Characterizing correlation within multipartite quantum systems via local randomized measurements

Zhenhuan Liu, Pei Zeng, You Zhou, Mile Gu

Published 2021-08-18Version 1

Given a quantum system on many qubits split into a few different parties, how much total correlations are there between these parties? Such a quantity -- aimed to measure the deviation of the global quantum state from an uncorrelated state with the same local statistics -- plays an important role in understanding multi-partite correlations within complex networks of quantum states. Yet, the experimental access of this quantity remains challenging as it tends to be non-linear, and hence often requires tomography which becomes quickly intractable as dimensions of relevant quantum systems scale. Here, we introduce a much more experimentally accessible quantifier of total correlations, which can be estimated using only single-qubit measurements. It requires far fewer measurements than state tomography, and obviates the need to coherently interfere multiple copies of a given state. Thus we provide a tool for proving multi-partite correlations that can be applied to near-term quantum devices.