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arXiv:1108.2647 · Physical Review A

Ancilla-assisted sequential approximation of nonlocal unitary operations

Hamed Saberi

Published Sep 16, 2011• 12 citations
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Abstract

We consider the recently proposed ``no-go'' theorem of Lamata et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 180506 (2008)] on the impossibility of sequential implementation of global unitary operations with the aid of an itinerant ancillary system and view the claim within the language of Kraus representation. By virtue of an extremely useful tool for analyzing entanglement properties of quantum operations, namely, operator-Schmidt decomposition, we provide alternative proof to the no-go theorem and also study the role of initial correlations between the qubits and ancilla in sequential preparation of unitary entanglers. Despite the negative response from the no-go theorem, we demonstrate explicitly how the matrix-product operator (MPO) formalism provides a flexible structure to develop protocols for sequential implementation of such entanglers with an optimal fidelity. The proposed numerical technique, which we call variational matrix-product operator (VMPO), offers a computationally efficient tool for characterizing the ``globalness'' and entangling capabilities of nonlocal unitary operations.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.84.032323

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•Jun 22, 2003•17 citations
We consider the recently proposed no-go'' theorem of Lamata et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 180506 (2008)] on the impossibility of sequential implementation of global unitary operations with the aid of an itinerant ancillary system and view the claim within the language of Kraus representation. By virtue of an extremely useful tool for analyzing entanglement properties of quantum operations, namely, operator-Schmidt decomposition, we provide alternative proof to the no-go theorem and also study the role of initial correlations between the qubits and ancilla in sequential preparation of unitary entanglers. Despite the negative response from the no-go theorem, we demonstrate explicitly how the matrix-product operator (MPO) formalism provides a flexible structure to develop protocols for sequential implementation of such entanglers with an optimal fidelity. The proposed numerical technique, which we call variational matrix-product operator (VMPO), offers a computationally efficient tool for characterizing the globalness'' and entangling capabilities of nonlocal unitary operations.
In quantum information, sequential protocols are of utmost importance which involve a very demanding task, especially in the implementation of a global unitary acting on N qubits. In principle, this can be simplified by decomposing the unitary in sequential two-body interactions, between each qubit and an ancillary system, in a manner where each qubit is acted upon only once by the ancilla. This study shows that the sequential decomposition of a global unitary that entangles two or more qubits is impossible in general, even in the case of an infinite-dimensional ancilla.
We draw attention to the existence of ``genuine'' fidelity gaps in an ancilla-assisted sequential decomposition of genuinely entangling isometry and unitary operations of quantum computing. The gaps arise upon a bipartite decomposition of a multiqubit operation within a one-way sequential recipe in which an ancillary system interacts locally and only once with each qubit in a row. Given the known ``no-go'' associated with such a theoretically and experimentally desirable decomposition, various figures of merit are introduced to analyze the optimal ``fidelity'' with which an arbitrary genuinely entangling operation may admit such a sequential decomposition. An efficient variational matrix-product-operator protocol is invoked in order to obtain numerically the minimal values of the fidelity gaps incurred upon the sequential decomposition of genuine entanglers. We call the values of the gaps so obtained ``genuine'' in light of possible connections to the concept of the genuine multipartite entanglement and since they turn out to be independent of the ancilla dimension and the initial states the associated isometries or unitaries act upon.
We study the possibility for a global unitary applied on an arbitrary number of qubits to be decomposed in a sequential unitary procedure, where an ancillary system is allowed to interact only once with each qubit. We prove that sequential unitary decompositions are in general impossible for genuine entangling operations, even with an infinite-dimensional ancilla, being the controlled-NOT gate a paradigmatic example. Nevertheless, we find particular nontrivial operations in quantum information that can be performed in a sequential unitary manner, as is the case of quantum error correction and quantum cloning.
The operator-Schmidt decomposition is useful in quantum information theory for quantifying the nonlocality of bipartite unitary operations. We construct a family of unitary operators on n ⊗ n whose operator-Schmidt decompositions are computed using the discrete Fourier transform. As a corollary, we produce unitaries on 3 ⊗ 3 with operator-Schmidt number S for every S ∊ {1, ..., 9}. This corollary was unexpected, since it contradicted reasonable conjectures of Nielsen et al (2003 Phys. Rev. A 67 052301) based on intuition from a striking result in the two-qubit case. By the results of Dür et al (2002 Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 057901), who also considered the two-qubit case, our result implies that there are nine equivalence classes of unitaries on 3 ⊗ 3 which are probabilistically interconvertible by (stochastic) local operations and classical communication. As another corollary, a prescription is produced for constructing maximally-entangled unitaries from biunimodular functions. Reversing tact, we state a generalized operator-Schmidt decomposition of the quantum Fourier transform considered as an operator M 1 ⊗ M 2 → N 1 ⊗ N 2 , with M 1 M 2 = N 1 N 2 . This decomposition shows (by Nielsen's bound) that the communication cost of the QFT remains maximal when a net transfer of qudits is permitted. In an appendix, a canonical procedure is given for removing basis-dependence for results and proofs depending on the 'magic basis' introduced in S Hill and W Wootters (1997 Entanglement of a pair of quantum bits Phys Rev. Lett. 78 5022–5).
We study the role of ancillary entanglement in quantum channel parameter estimation and investigate the minimal ancilla dimension required to achieve the maximum Fisher information. We introduce the kkk-ancilla Fisher information, which quantifies the optimal estimation precision achievable with input states of rank at most kkk, and derive a variational characterization in terms of a rank-constrained optimization problem. This formulation leads to a simple characterization of the minimum ancilla dimension k∗k^*k∗ required for optimal estimation, given by the minimum rank among the maximizers of the associated variational problem. We further identify sufficient conditions under which ancillary entanglement provides no advantage, including channel families admitting a fixed measure-and-prepare representation and channels satisfying a natural horizontality condition. In addition, we derive a bound on the incremental gain in Fisher information obtained by increasing the ancilla dimension under suitable structural assumptions on the optimal input states. The general results are illustrated through explicit examples, including unitary channels, qubit depolarizing and amplitude damping channels. These results provide a systematic framework for understanding and quantifying the entanglement resources required for optimal quantum channel estimation.
The operator-Schmidt decomposition is useful in quantum information theory for quantifying the nonlocality of bipartite unitary operations. We construct a family of unitary operators on C^n tensor C^n whose operator-Schmidt decompositions are computed using the discrete Fourier transform. As a corollary, we produce unitaries on C^3 tensor C^3 with operator-Schmidt number S for every S in {1,...,9}. This corollary was unexpected, since it contradicted reasonable conjectures of Nielsen et al [Phys. Rev. A 67 (2003) 052301] based on intuition from a striking result in the two-qubit case. By the results of Dur, Vidal, and Cirac [Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 (2002) 057901 quant-ph/0112124], who also considered the two-qubit case, our result implies that there are nine equivalence classes of unitaries on C^3 tensor C^3 which are probabilistically interconvertible by (stochastic) local operations and classical communication. As another corollary, a prescription is produced for constructing maximally-entangled operators from biunimodular functions. Reversing tact, we state a generalized operator-Schmidt decomposition of the quantum Fourier transform considered as an operator C^M_1 tensor C^M_2 --> C^N_1 tensor C^N_2, with M_1 x M_2 = N_1 x N_2. This decomposition shows (by Nielsen's bound) that the communication cost of the QFT remains maximal when a net transfer of qudits is permitted. In an appendix, a canonical procedure is given for removing basis-dependence for results and proofs depending on the "magic basis" introduced in [S. Hill and W. Wootters, "Entanglement of a pair of quantum bits," Phys Rev. Lett 78 (1997) 5022-5025, quant-ph/9703041 (and quant-ph/9709029)].