We present a quantum computation approach in which computation is guided by positive-operator-valuedmeasure (POVM) measurements following a given computation path in multisteps. In this approach, one ancillary qubit is coupled to a register of working qubits, and a POVM measurement is implemented effectively on the working qubits by applying a unitary operation on the whole system followed by a projective measurement performed on the ancillary qubit. Each step of the computation is a repeat-until-success procedure such that the desired state of the step is obtained deterministically on the working qubits via POVM measurements. The principle of deferred measurement states that measurements can always be moved from an intermediate stage of a quantum circuit to the end of the circuit without affecting the efficiency of the computation.We demonstrate that in our approach, by introducing intermediate measurements on the ancillary qubit in the computation process, both the number of qubits and unitary operations can be reduced polynomially, compared to the case where the intermediate measurements are deferred to the end of the computation. We also provide a method for implementation of the approach.
We present a quantum computation approach in which computation is guided by positive-operator-valuedmeasure (POVM) measurements following a given computation path in multisteps. In this approach, one ancillary qubit is coupled to a register of working qubits, and a POVM measurement is implemented effectively on the working qubits by applying a unitary operation on the whole system followed by a projective measurement performed on the ancillary qubit. Each step of the computation is a repeat-until-success procedure such that the desired state of the step is obtained deterministically on the working qubits via POVM measurements. The principle of deferred measurement states that measurements can always be moved from an intermediate stage of a quantum circuit to the end of the circuit without affecting the efficiency of the computation.We demonstrate that in our approach, by introducing intermediate measurements on the ancillary qubit in the computation process, both the number of qubits and unitary operations can be reduced polynomially, compared to the case where the intermediate measurements are deferred to the end of the computation. We also provide a method for implementation of the approach.
Abstract We propose a scheme to implement general quantum measurements, also known as Positive Operator Valued Measures (POVMs) in dimension d using only classical resources and a single ancillary qubit. Our method is based on probabilistic implementation of d-outcome measurements which is followed by postselection of some of the received outcomes. We conjecture that success probability of our scheme is larger than a constant independent of d for all POVMs in dimension d. Crucially, this conjecture implies the possibility of realizing arbitrary nonadaptive quantum measurement protocol on d-dimensional system using a single auxiliary qubit with only a constant overhead in sampling complexity. We show that the conjecture holds for typical rank-one Haar-random POVMs in arbitrary dimensions. Furthermore, we carry out extensive numerical computations showing success probability above a constant for a variety of extremal POVMs, including SIC-POVMs in dimension up to 1299. Finally, we argue that our scheme can be favorable for experimental realization of POVMs, as noise compounding in circuits required by our scheme is typically substantially lower than in the standard scheme that directly uses Naimark’s dilation theorem.
We derive a deterministic protocol to implement a general single-qubit positive operator-valued measure (POVM) on near-term circuit-based quantum computers. The protocol has a modular structure such that an n-element POVM is implemented as a sequence of $(n\ensuremath{-}1)$ circuit modules. Each module performs a two-element POVM. Two variations of the protocol are suggested---one optimal in terms of number of ancilla qubits, the other optimal in terms of number of qubit gate operations and quantum circuit depth. We use the protocol to implement two- and three-element POVMs on two publicly available quantum computing devices. The results we obtain suggest that implementing nontrivial POVMs could be within the reach of the current noisy quantum computing devices.
Informationally complete (IC) positive operator-valued measures (POVMs) are generalized quantum measurements that offer advantages over the standard computational basis readout of qubits. For instance, IC-POVMs enable efficient extraction of operator expectation values, a crucial step in many quantum algorithms. POVM measurements are typically implemented by coupling one additional ancilla qubit to each logical qubit, thus imposing high demands on the device size and connectivity. Here, we show how to implement a general class of IC-POVMs without ancilla qubits. We exploit the higher-dimensional Hilbert space of a qudit in which qubits are often encoded. POVMs can then be realized by coupling each qubit to two of the available qudit states, followed by a projective measurement. We develop the required control pulse sequences and numerically establish their feasibility for superconducting transmon qubits through pulse-level simulations. Finally, we present an experimental demonstration of a qudit-space POVM measurement on IBM Quantum hardware. This paves the way to making POVM measurements broadly available to quantum computing applications.
We present adaptive measurement techniques tailored for variational quantum algorithms on near-term small and noisy devices. In particular, we generalise earlier "learning to measure" strategies in two ways. First, by considering a class of adaptive positive operator valued measures (POVMs) that can be simulated with simple projective measurements without ancillary qubits, we decrease the amount of required qubits and two-qubit gates. Second, by introducing a method based on Quantum Detector Tomography to mitigate the effect of noise, we are able to optimise the POVMs as well as to infer expectation values reliably in the currently available noisy quantum devices. Our numerical simulations clearly indicate that the presented strategies can significantly reduce the number of needed shots to achieve chemical accuracy in variational quantum eigensolvers, thus helping to solve one of the bottlenecks of near-term quantum computing.
The projection postulate and spectral representation of observables remain central in quantum theory but describe only an idealized measurement limit. Realistic measurements may be inefficient, unsharp, weak, indirect, adaptive, destructive, or informationally incomplete. Positive-operator-valued measures (POVMs) provide the probability rule for processes, whereas quantum instruments specify state transformation. This review traces the hierarchy from von Neumann projective measurement to generalized measurement, emphasizing distinctions among effects, instruments, channels, and implementations. Naimark dilation realizes arbitrary POVMs through unitary coupling to an ancillary meter and projective readout. Stinespring dilation represents completely positive trace-preserving dynamics by unitary evolution on an enlarged system followed by partial trace. A qubit–ancilla interaction yields a partial-measurement instrument, its POVM effects, and its information–disturbance trade-off. It compares projective, generalized, and ancilla-mediated schemes; examines compatibility, instrument incompatibility, and disturbance; and surveys applications to state discrimination, tomography, control, and error correction. Recent developments in dynamic-circuit measurements and noisy-POVM compatibility are integrated with questions concerning measurement back-action and outcome definiteness. The review stresses that a POVM does not uniquely determine state update, dilation theorems establish realizability rather than unique mechanisms, and operational measurement theory does not settle definite outcomes, arguing quantum instruments provide a complete description of measurement.
A foundational result in the theory of quantum computation, known as the "principle of safe storage," shows that it is always possible to take a quantum circuit and produce an equivalent circuit that makes all measurements at the end of the computation. While this procedure is time efficient, meaning that it does not introduce a large overhead in the number of gates, it uses extra ancillary qubits, and so is not generally space efficient. It is quite natural to ask whether it is possible to eliminate intermediate measurements without increasing the number of ancillary qubits. We give an affirmative answer to this question by exhibiting a procedure to eliminate all intermediate measurements that is simultaneously space efficient and time efficient. In particular, this shows that the definition of a space-bounded quantum complexity class is robust to allowing or forbidding intermediate measurements. A key component of our approach, which may be of independent interest, involves showing that the well-conditioned versions of many standard linear-algebraic problems may be solved by a quantum computer in less space than seems possible by a classical computer.