We consider the problem of determining the state of a quantum system given one or more readings of the expectation value of an observable. The system is assumed to be a finite-dimensional quantum control system for which we can influence the dynamics by generating all the unitary evolutions in a Lie group. We investigate to what extent, by an appropriate sequence of evolutions and measurements, we can obtain information on the initial state of the system. We present a system theoretic viewpoint of this problem in that we study the observability of the system. In this context, we characterize the equivalence classes of indistinguishable states and propose algorithms for state identification.
We consider the problem of determining the state of a quantum system given one or more readings of the expectation value of an observable. The system is assumed to be a finite-dimensional quantum control system for which we can influence the dynamics by generating all the unitary evolutions in a Lie group. We investigate to what extent, by an appropriate sequence of evolutions and measurements, we can obtain information on the initial state of the system. We present a system theoretic viewpoint of this problem in that we study the observability of the system. In this context, we characterize the equivalence classes of indistinguishable states and propose algorithms for state identification.
In systems theory, the study of the observability of a system describes to what extent it is possible to determine the initial state by a combined action of dynamics and output measurement. This chapter briefly summarizes the main ideas of quantum state tomography which is the technique used to determine a quantum state via a series of measurements. It discusses a system theoretic treatment of the problem of state determination namely to the study of the observability of quantum systems. The chapter partitions the space of density matrices into equivalence classes of states that cannot be distinguished by appropriate control and measurement.
Experimental characterizations of a quantum system involve the measurement of expectation values of observables for a preparable state $\ensuremath{\mid}\ensuremath{\psi}⟩$ of the quantum system. Such expectation values can be measured by repeatedly preparing $\ensuremath{\mid}\ensuremath{\psi}⟩$ and coupling the system to an apparatus. For this method, the precision of the measured value scales as N1 for N repetitions of the experiment. For the problem of estimating the parameter $\ensuremath{\phi}$ in an evolution ${e}^{\ensuremath{-}i\ensuremath{\phi}H}$, it is possible to achieve precision N1 [the quantum metrology limit; see Giovannetti et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 010401 (2006)] provided that sufficient information about H and its spectrum is available. We consider the more general problem of estimating expectations of operators A with minimal prior knowledge of A. We give explicit algorithms that approach precision N1 given a bound on the eigenvalues of A or on their tail distribution. These algorithms are particularly useful for simulating quantum systems on quantum computers because they enable efficient measurement of observables and correlation functions. Our algorithms are based on a method for efficiently measuring the complex overlap of $\ensuremath{\mid}\ensuremath{\psi}⟩$ and $U\ensuremath{\mid}\ensuremath{\psi}⟩$, where U is an implementable unitary operator. We explicitly consider the issue of confidence levels in measuring observables and overlaps and show that, as expected, confidence levels can be improved exponentially with linear overhead. We further show that the algorithms given here can typically be parallelized with minimal increase in resource usage.
In our model a fixed Hamiltonian acts on the joint Hilbert space of a quantum system and its controller. We show conditions under which measurements, state preparations, and unitary implementations on the system can be performed by quantum operations on the controller only. It turns out that a measurement of the observable A and an implementation of the one-parameter group exp(iAr) can be performed by almost the same sequence of control operations. Furthermore, measurement procedures for A+B, for (AB+BA), and for $i\ensuremath{\lfloor}A,B\ensuremath{\rfloor}$ can be constructed from measurements of A and B. This shows that the algebraic structure of the set of observables can be explained by the Lie group structure of the unitary evolutions on the joint Hilbert space of the measuring device and the measured system. A spin chain model with nearest-neighborhood coupling shows that the border line between controller and system can be shifted consistently.
We consider the problem of determining the state of a quantum system via a series of controlled evolutions and nonselective measurements of a given observable. Generalizing previous results to the case of possibly degenerate observables, we give a bound on the maximum number of parameters of the state that can be determined. We give a general algorithm for the determination of the maximum number of parameters. We also discuss how indirect measurement, when the system and probe are jointly controllable, allows one to determine all the parameters of the quantum state
In this note, we study the control theoretic properties of a couple of interacting spin 1's driven by an electromagnetic field. In particular, we assume that it is possible to observe the expectation value of the total magnetization and we study controllability, observability, and parameter identification of these systems. We give conditions for controllability and observability and characterize the classes of equivalent models which have the same input-output behavior. The analysis is motivated by the recent interest in three level systems in quantum information theory and quantum cryptography as well as by the problem of modeling molecular magnets as spin networks.