Work

Pretty Good Simulation of All Quantum Measurements by Projective Measurements

Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: In quantum theory, general measurements are described by Positive Operator-Valued Measures (POVMs). We show that for anyd-dimensional system, applying depolarizing noise with constant visibility rendersanyPOVM simulable by a randomized implementation of projective measurements— without auxiliary systems. This constrains the asymptotic advantage of POVMs over projective measurements in tasks such as state discrimination, shadow tomography, and quantum metrology. We further improve known bounds on the visibility range for which noisy pure two-qudit states admit local hidden-variable models under general measurements. As a byproduct, we obtain asymptotically tight bounds on the critical visibility for joint measurability of all POVMs. Technically, we leverage recent results in POVM simulation, the Kadison–Singer problem, and introduce a “dimension-deficient” Naimark theorem. Additionally, we demonstrate that general2N-qubit circuits can be simulated via randomization over circuits onN +1qubits, with constant overhead, suggesting new avenues for circuit knitting in near-term quantum architectures.
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7141381255
FWCI:
Cites: 77
Cited by: 1
Related to: 10