Realization of POVMs using measurement-assisted programmable quantum processors

Abstract

We study possible realizations of generalized quantum measurements on measurement-assisted programmable quantum processors. We focus our attention on the realization of von Neumann measurements and informationally complete POVMs. It is known that two unitary transformations implementable by the same programmable processor require mutually {\it orthogonal} states. It turns out that the situation with von Neumann measurements is different. Specifically, in order to realize two such measurements one does not have to use orthogonal program states. On the other hand, the number of the implementable von Neumann measurements is still limited. As an example of a programmable processor we use the so-called quantum information distributor.