Picturing qubits in phase space
William K. Wootters · IBM Journal of Research and Development · 2004
Focusing particularly on one-qubit and two-qubit systems, I explain how the quantum state of a system of n qubits can be expressed as a real function—a generalized Wigner function—on a discrete 2n× 2nphase pace. The phase space is based on the finite field having 2nelements, and its geometric structure leads naturally to the construction of a complete set of 2n+ 1 mutually conjugate bases.