Modelling Quantum Devices and the Reconstruction of Physics in Practical Systems

Abstract: Modelling quantum devices is to find a model according to quantum theory that can explain the result of experiments in a quantum device. We find that usually we cannot correctly identify the model describing the actual physics of the device regardless of the experimental effort given a limited set of operations. According to sufficient conditions that we find, correctly reconstructing the model requires either a particular set of pure states and projective measurements or a set of evolution operators that can generate all unitary operators.