Publications

Results 1–25 of 26
Skip to search filters

Behavior of the maximum likelihood in quantum state tomography

New Journal of Physics

Scholten, Travis L.; Blume-Kohout, Robin J.

Quantum state tomography on a d-dimensional system demands resources that grow rapidly with d. They may be reduced by using model selection to tailor the number of parameters in the model (i.e., the size of the density matrix). Most model selection methods typically rely on a test statistic and a null theory that describes its behavior when two models are equally good. Here, we consider the loglikelihood ratio. Because of the positivity constraint ρ ≥ 0, quantum state space does not generally satisfy local asymptotic normality (LAN), meaning the classical null theory for the loglikelihood ratio (the Wilks theorem) should not be used. Thus, understanding and quantifying how positivity affects the null behavior of this test statistic is necessary for its use in model selection for state tomography. We define a new generalization of LAN, metric-projected LAN, show that quantum state space satisfies it, and derive a replacement for the Wilks theorem. In addition to enabling reliable model selection, our results shed more light on the qualitative effects of the positivity constraint on state tomography.

More Details

Behavior of the maximum likelihood in quantum state tomography

New Journal of Physics

Scholten, Travis L.; Blume-Kohout, Robin J.

Quantum state tomography on a d-dimensional system demands resources that grow rapidly with d. They may be reduced by using model selection to tailor the number of parameters in the model (i.e., the size of the density matrix). Most model selection methods typically rely on a test statistic and a null theory that describes its behavior when two models are equally good. Here, we consider the loglikelihood ratio. Because of the positivity constraint ρ ≥ 0, quantum state space does not generally satisfy local asymptotic normality (LAN), meaning the classical null theory for the loglikelihood ratio (the Wilks theorem) should not be used. Thus, understanding and quantifying how positivity affects the null behavior of this test statistic is necessary for its use in model selection for state tomography. We define a new generalization of LAN, metric-projected LAN, show that quantum state space satisfies it, and derive a replacement for the Wilks theorem. In addition to enabling reliable model selection, our results shed more light on the qualitative effects of the positivity constraint on state tomography.

More Details

Turbocharging Quantum Tomography

Blume-Kohout, Robin J.; Gamble, John K.; Nielsen, Erik N.; Maunz, Peter L.; Scholten, Travis L.; Rudinger, Kenneth M.

Quantum tomography is used to characterize quantum operations implemented in quantum information processing (QIP) hardware. Traditionally, state tomography has been used to characterize the quantum state prepared in an initialization procedure, while quantum process tomography is used to characterize dynamical operations on a QIP system. As such, tomography is critical to the development of QIP hardware (since it is necessary both for debugging and validating as-built devices, and its results are used to influence the next generation of devices). But tomography suffers from several critical drawbacks. In this report, we present new research that resolves several of these flaws. We describe a new form of tomography called gate set tomography (GST), which unifies state and process tomography, avoids prior methods critical reliance on precalibrated operations that are not generally available, and can achieve unprecedented accuracies. We report on theory and experimental development of adaptive tomography protocols that achieve far higher fidelity in state reconstruction than non-adaptive methods. Finally, we present a new theoretical and experimental analysis of process tomography on multispin systems, and demonstrate how to more effectively detect and characterize quantum noise using carefully tailored ensembles of input states.

More Details
Results 1–25 of 26
Results 1–25 of 26