The canonical Naimark extension for the Pauli quantum roulette wheel

Abstract

We address measurement schemes where certain observables are chosen at random within a set of non-degenerate isospectral observables and then measured on repeated preparations of a physical system. Each observable has a given probability to be measured, and the statistics of this generalized measurement is described by a positive operator-valued measure (POVM). This kind of schemes are referred to as quantum roulettes since each observable is chosen at random, e.g. according to the fluctuating value of an external parameter. Here we focus on quantum roulettes for qubits involving the measurements of Pauli matrices and we explicitly evaluate their canonical Naimark extensions, i.e. their implementation as indirect measurements involving an interaction scheme with a probe system. We thus provide a concrete model to realize the roulette without destroying the signal state, which can be measured again after the measurement, or can be transmitted. Finally, we apply our results to the description of Stern-Gerlach-like experiments on a two-level system.