Towards optimal experimental tests on the reality of the quantum state

Understand

The Barrett-Cavalcanti-Lal-Maroney (BCLM) argument stands as the most effective means of demonstrating the reality of the quantum state.

• Its advantages include being derived from very few assumptions, and a robustness to experimental error.
• Finding the best way to implement the argument experimentally is an open problem, however, and involves cleverly choosing sets of states and measurements.
• I show that techniques from convex optimisation theory can be leveraged to numerically search for these sets, which then form a recipe for experiments that allow for the strongest statements about the ontology of the wavefunction to be made.