Self-guided quantum tomography

Abstract

We introduce a self-learning tomographic technique in which the experiment guides itself to an estimate of its own state. Self-guided quantum tomography (SGQT) uses measurements to directly test hypotheses in an iterative algorithm which converges to the true state. We demonstrate through simulation on many qubits that SGQT is a more efficient and robust alternative to the usual paradigm of taking a large amount of informationally complete data and solving the inverse problem of post-processed state estimation.