Positive operator-valued measures and phase-space representations

Douglas Farenick, Sarah Plosker, Jerrod Smith

The space POVM H(X) of positive operator-valued probability measures on the Borel sets of a compact (or even locally compact) Hausdorff space X with values in B(H), the algebra of linear operators acting on a d-dimensional Hilbert space H, is studied from the perspectives of classical and nonclassical convexity through a transform Γ that associates any positive operator-valued measure ν with a certain completely positive linear map Γ(ν) of the homogeneous C*-algebra C(X)⊗B(H) into B(H). This association is achieved by using an operator-valued integral in which nonclassical random variables (that is, operator-valued functions) are integrated with respect to positive operator-valued measures and which has the feature that the integral of a random quantum effect is itself a quantum effect. A left inverse Ω for Γ yields an integral representation, along the lines of the classical Riesz representation theorem for linear functionals on C(X), of certain (but not all) unital completely positive linear maps φ:C(X)⊗B(H)→B(H). The extremal and C*-extremal points of POVM H(X) are determined.

Roberto Beneduci

S. Twareque Ali, Jean-Pierre Antoine, Jean‐Pierre Gazeau

Frank Roumen

The most general type of measurement in quantum physics is modeled by a positive operator-valued measure (POVM). Mathematically, a POVM is a generalization of a measure, whose values are not real numbers, but positive operators on a Hilbert space. POVMs can equivalently be viewed as maps between effect algebras or as maps between algebras for the Giry monad. We will show that this equivalence is an instance of a duality between two categories. In the special case of continuous POVMs, we obtain two equivalent representations in terms of morphisms between von Neumann algebras.

Marcos Saraceno, Leonardo Ermann, Cecilia Cormick

The problem of finding symmetric informationally complete positive-operator-valued-measures (SIC-POVMs) has been solved numerically for all dimensions $d$ up to 67 [A. J. Scott and M. Grassl, J. Math. Phys. 51, 042203 (2010)], but a general proof of existence is still lacking. For each dimension, it was shown that it is possible to find a SIC-POVM that is generated from a fiducial state upon application of the operators of the Heisenberg-Weyl group. We draw on the numerically determined fiducial states to study their phase-space features, as displayed by the characteristic function and the Wigner, Bargmann, and Husimi representations, adapted to a Hilbert space of finite dimension. We analyze the phase-space localization of fiducial states, and observe that the SIC-POVM condition is equivalent to a maximal delocalization property. Finally, we explore the consequences in phase space of the conjectured Zauner symmetry. In particular, we construct a Hermitian operator commuting with this symmetry that leads to a representation of fiducial states in terms of eigenfunctions with definite semiclassical features.

Xuehong Wang, Yan Li, Hong-Yi Su +1 more