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arXiv:1307.3232 · Quantum Information and Computation

Small sets of locally indistinguishable orthogonal maximally entangled states

Alessandro Cosentino, Vincent Russo

Published Oct 1, 2014• 28 citations
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Abstract

We study the problem of distinguishing quantum states using local operations and classical communication (LOCC). A question of fundamental interest is whether there exist sets of $k \leq d$ orthogonal maximally entangled states in $\complex^{d}\otimes\complex^{d}$ that are not perfectly distinguishable by LOCC. A recent result by Yu, Duan, and Ying [Phys. Rev. Lett. 109 020506 (2012)] gives an affirmative answer for the case $k = d$. We give, for the first time, a proof that such sets of states indeed exist even in the case $k < d$. Our result is constructive and holds for an even wider class of operations known as positive-partial-transpose measurements (PPT). The proof uses the characterization of the PPT-distinguishability problem as a semidefinite program.

DOI
10.26421/qic14.13-14-3

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We study the problem of distinguishing quantum states using local operations and classical communication (LOCC). A question of fundamental interest is whether there exist sets of k≤dk \leq dk≤d orthogonal maximally entangled states in \complexd⊗\complexd\complex^{d}\otimes\complex^{d}\complexd⊗\complexd that are not perfectly distinguishable by LOCC. A recent result by Yu, Duan, and Ying [Phys. Rev. Lett. 109 020506 (2012)] gives an affirmative answer for the case k=dk = dk=d. We give, for the first time, a proof that such sets of states indeed exist even in the case k<dk < dk<d. Our result is constructive and holds for an even wider class of operations known as positive-partial-transpose measurements (PPT). The proof uses the characterization of the PPT-distinguishability problem as a semidefinite program.
We show that there exist sets of three mutually orthogonal ddd-dimensional maximally entangled states which cannot be perfectly distinguished using one-way local operations and classical communication (LOCC) for arbitrarily large values of ddd. This contrasts with several well-known families of maximally entangled states, for which any three states can be perfectly distinguished. We then show that two-way LOCC is sufficient to distinguish these examples. We also show that any three mutually orthogonal ddd-dimensional maximally entangled states can be perfectly distinguished using measurements with a positive partial transpose (PPT) and can be distinguished with one-way LOCC with high probability. These results circle around the question of whether there exist three maximally entangled states which cannot be distinguished using the full power of LOCC; we discuss possible approaches to answer this question.
We present a simple semidefinite program whose optimal value is equal to the maximum probability of perfectly distinguishing orthogonal maximally entangled states using any PPT measurement (a measurement whose operators are positive under partial transpose). When the states to be distinguished are given by the tensor product of Bell states, the semidefinite program simplifies to a linear program. In Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 020506 (2012), Yu, Duan, and Ying exhibit a set of four maximally entangled states in ${\mathbb{C}}^{4}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}{\mathbb{C}}^{4}$, which is distinguishable by any PPT measurement only with probability strictly less than 1. Using semidefinite programming, we show a tight bound of 7/87/87/8 on this probability (3/43/43/4 for the case of unambiguous PPT measurements). We generalize this result by demonstrating a simple construction of a set of kkk states in ${\mathbb{C}}^{k}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}{\mathbb{C}}^{k}$ with the same property, for any kkk that is a power of 2. By running numerical experiments, we show the local indistinguishability of certain sets of generalized Bell states in ${\mathbb{C}}^{5}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}{\mathbb{C}}^{5}$ and ${\mathbb{C}}^{6}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}{\mathbb{C}}^{6}$ previously considered in the literature.
In order to better understand the class of quantum operations that preserve the positivity of partial transpose (PPT operations) and its relation to the widely used class of local operations and classical communication (LOCC), we study the problem of distinguishing orthogonal maximally entangled states (MES) by PPT operations. Firstly, we outline a rather simple proof to show that the number of d⊗dd\otimes dd⊗d PPT distinguishable MES is at most ddd, which slightly generalizes existing results on this problem. Secondly, we construct 4 MES in 4⊗44\otimes 44⊗4 state space that cannot be distinguished by PPT operations. Before our work, it was unknown whether there exists ddd MES in d⊗dd\otimes dd⊗d state space that are locally indistinguishable. This example leads us to a novel phenomenon of Entanglement Catalysis Discrimination. Moreover, we find there exists a set of locally indistinguishable states KKK such that K⊗mK^{\otimes m}K⊗m is locally distinguishable for some finite mmm. As an interesting application, we exhibit a quantum channel with one sender and two receivers, whose one-shot zero-error local capacity is not optimal, but multi-use would enhance the capacity to achieve the full output dimension even without entangled input. Finally, we consider the entanglement cost of distinguishing three Bell states and a 2⊗22\otimes 22⊗2 entangled basis. In the former case a bipartite pure entangled state with the largest Schmidt coefficient at most 2/3 is necessary and sufficient, while in the latter case an additional Bell state, or one ebit, should be supplied.
We study the distinguishability of a particular type of maximally entangled states---the ``lattice states''---using an approach of a semidefinite program. With this, we successfully construct all sets of four ququad-ququad orthogonal maximally entangled states that are locally indistinguishable and find some curious sets of six states having an interesting property of distinguishability. Also, some of the problems that arose from Cosentino and Russo [Quantum Inf. Comput. 14, 1098 (2013)] about the positive-partial-transpose distinguishability of lattice maximally entangled states can be answered.
We study the distinguishability of quantum states under local operations with classical communication (LOCC), separable, and positive-partial-transpose (PPT) measurements, focusing on locally diagonal orthogonally invariant (LDOI) states -- those invariant under local diagonal orthogonal twirling. This class includes many important families such as Werner states, isotropic states, X-states, and Dicke states. We show that optimal PPT and separable measurements for distinguishing LDOI states can always be taken to be LDOI, and the LOCC supremum can be approached by LDOI LOCC POVMs, enabling a dimensional reduction from n4n^4n4 to O(n2)O(n^2)O(n2) in the associated optimization problems. We establish efficiently computable bounds on the distinguishability of orthonormal LDOI bases and prove that for a broad class of such bases -- including all two-qubit cases -- the LOCC supremum equals the PPT and separable optima. More generally, we show the gap between PPT and LOCC distinguishability is at most (n−2)/(2n2)(n-2)/(2n^2)(n−2)/(2n2) for local dimension nnn.