2006/01/31 by Masoud Mohseni, M. Mohseni, Daniel A. Lidar +1 · 151 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Characterization (materials science) #Optics #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum dynamics #Quantum mechanics #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Statistical physics #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.97.170501
published in Physical Review Letters 97(17), 170501 (American Physical Society) · 4 pages, 2 figures, published version
openalex publication_date 2006/10/24 · arxiv created 2007/01/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The characterization of quantum dynamics is a fundamental and central task in quantum mechanics. This task is typically addressed by quantum process tomography (QPT). Here we present an alternative "direct characterization of quantum dynamics" (DCQD) algorithm. In contrast to all known QPT methods, this algorithm relies on error-detection techniques and does not require any quantum state tomography. We illustrate that, by construction, the DCQD algorithm can be applied to the task of obtaining partial information about quantum dynamics. Furthermore, we argue that the DCQD algorithm is experimentally implementable in a variety of prominent quantum-information processing systems, and show how it can be realized in photonic systems with present day technology.