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Determining d-dimensional quantum states using only d+1 measurement bases: Theory and experiment

Tianqi Xiao1, Yaxin Wang1, Ying Xia1, Zhihao Li1, Juntao Li1, and Xiaoqi Zhou1,2,*

  • *Contact author: zhouxq8@mail.sysu.edu.cn

Phys. Rev. A 114, 032428 – Published 10 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/qj9y-wk92

Abstract

Determining the minimum number of measurement bases required for the complete characterization of unknown quantum states is a central problem in quantum state tomography, especially in high-dimensional systems. For a d-dimensional quantum state, parameter counting implies that at least d+1 projective measurement bases are required for full reconstruction. However, explicit constructions achieving this information-theoretic minimum are not generally available beyond special cases based on mutually unbiased bases (MUBs). Here, we present a quantum state tomography scheme that reconstructs an arbitrary d-dimensional quantum state using exactly d+1 projective measurement bases. Our construction is explicit, applies to all finite dimensions, and does not rely on the existence of a complete set of MUBs. We further demonstrate the scheme on a silicon photonic chip by reconstructing six-dimensional quantum states, obtaining fidelities above 0.96 in a dimension where a complete set of MUBs is not known to exist. These results establish an explicit minimal-basis construction for high-dimensional quantum state tomography and provide a different perspective on the design of informationally complete quantum measurements at the information-theoretic limit.

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