Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2512.08150 · Physical Review A

Detecting quantum many-body states with imperfect measuring devices

K. Uriostegui, C. Pineda, C. Chryssomalakos, V. Rascón Barajas, I. Vázquez Mota

quant-phSubmitted Dec 9, 2025• Announced Dec 10, 2025• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study a coarse-graining map arising from incomplete and imperfect addressing of particles in a multipartite quantum system. In its simplest form, corresponding to a two-qubit state, the resulting channel produces a convex mixture of the two partial traces. We derive the probability density of obtaining a given coarse-grained state, using geometric arguments for two qubits coarse-grained to one, and random-matrix methods for larger systems. As the number of qubits increases, the probability density sharply concentrates around the maximally mixed state, making nearly pure coarse-grained states increasingly unlikely. For two qubits, we also compute the inverse state needed to characterize the effective dynamics under coarse-graining and find that the average preimage of the maximally mixed state contains a finite singlet component. Finally, we validate the analytical predictions by inferring the underlying probabilities from Monte-Carlo-generated coarse-grained statistics.

Journal reference
Physical Review A 113, 042425 (2026)
DOI
10.1103/849f-3j77

Related papers

Fuzzy measurements and coarse graining in quantum many-body systems

Carlos Pineda, David Davalos, Carlos Viviescas +1 more

Using the quantum map formalism, we provide a framework to construct fuzzy and coarse-grained quantum maps of many-body systems that account for limitations in the resolution of real measurement devices probing them. The first set of maps handles particle-indexing errors, while the second deals with the effects of detectors that can only resolve a fraction of the system constituents. We apply these maps to a spin-$1/2 \mathit{XX}$ chain, obtaining a blurred picture of the entanglement generation and propagation in the system. By construction, both maps are simply related via a partial trace, which allows us to concentrate on the properties of the former. We fully characterize the fuzzy map, identifying its symmetries and invariant spaces. We show that the volume of the tomographically accessible states decreases at a double-exponential rate in the number of particles, imposing severe bounds on the ability to read and use information of a many-body quantum system.

arXiv:2011.03145•Physical Review A•Oct 22, 2021•8 citations

Detecting entanglement of random states with an entanglement witness

Marko Žnidarič, Tomaž Prosen, Giuliano Benenti +1 more

The entanglement content of high-dimensional random pure states is almost maximal, nevertheless, we show that, due to the complexity of such states, the detection of their entanglement using witness operators is rather difficult. We discuss the case of unknown random states, and the case of known random states for which we can optimize the entanglement witness. Moreover, we show that coarse graining, modeled by considering mixtures of m random states instead of pure ones, leads to a decay in the entanglement detection probability exponential with m. Our results also allow to explain the emergence of classicality in coarse grained quantum chaotic dynamics.

arXiv:0706.2765•Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical•Oct 23, 2007•24 citations

Coarse-grained dynamics in quantum many-body systems using the maximum entropy principle

Adán Castillo, Carlos Pineda, Erick Sebastían Navarrete +1 more

Starting from a coarse-grained map of a quantum many-body system, we construct the inverse map that assigns a microscopic state to a coarse-grained state based on the maximum entropy principle. Assuming unitary evolution in the microscopic system, we examine the resulting dynamics in the coarse-grained system using the assignment map. We investigate both a two-qubit system, with \swap\ and controlled-\textsc{not}\ gates, and $n$-qubit systems, configured either in an Ising spin chain or with all-to-all interactions. We demonstrate that these dynamics exhibit atypical quantum behavior, such as nonlinearity and non-Markovianity. Furthermore, we find that these dynamics depend on the initial coarse-grained state and establish conditions for general microscopic dynamics under which linearity is preserved. As the effective dynamics induced by our coarse-grained description of many-body quantum systems diverge from conventional quantum behavior, we anticipate that this approach could aid in describing the quantum-to-classical transition and provide deeper insights into the effects of coarse graining on quantum systems.

arXiv:2407.11920•Physical Review A•Jul 22, 2025•1 citation

Quantum Metrology under Coarse-Grained Measurement

Byeong-Yoon Go, Geunhee Gwak, Young-Do Yoon +4 more

While quantum metrology enables measurement precision beyond classical limits, its performance is often susceptible to experimental imperfections. Most prior studies have focused on imperfections in quantum states and operations. Here, we investigate the effect of coarse graining in quantum measurement through both theoretical analysis and experimental demonstration. Using an interferometer with a squeezed vacuum and a laser input, we analyze how coarse graining in homodyne detection affects the precision of phase estimation. We evaluate the Fisher information under various coarse-graining conditions and determine, in each case, an optimal estimation strategy that saturates the Cramér-Rao bound. Remarkably, even extremely coarse-grained measurement -- with only two bins -- enables phase estimation beyond the standard quantum limit and even achieves a precision that follows the Heisenberg scaling. We experimentally demonstrate quantum-enhanced phase estimation under coarse-grained homodyne detection. To determine an optimal estimation strategy, we employ the method of moments and present calibration procedures that enable its application to general experimental settings. Using only two bins, we observe a quantum enhancement of 1.2 dB compared to the classical method using the ideal measurement, improving towards 3.8 dB as the bin number increases. These results highlight a practical pathway to achieving quantum enhancement under the presence of severe experimental imperfections.

quant-pharXiv:2601.16106•Optics Express•Jan 23, 2026•0 citations

Coarse-grained quantum state tomography with optimal POVM construction

Donghun Jung, Young‐Wook Cho, Yosep Kim +1 more

In a multiqubit system, when a detector's resolution is insufficient to distinguish between qubits, individual qubit measurement becomes impractical. This limitation results in coarse-grained (CG) measurements that dilute system information and, more critically, hinder accurate assessment of qubit correlations, making quantum state tomography (QST) infeasible. To address this issue, we propose a scheme to utilize CG measurements for QST by integrating two-qubit gates and optimizing their corresponding positive operator-valued measures (POVMs) using parametrized quantum circuits. Specifically, we focus on constructing generalized symmetric informationally complete POVMs by maximizing the von Neumann entropy of the Gram matrix of these CG POVMs. Our numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach for QST using a two-qubit model and further verify the scalability of our scheme toward N -qubit systems.

arXiv:2404.06285•Physical Review Research•Jun 3, 2025•1 citation

Coarse graining the phase space of N qubits

Olivia Di Matteo, Luis Lorenzo Sánchez-Soto, Gerd Leuchs +1 more

We develop a systematic coarse-graining procedure for systems of $N$ qubits. We exploit the underlying geometrical structures of the associated discrete phase space to produce a coarse-grained version with reduced effective size. Our coarse-grained spaces inherit key properties of the original ones. In particular, our procedure naturally yields a subset of the original measurement operators, which can be used to construct a coarse discrete Wigner function. These operators also constitute a systematic choice of incomplete measurements for the tomographer wishing to probe an intractably large system.

arXiv:1701.08630•Physical Review A•Feb 28, 2017•6 citations
We study a coarse-graining map arising from incomplete and imperfect addressing of particles in a multipartite quantum system. In its simplest form, corresponding to a two-qubit state, the resulting channel produces a convex mixture of the two partial traces. We derive the probability density of obtaining a given coarse-grained state, using geometric arguments for two qubits coarse-grained to one, and random-matrix methods for larger systems. As the number of qubits increases, the probability density sharply concentrates around the maximally mixed state, making nearly pure coarse-grained states increasingly unlikely. For two qubits, we also compute the inverse state needed to characterize the effective dynamics under coarse-graining and find that the average preimage of the maximally mixed state contains a finite singlet component. Finally, we validate the analytical predictions by inferring the underlying probabilities from Monte-Carlo-generated coarse-grained statistics.
Using the quantum map formalism, we provide a framework to construct fuzzy and coarse-grained quantum maps of many-body systems that account for limitations in the resolution of real measurement devices probing them. The first set of maps handles particle-indexing errors, while the second deals with the effects of detectors that can only resolve a fraction of the system constituents. We apply these maps to a spin-1/2XX1/2 \mathit{XX}1/2XX chain, obtaining a blurred picture of the entanglement generation and propagation in the system. By construction, both maps are simply related via a partial trace, which allows us to concentrate on the properties of the former. We fully characterize the fuzzy map, identifying its symmetries and invariant spaces. We show that the volume of the tomographically accessible states decreases at a double-exponential rate in the number of particles, imposing severe bounds on the ability to read and use information of a many-body quantum system.
The entanglement content of high-dimensional random pure states is almost maximal, nevertheless, we show that, due to the complexity of such states, the detection of their entanglement using witness operators is rather difficult. We discuss the case of unknown random states, and the case of known random states for which we can optimize the entanglement witness. Moreover, we show that coarse graining, modeled by considering mixtures of m random states instead of pure ones, leads to a decay in the entanglement detection probability exponential with m. Our results also allow to explain the emergence of classicality in coarse grained quantum chaotic dynamics.
Starting from a coarse-grained map of a quantum many-body system, we construct the inverse map that assigns a microscopic state to a coarse-grained state based on the maximum entropy principle. Assuming unitary evolution in the microscopic system, we examine the resulting dynamics in the coarse-grained system using the assignment map. We investigate both a two-qubit system, with \swap\ and controlled-\textsc{not}\ gates, and nnn-qubit systems, configured either in an Ising spin chain or with all-to-all interactions. We demonstrate that these dynamics exhibit atypical quantum behavior, such as nonlinearity and non-Markovianity. Furthermore, we find that these dynamics depend on the initial coarse-grained state and establish conditions for general microscopic dynamics under which linearity is preserved. As the effective dynamics induced by our coarse-grained description of many-body quantum systems diverge from conventional quantum behavior, we anticipate that this approach could aid in describing the quantum-to-classical transition and provide deeper insights into the effects of coarse graining on quantum systems.
While quantum metrology enables measurement precision beyond classical limits, its performance is often susceptible to experimental imperfections. Most prior studies have focused on imperfections in quantum states and operations. Here, we investigate the effect of coarse graining in quantum measurement through both theoretical analysis and experimental demonstration. Using an interferometer with a squeezed vacuum and a laser input, we analyze how coarse graining in homodyne detection affects the precision of phase estimation. We evaluate the Fisher information under various coarse-graining conditions and determine, in each case, an optimal estimation strategy that saturates the Cramér-Rao bound. Remarkably, even extremely coarse-grained measurement -- with only two bins -- enables phase estimation beyond the standard quantum limit and even achieves a precision that follows the Heisenberg scaling. We experimentally demonstrate quantum-enhanced phase estimation under coarse-grained homodyne detection. To determine an optimal estimation strategy, we employ the method of moments and present calibration procedures that enable its application to general experimental settings. Using only two bins, we observe a quantum enhancement of 1.2 dB compared to the classical method using the ideal measurement, improving towards 3.8 dB as the bin number increases. These results highlight a practical pathway to achieving quantum enhancement under the presence of severe experimental imperfections.
In a multiqubit system, when a detector's resolution is insufficient to distinguish between qubits, individual qubit measurement becomes impractical. This limitation results in coarse-grained (CG) measurements that dilute system information and, more critically, hinder accurate assessment of qubit correlations, making quantum state tomography (QST) infeasible. To address this issue, we propose a scheme to utilize CG measurements for QST by integrating two-qubit gates and optimizing their corresponding positive operator-valued measures (POVMs) using parametrized quantum circuits. Specifically, we focus on constructing generalized symmetric informationally complete POVMs by maximizing the von Neumann entropy of the Gram matrix of these CG POVMs. Our numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach for QST using a two-qubit model and further verify the scalability of our scheme toward N -qubit systems.
We develop a systematic coarse-graining procedure for systems of NNN qubits. We exploit the underlying geometrical structures of the associated discrete phase space to produce a coarse-grained version with reduced effective size. Our coarse-grained spaces inherit key properties of the original ones. In particular, our procedure naturally yields a subset of the original measurement operators, which can be used to construct a coarse discrete Wigner function. These operators also constitute a systematic choice of incomplete measurements for the tomographer wishing to probe an intractably large system.