cannot be decomposed into simpler measurements with fewer outcomes. Importantly, the number of outcomes of a quantum measurement can be irreducibly higher than the dimension of the system. The certification of this property is possible in a semi-device-independent way either based on a Bell-like scenario or by utilizing the simpler prepare-and-measure scenario. Here we show that in the latter scenario the minimal scheme for certifying an irreducible three-outcome qubit measurement requires three state preparations and only two measurements and we provide experimentally feasible examples for this minimal certification scheme. We also discuss the dimension assumption characteristic of the semi-device-independent approach and to what extent it can be mitigated.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.104.062431

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The number of outcomes is a defining property of a quantum measurement, in particular, if the measurement cannot be decomposed into simpler measurements with fewer outcomes. Importantly, the number of outcomes of a quantum measurement can be irreducibly higher than the dimension of the system. The certification of this property is possible in a semi-device-independent way either based on a Bell-like scenario or by utilizing the simpler prepare-and-measure scenario. Here we show that in the latter scenario the minimal scheme for certifying an irreducible three-outcome qubit measurement requires three state preparations and only two measurements and we provide experimentally feasible examples for this minimal certification scheme. We also discuss the dimension assumption characteristic of the semi-device-independent approach and to what extent it can be mitigated.
Abstract Self-testing is a promising approach to certifying quantum states or measurements. Originally, it relied solely on the outcome statistics of the measurements involved in a device-independent (DI) setup. Extra physical assumptions about the system make the setup semi-DI. In the latter approach, we consider a prepare-and-measure scenario in which the dimension of the mediating particle is assumed to be two. In a setup involving four (three) preparations and three (two) projective measurements in addition to the target, we exemplify how to self-test any four- (three-) outcome extremal positive operator-valued measure using a linear witness. One of our constructions also achieves self-testing of any number of states with the help of as many projective measurements as the dimensionality of the space spanned by the corresponding Bloch vectors. These constructions are conjectured to be minimal in terms of the number of preparations and measurements required. In addition, we implement one of our prepare-and-measure constructionson IBM and IonQ quantum processors and certify the existence of a complex qubit Hilbert space based on the data obtained from these experiments.
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Certifying quantum measurements is increasingly important for foundational insights in quantum information science. Here, we report an experimental certification of unknown quantum measurements in a semi-device-independent setting. For the first time, we experimentally demonstrate that genuine three-outcome positive operator-valued measures (POVMs) can be certified under the assumption of a limited overlap between the prepared quantum states. The generalized quantum measurements are realized through discrete-time quantum walk and our experimental results clearly show that three-outcome POVMs can be certified even in the presence of noise. Finally, we experimentally investigate that optimal POVMs for performing unambiguous state discrimination can be self-tested. Our work opens new avenues for robust certification of quantum systems in the prepare-and-measure scenario.
An absolutely entangled set (AES) is a collection of states for which at least one member remains entangled under any choice of global unitary transformation. We develop a semi-device-independent framework for certifying this property from dimensionally bounded prepare-and-measure correlations. A witness value above the maximum attainable with separable preparations of a given dimension rules out every non-AES realization. To upperbound this limit, we construct a semidefinite-programming (SDP) hierarchy tailored to separable preparations. For a two-qubit random-access-code witness, the SDP upper bound and the heuristic lower bound coincide to the reported precision, yielding a concrete AES certification. We also formulate a general construction of witnesses for extended preparation sets containing target pure-state AESs. Examples based on equiangular tight frames, a minimal AES, and mutually unbiased bases further illustrate the scope of the method. In summary, our results establish a systematic and experimentally feasible approach to the certification of AESs in semi-device-independent quantum information protocols.
Recently, a novel framework for semi-device-independent quantum prepare-and-measure protocols has been proposed, based on the assumption of a limited distinguishability between the prepared quantum states. Here, we discuss the problem of characterizing an unknown quantum measurement device in this setting. We present several methods to attack the problem. Considering the simplest scenario of two preparations with lower bounded overlap, we show that genuine three-outcome positive-operator valued measures (POVMs) can be certified, even in the presence of noise. Moreover, we show that the optimal POVM for performing unambiguous state discrimination can be self-tested.
Device-independent certification of quantum states enables the characterization of states within a device under minimal physical assumptions. A major problem in this regard is to certify quantum states using minimal resources. Aiming to address this problem, we consider a multipartite quantum steering scenario involving an arbitrary number of parties, of which only one is trusted, meaning that the measurements performed by this party are known. Consequently, the self-testing scheme is almost device-independent. Importantly, all the parties can only perform two measurements each, which is the minimal number of measurements required to observe any form of quantum nonlocality. Then, we propose steering inequalities that are maximally violated by three major classes of genuinely multipartite entangled (GME) states: graph states of arbitrary local dimension, Schmidt states of arbitrary local dimension, and NNN-qubit generalized W states. Using the proposed inequalities, we then provide an almost device-independent certification of the above GME states. Restricting to qubits, we also lift our almost device-independent scheme to device-independent self-testing.