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arXiv:1609.01784

Optimal Cloning of Quantum States with a Fixed Failure Rate

E. Bagán, V. Yerokhin, Andi Shehu, Edgar Feldman, János A. Bergou

Published Sep 6, 2016• 0 citations
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Abstract

Perfect cloning of a known set of states with arbitrary prior probabilities is possible if we allow the cloner to sometimes fail completely. In the optimal case the probability of failure is at its minimum allowed by the laws of quantum mechanics. Here we show that it is possible to lower the failure rate below that of the perfect probabilistic cloner but the price to pay is that the clones are not perfect; the global fidelity is less than one. We determine the optimal fidelity of a cloner with a Fixed Failure Rate (FFR cloner) in the case of a pair of known states. Optimality is shown to be attainable by a measure-and-prepare protocol in the limit of infinitely many clones. The optimal protocol consists of discrimination with a fixed rate of inconclusive outcome followed by preparation of the appropriate clones. The convergence shows a symmetry-breaking second-order phase transition in the fidelity of the approximate infinite clones.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1609.01784

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Perfect cloning of a known set of states with arbitrary prior probabilities is possible if we allow the cloner to sometimes fail completely. In the optimal case the probability of failure is at its minimum allowed by the laws of quantum mechanics. Here we show that it is possible to lower the failure rate below that of the perfect probabilistic cloner but the price to pay is that the clones are not perfect; the global fidelity is less than one. We determine the optimal fidelity of a cloner with a Fixed Failure Rate (FFR cloner) in the case of a pair of known states. Optimality is shown to be attainable by a measure-and-prepare protocol in the limit of infinitely many clones. The optimal protocol consists of discrimination with a fixed rate of inconclusive outcome followed by preparation of the appropriate clones. The convergence shows a symmetry-breaking second-order phase transition in the fidelity of the approximate infinite clones.
We solve the long-standing problem of making n perfect clones from m copies of one of two known pure states with minimum failure probability in the general case where the known states have arbitrary a priori probabilities. The solution emerges from a geometric formulation of the problem. This formulation reveals that cloning converges to state discrimination followed by state preparation as the number of clones goes to infinity. The convergence exhibits a phenomenon analogous to a second-order symmetry-breaking phase transition.
We investigate the asymptotic relationship between quantum cloning and quantum estimation from the global point of view where all the copies produced by the cloner are considered jointly. For an N-to-M cloner, we consider the overall fidelity between the state of the M output systems and the state of M ideal copies, and we ask whether the optimal fidelity is attained by a measure and-prepare protocol in the limit M -> \infty. In order to gain intuition into the general problem, we analyze two concrete examples: i) cloning qubit states on the equator of the Bloch sphere and ii) cloning two-qubit maximally entangled states. In the first case, we show that the optimal measure-and-prepare fidelity converges to the fidelity of the optimal cloner in the limit M -> \infty. In the second case, we restrict our attention to economical covariant cloners, and again, we exhibit a measure-and-prepare protocol that achieves asymptotically the optimal fidelity. Quite counterintuitively, in both cases the optimal states that have to be prepared in order to maximize the overall fidelity are not product states corresponding to M identical copies, but instead suitable M-partite entangled states.
We establish the best possible approximation to a perfect quantum cloning machine that produces two clones out of a single input. We analyze both universal and state-dependent cloners. The maximal fidelity of cloning is shown to be 5/6 for universal cloners. It can be achieved either by a special unitary evolution or by a teleportation scheme. We construct the optimal state-dependent cloners operating on any prescribed two nonorthogonal states and discuss their fidelities and the use of auxiliary physical resources in the process of cloning. The optimal universal cloners permit us to derive an upper bound on the quantum capacity of the depolarizing quantum channel.
Probabilistically creating n perfect clones from m copies for one of N priori known quantum states with minimum failure probability is a long-standing problem. We provide a rigorous proof for the geometric approach to this probabilistic quantum cloning problem when N = 2. Then, we give the general geometric form of the sufficient and necessary condition of probabilistic cloning for N known quantum states. By this general geometric approach, we realize the optimal probabilistic quantum cloning of N known quantum states with priori probabilities. The results are also applicable to the identification of those N quantum states.
Abstract Creating n perfect clones from m copies of one of N prior known quantum states with minimum failure probability is a long-standing problem. We present a general geometrical form of the sufficient and necessary condition of probabilistic cloning of N known quantum states. With only one equality, we delineate in a parameter space the feasible set for probabilistic cloning of N known quantum states with prior probabilities and the surface for the optimal probabilistic cloning. The results are also applicable to the identification of those N quantum states. We provide a complete process of optimal identification of N given states and illustrate it with examples of three states. We further discover the relationship between probabilistic identification and the convexity of the feasible set. In addition, we discuss the differences in parameter selection when N = 2 and N ⩾ 3, plus provide a rigorous proof of some specific conclusions of this probabilistic quantum cloning problem when N = 2.
Quantum state cloning is the task of approximately producing additional copies of an unknown quantum state from a finite number of input copies. The optimal cloning fidelity is known exactly for pure states, but no comparable characterization is known for general mixed states. We determine the optimal asymptotic copy complexity for ddd-dimensional states of rank at most rrr: producing MMM additional copies with worst-case fidelity at least 1−ε1-\varepsilon1−ε requires and is achievable with N=Θ(Mrd/ε)N=Θ(Mrd/\varepsilon)N=Θ(Mrd/ε) input copies. Remarkably, the lower bound already holds for a family of states with a fixed flat spectrum, while the matching upper bound is achieved by random purification followed by optimal pure-state cloning. For M=1M=1M=1, we further show that high-fidelity tomography can be coherently converted into cloning with comparable error, revealing an operational origin of the matching cloning and tomography complexities.