Abstract

In this article we review two ways of driving a quantum system to a known pure state via a sequence discrete of von Neumann measurements. The first of them assumes that the initial state of the system is unknown, and the evolution is attained only with the help of two non-commuting observables. For this method, the overall success probability is maximized when the eigentstates of the involved observables constitute mutually unbiased bases. The second method assumes the initial state is known and it uses N observables which are consecutively measured to make the state of the system approach the target state. The probability of success of this procedure converges to 1 as the number of observables increases. © 2007 IOP Publishing Ltd.