We propose an alternative fidelity measure (namely, a measure of the degree of similarity) between quantum states and benchmark it against a number of properties of the standard Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity. This measure is a simple function of the linear entropy and the Hilbert-Schmidt inner product between the given states and is thus, in comparison, not as computationally demanding. It also features several remarkable properties such as being jointly concave and satisfying all of Jozsa's axioms. The trade-off, however, is that it is supermultiplicative and does not behave monotonically under quantum operations. In addition, metrics for the space of density matrices are identified and the joint concavity of the Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity for qubit states is established.
We propose an alternative fidelity measure (namely, a measure of the degree of similarity) between quantum states and benchmark it against a number of properties of the standard Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity. This measure is a simple function of the linear entropy and the Hilbert-Schmidt inner product between the given states and is thus, in comparison, not as computationally demanding. It also features several remarkable properties such as being jointly concave and satisfying all of Jozsa's axioms. The trade-off, however, is that it is supermultiplicative and does not behave monotonically under quantum operations. In addition, metrics for the space of density matrices are identified and the joint concavity of the Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity for qubit states is established.
Fidelity plays an important role in quantum information theory. In this paper, two pairs of metrics of quantum states are introduced based on the Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity and super-fidelity. They are proved to satisfy the axioms of metrics and return to the Sine metric and Bures metric for the qubit case. The CP expansive property and convex property of the metrics are studied. These metrics have deep connections with the known important metrics such as trace metric, Sine metric, Bures metric, and spectral metric, and are useful to quantify entanglement. I. Background, problem, and result Suppose one has two quantum states ρ and σ, then the Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity [1] between ρ and σ is given by F(ρ, σ) = [Tr ρ 1 2 σρ 1 2] 2. Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity plays an important role in quantum information theory and quantum computation [1], [2]. We know that for the case of qubit, Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity has a simple form. From the Bloch sphere representation of quantum states, a qubit is described by a density matrix as([3]): ρ(u) = 1 (I + σ · u), 2 where I is the 2 × 2 unit matrix and σ = (σ1, σ2, σ3) are the Pauli matrices. Assume ρ(u) and ρ(v) are two states of one qubit, then they can represented by two vectors u and v in the Bloch sphere. The Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity for qubits has an elegant form([4] and [5]): F(ρ(u), ρ(v)) = 1 2 [1 + u · v + √ 1 − |u | 2 √ 1 − |v | 2], where u · v is the inner product of two vectors u and v, and |u | is the magnitude of u. We know that for N × N quantum states, the Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity has no simple form like the case of qubits. To use the simple form of fidelity, we note that in [6], the authors introduce a new fidelity, called super-fidelity, and proved that Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity can be bounded above by the super-fidelity G(ρ1, ρ2): F(ρ1, ρ2) ≤ G(ρ1, ρ2)
We propose three alternative measures for non-Gaussianity of quantum states: sine distance, Bures angle, and Bures distance, which are based on quantum fidelity introduced by Wang [Phys. Lett. A 373 58 (2008)]. Using them, we evaluate the non-Gaussianity of some relevant single-mode and two-mode non-Gaussian states and find a good consistency of the three examined measures. In addition, we show that such metrics can exactly quantify the degree of Gaussianity of even Schrödinger-cat-like states of small amplitudes that can not be measured by other known non-Gaussianity measures such as the Hilbert–Schmidt metric and the relative entropy metric. We make a comparative study between all existing non-Gaussianity measures according to the metric axioms and point out that the sine distance is the best candidate among them.
Uhlmann's fidelity function is one of the most widely used similarity measures in quantum theory. One definition of this function is that it is the minimum classical fidelity associated with a quantum-to-classical measurement procedure of two quantum states. In 2010, Matsumoto introduced another fidelity function which is dual to Uhlmann's in the sense that it is the maximimum classical fidelity associated with a classical-to-quantum preparation procedure for two quantum states. Matsumoto's fidelity can also be defined using the well-established notion definition of the matrix geometric mean. In this work, we examine Matsumoto's fidelity through the lens of semidefinite programming to give simple proofs that it possesses many desirable properties for a similarity measure, including monotonicity under quantum channels, joint concavity, and unitary invariance. Finally, we provide a geometric interpretation of this fidelity in terms of the Riemannian space of positive definite matrices, and show how this picture can be useful in understanding some of its peculiar properties.
The measures of distances between points in a Hilbert space are one of the basic theoretical concepts used to characterize properties of a quantum system with respect to some etalon state. These are not only used in studying fidelity of signal transmission and basic quantum phenomena but also applied in measuring quantum correlations, and also in quantum machine learning. The values of quantum distance measures are very difficult to determine without completely reconstructing the state. Here we demonstrate an interferometric approach to measuring distances between quantum states that in some cases can outperform quantum state tomography. We propose a direct experimental method to estimate such distance measures between two unknown two-qubit mixed states such as Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity (or the Bures distance), the Hilbert-Schmidt distance, and the trace distance. The fidelity is estimated via the measurement of the upper and lower bounds of the fidelity, which are referred to as the superfidelity and subfidelity, respectively. Our method is based on the multiparticle interactions (i.e., interference) between copies of the unknown pairs of qubits.
Applications of quantum technology often require fidelities to quantify performance. These provide a fundamental yardstick for the comparison of two quantum states. While this is straightforward in the case of pure states, it is much more subtle for the more general case of mixed quantum states often found in practice. A large number of different proposals exist. In this review, we summarize the required properties of a quantum fidelity measure, and compare them, to determine which properties each of the different measures has. We show that there are large classes of measures that satisfy all the required properties of a fidelity measure, just as there are many norms of Hilbert space operators, and many measures of entropy. We compare these fidelities, with detailed proofs of their properties. We also summarize briefly the applications of these measures in teleportation, quantum memories and quantum computers, quantum communications, and quantum phase-space simulations.