Selective Wigner phase space tomography and its application for studying quantum chaos

Abstract: The quasiprobability distribution of the discrete Wigner function provides a complete description of a quantum state and is, therefore, a useful alternative to the usual density matrix description. Moreover, the experimental quantum state tomography in discrete Wigner phase space can also be implemented. We observe that for a certain class of states, such as harmonic states, the Wigner matrix is far more sparse compared to the density matrix in the computational basis. Additionally, reading only a small part of the Wigner matrix may suffice to infer certain behavior of quantum dynamics. In such cases, selective Wigner phase space tomography (SWPST) can be more efficient than the usual density matrix tomography (DMT). Employing nuclear magnetic resonance methods on a three-qubit nuclear spin register, we experimentally estimate Wigner matrices of various two-qubit quantum states. As a specific example application of SWPST, we study the evolution of spin coherent states under the quantum chaotic kicked top model and extract signatures of quantum-classical correspondence in the Wigner phase space.