positive-operator-valued measure
Sign in to saveAlso known as POVM
In functional analysis and quantum information science, a positive operator-valued measure (POVM) is a measure whose values are positive semi-definite operators on a Hilbert space. POVMs are a generalization of projection-valued measures (PVM) and, correspondingly, quantum measurements described by POVMs are a generalization of quantum measurement described by PVMs (called projective measurements).
~12 min read
Encyclopedic overview
7 sectionsContents
- Definition
- Naimark's dilation theorem
- Post-measurement state
- An example: unambiguous quantum state discrimination
- See also
- References
- External links
In functional analysis and quantum information science, a positive operator-valued measure (POVM) is a measure whose values are positive semi-definite operators on a Hilbert space. POVMs are a generalization of projection-valued measures (PVM) and, correspondingly, quantum measurements described by POVMs are a generalization of quantum measurement described by PVMs (called projective measurements).
In rough analogy, a POVM is to a PVM what a mixed state is to a pure state. Mixed states are needed to specify the state of a subsystem of a larger system (see purification of quantum state); analogously, POVMs are necessary to describe the effect on a subsystem of a projective measurement performed on a larger system.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “positive-operator-valued measure” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.