Saving resources through repeat-until-success positive-operator-valued-measure measurements in quantum computation
Phys. Rev. A 114, 032408 – Published 4 September, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/n2h3-x2wq
Abstract
We present a quantum computation approach in which computation is guided by positive-operator-valued-measure (POVM) measurements following a given computation path in multisteps. In this approach, one ancillary qubit is coupled to a register of working qubits, and a POVM measurement is implemented effectively on the working qubits by applying a unitary operation on the whole system followed by a projective measurement performed on the ancillary qubit. Each step of the computation is a repeat-until-success procedure such that the desired state of the step is obtained deterministically on the working qubits via POVM measurements. The principle of deferred measurement states that measurements can always be moved from an intermediate stage of a quantum circuit to the end of the circuit without affecting the efficiency of the computation. We demonstrate that in our approach, by introducing intermediate measurements on the ancillary qubit in the computation process, both the number of qubits and unitary operations can be reduced polynomially, compared to the case where the intermediate measurements are deferred to the end of the computation. We also provide a method for implementation of the approach.
