Optimized tomography for pure quantum states

Amir Kalev, Itay Hen

Published 2014-09-05Version 1

We describe a simple, optimized, self-correcting procedure for performing quantum pure state tomography. By analyzing the history of measurement outcomes at each step, the procedure returns the `most likely' state after every measurement, as well as a suitable basis for the measurement that is to follow with the aim of maximizing the fidelity between the best guess and the unknown state. We illustrate the success of method by considering in detail the qubit case, and compare it against existing methods.