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Quantum State Estimation via Randomized Benchmarking

Jincheng Zhang

Published Sep 3, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum state estimation is a fundamental task in quantum information processing, crucial for applications such as quantum metrology, quantum sensing, and quantum process tomography. However, conventional methods for estimating the state of a quantum system often suffer from significant computational complexity, particularly for large systems or when high precision is required. This work introduces a novel approach to quantum state estimation that leverages Randomized Benchmarking (RB) techniques. By adapting RB protocols specifically designed for quantum systems, we achieve efficient and accurate state estimation with a reduced number of measurements compared to traditional methods. The core idea is to use a series of carefully designed, randomized measurements to extract information about the unknown quantum state. The resulting estimation process avoids the need for exhaustive state tomography, dramatically reducing the computational burden. We detail the mathematical framework underlying this approach, including the formulation of the RB protocol, the estimation algorithm, and an analysis of the estimation error. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and potential of this method for various quantum state estimation scenarios.

DOI
10.5281/zenodo.22268197

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Quantum state estimation is a fundamental task in quantum information processing, crucial for applications such as quantum metrology, quantum sensing, and quantum process tomography. However, conventional methods for estimating the state of a quantum system often suffer from significant computational complexity, particularly for large systems or when high precision is required. This work introduces a novel approach to quantum state estimation that leverages Randomized Benchmarking (RB) techniques. By adapting RB protocols specifically designed for quantum systems, we achieve efficient and accurate state estimation with a reduced number of measurements compared to traditional methods. The core idea is to use a series of carefully designed, randomized measurements to extract information about the unknown quantum state. The resulting estimation process avoids the need for exhaustive state tomography, dramatically reducing the computational burden. We detail the mathematical framework underlying this approach, including the formulation of the RB protocol, the estimation algorithm, and an analysis of the estimation error. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and potential of this method for various quantum state estimation scenarios.
The accurate determination of the computational complexity of quantum algorithms is a fundamental problem in quantum information science. Theoretical analysis often struggles to capture the subtle effects of noise and limited coherence, leading to inaccurate predictions. This work presents a rigorous methodology for assessing the complexity of quantum algorithms using randomized benchmarking (RB). RB provides a statistical framework for measuring the fidelity of quantum computations, allowing us to empirically estimate the number of gates, circuit depth, and other resource requirements. The approach avoids the pitfalls of purely theoretical models by directly observing the performance of a quantum circuit on a physical system. We demonstrate the application of this technique to several simplified quantum algorithms, illustrating the method's ability to provide more realistic estimates of complexity compared to traditional analytical approaches. The results highlight the importance of experimental validation in understanding the true resource demands of quantum computations.
The characterization of noisy quantum circuits is an important step in the development of large-scale quantum computers. As experimental quantum architectures approach the threshold for fault-tolerant quantum computing, obtaining a benchmark of process fidelities is needed to verify the integrity of the system and ensure functionality. Additionally, the ability to successfully implement a quantum code of choice may depend on the type of noise that is present in the system. It is therefore necessary to characterize not only the fidelity of the process, but also the structure of the noise. \n \nRandomized benchmarking is a characterization protocol which extracts partial information from a noisy quantum process. This thesis gives a detailed review of the randomized benchmarking protocol, and presents the results of three collaborative projects which use techniques similar to randomized benchmarking to obtain previously hidden information. The first protocol is designed to obtain a benchmark on loss errors. This protocol also provides information on the detector efficiency and an additional constraint on estimated parameters from randomized benchmarking. The second protocol is an extension of the first, under the special case of coherent leakage errors, for which we obtain an estimate of the leakage rate. The third protocol provides a method of testing for spatial correlations in noisy processes. This test may be used to determine the correlation structure of errors, and the error correcting codes needed for successful experiments in a particular architecture. All protocols presented in this thesis are scalable, platform-independent and insensitive to state preparation and measurement errors. We also provide results of numerical tests of these protocols for simulated noise, which show their accuracy and robustness.
Randomized benchmarking refers to a collection of protocols that in the past decade have become central methods for characterizing quantum gates.These protocols aim at efficiently estimating the quality of a set of quantum gates in a way that is resistant to state preparation and measurement errors.Over the years many versions have been developed, however a comprehensive theoretical treatment of randomized benchmarking has been missing.In this work, we develop a rigorous framework of randomized benchmarking general enough to encompass virtually all known protocols as well as novel, more flexible extensions.Overcoming previous limitations on error models and gate sets, this framework allows us, for the first time, to formulate realistic conditions under which we can rigorously guarantee that the output of any randomized benchmarking experiment is well described by a linear combination of matrix exponential decays.We complement this with a detailed analysis of the fitting problem associated with randomized benchmarking data.We introduce modern signal processing techniques to randomized benchmarking, prove analytical sample complexity bounds, and numerically evaluate performance and limitations.In order to reduce the resource demands of this fitting problem, we introduce novel, scalable postprocessing techniques to isolate exponential decays, significantly improving the practical feasibility of a large set of randomized benchmarking protocols.These postprocessing techniques overcome shortcomings in efficiency of several previously proposed methods such as character benchmarking and linear-cross entropy benchmarking.Finally, we discuss, in full generality, how and when randomized benchmarking decay rates can be used to infer quality measures like the average fidelity.On the technical side, our work substantially extends the recently developed Fourier-theoretic perspective on randomized benchmarking by making use of the perturbation theory of invariant subspaces, as well as ideas from signal processing.
Abstract Noise characterization methods such as randomized benchmarking (RB) are critical for the development of scalable quantum computers. Modern RB protocols for multiqubit systems extract physically relevant error rates by exploiting the structure of the group representation generated by the set of benchmarked operations. However, existing techniques become prohibitively inefficient for representations that are highly reducible yet decompose into irreducible subspaces of high dimension. These situations prevail when benchmarking high-dimensional systems such as qudits or bosonic modes, where experimental control is limited to implementing a small subset of all possible unitary operations. We introduce a broad framework for enhancing the sample efficiency of RB that is sufficiently powerful to extend the practical reach of RB beyond the multiqubit setting. Our strategy, which applies to any benchmarking group, uses ‘synthetic’ quantum circuits with classical post-processing of both input and output data to leverage the full structure of reducible superoperator representations. To demonstrate the efficacy of our approach, we develop a detailed theory of RB for systems with rotational symmetry. Such systems carry a natural action of the group SU ( 2 ) , and they form the basis for several novel quantum error-correcting codes. We show that, for experimentally accessible high-spin systems, synthetic RB protocols can reduce the complexity of measuring rotationally invariant error rates by two orders of magnitude relative to standard approaches such as character RB.
Quantum state tomography (QST) is a crucial technique for characterizing the state of quantum systems. However, traditional QST requires a large number of measurements, leading to significant experimental overhead in terms of time, resources, and data acquisition. This work proposes a novel approach to QST by leveraging compressed sensing (CS) techniques. CS allows for accurate reconstruction of the quantum state from a significantly reduced set of measurements, thereby mitigating the experimental burden. We employ sparsity regularization, a key component of CS, to minimize the number of measurements needed. The theoretical framework and the underlying principles are presented, focusing on the mathematical formulation of the problem and the optimization strategies involved. This method offers a pathway to more efficient and cost-effective QST, particularly for complex quantum states or when limited experimental resources are available. We demonstrate the potential of this approach through a detailed mathematical analysis.
Abstract The quest for precision in parameter estimation is a fundamental task in different scientific areas. The relevance of this problem thus provided the motivation to develop methods for the application of quantum resources to estimation protocols. Within this context, Bayesian estimation offers a complete framework for optimal quantum metrology techniques, such as adaptive protocols. However, the use of the Bayesian approach requires extensive computational resources, especially in the multiparameter estimations that represent the typical operational scenario for quantum sensors. Hence, the requirement to characterize protocols implementing Bayesian estimations can become a significant challenge. This work focuses on the crucial task of robustly benchmarking the performances of these protocols in both single and multiple-parameter scenarios. By comparing different figures of merits, evidence is provided in favor of using the median of the quadratic error in the estimations in order to mitigate spurious effects due to the numerical discretization of the parameter space, the presence of limited data, and numerical instabilities. These results, providing a robust and reliable characterization of Bayesian protocols, find natural applications to practical problems within the quantum estimation framework.