Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1806.01243 · Physical Review A

Ancilla-assisted linear optical Bell measurements and their optimality

Andrea Olivo, Frédéric Grosshans

Published Oct 16, 2018• 29 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In the last decade Grice [Phys. Rev. A 84, 042331 (2011)] and Ewert and van Loock [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 140403 (2014)] found linear optical networks achieving near-unit efficiency unambiguous Bell state discrimination, when fed with increasingly complex ancillary states. However, except for the vacuum ancilla case [Appl. Phys. B 72, 67 (2001)], the optimality of these schemes is unknown. Here, the optimality of these networks is investigated through analytical and numerical means. We show an analytical upper bound to the success probability for interferometers that preserve the polarization of the input photons, saturated by both Grice's and Ewert--van Loock's strategies. Furthermore, such an upper bound links the complexity of their ancilla states with the scaling of their performance. We also show a computer-aided approach to the optimization of such measurement schemes for generic interferometers, by simulating an optical network supplied with various kinds of ancillary input states. We numerically confirm the optimality of known small schemes. We use both methods to investigate other ancilla states, some of them never studied before.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.98.042323

Related papers

Optimal unambiguous discrimination of Bell-like states with linear optics

Dov Fields, János A. Bergou, Mark S. Hillery +2 more

Quantum information processing using linear optics is challenging due to the limited set of deterministic operations achievable without using complicated resource-intensive methods. While techniques such as the use of ancillary photons can enhance the information processing capabilities of linear optical systems, they are technologically demanding. Therefore, determining the constraints posed by linear optics and optimizing linear optical operations for specific tasks under those constraints, without the use of ancillae, can facilitate their potential implementation. Here, we consider the task of unambiguously discriminating between Bell-like states using linear optics and without the use of ancillary photons. This is a basic problem relevant in diverse settings, for example, in the measurement of the output of an entangling quantum circuit or for entanglement swapping at a quantum repeater station. While it is known that exact Bell states of two qubits can be discriminated with an optimal success probability of 50%, we find, surprisingly, that for Bell-like states the optimal probability can be only 25%. We analyze a set of Bell-like states in terms of their distinguishability, entanglement as measured by concurrence, and parameters of the beam-splitter network used for unambiguous discrimination. Further, we provide the linear optical configuration comprising single-photon detectors and beam splitters with input-state-dependent parameters that achieves optimal discrimination in the Bell-like case.

arXiv:2112.01605•Physical Review A•Aug 8, 2022•4 citations

3/4 -Efficient Bell Measurement with Passive Linear Optics and Unentangled Ancillae

Fabian Ewert, Peter van Loock

It is well known that an unambiguous discrimination of the four optically encoded Bell states is possible with a probability of 50% at best, when using static, passive linear optics and arbitrarily many vacuum-mode ancillae. By adding unentangled single-photon ancillae, we are able to surpass this limit and reach a success probability of at least 75%. We discuss the error robustness of the proposed scheme and a generalization to reach a success probability arbitrarily close to 100%.

arXiv:1403.4841•Physical Review Letters•Sep 30, 2014•185 citations

Stabilizer formalism in linear optics and application to Bell-state discrimination

Yamazaki, Tomohiro, Rikizo Ikuta, Takashi Yamamoto

We propose a framework to analyze linear optical circuits based on an analogy with stabilizer formalism in quantum circuits, which provides efficiently computable formulas related to state discriminations. Hence, we analyze a Bell-state discrimination scheme with linear optics and ancillary single photons. With an increasing number of ancilla photons, the success probability of Bell-state discrimination has a maximum of $\frac{403}{512} \simeq 0.787$ at $28$ ancilla photons. By contrast, the corresponding two-qubit measurement asymptotically approaches a maximally entangling measurement.

arXiv:2301.06551•Jan 16, 2023•0 citations

Symmetry-resolved tree tensor network analysis of Bell-state discrimination with ancilla-assisted passive linear optics

Anand Kumar, Wojciech Roga, Devendra Kumar Mishra +1 more

Ancillary photons allow passive linear-optical Bell-state discrimination to exceed the one-half probability of success limit achievable with vacuum auxiliary modes. For a fixed analyzer and ancillary resource, the discrimination probability is determined by the photon-counting patterns that occur uniquely for each Bell input. We develop a photon-number-resolved tree tensor network method for evaluating these detector supports in recursively structured analyzers. Photon-number conservation and mode symmetries separate most of the Bell-state outputs before the remaining detector support is examined. We establish a tree tensor network based construction to evaluate the remaining support without need of recalling all relevant photon detector patterns separately. We apply the method to recursive, product, and asymmetric ancillary states with up to $32$ optical modes and reproduce known analytical and literature benchmarks. For factorized ancillary resources with fixed photon numbers in halves of the analyzer and the symmetry property used in our analysis, we also derive an exact composition relation; for reflected asymmetric pairings the success probability is the arithmetic mean of the corresponding symmetric configurations. The complete enumeration for smaller systems, permanent-based amplitude calculations, and independent evaluations provide additional checks of the numerical results.

quant-pharXiv:2609.07319•Sep 8, 2026•0 citations

Optimal Linear Optical Discrimination of Bell-Like states

Dov Fields, Vladimir S. Malinovsky, János A. Bergou +1 more

One major challenge in utilizing linear optical setups for quantum computing, is that only a limited set of operations can be preformed. Achieving universal quantum computing using only linear optical components comes at the cost of either requiring an untenable number of ancillary photons or the acceptance of some probability of failure. Understanding the constraints and optimizing general linear optical operations under these constraints is both an important and challenging task. Here we consider the problem of perfectly discriminating between Bell-like states without the use of ancillary photons. For the discrimination between Bell states, the optimal success probability cannot exceed 50%. Here we derive the optimal approach for Bell-like states and show that the success probability without ancillary photons can only reach 25%.

IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE)•Oct 1, 2021•0 citations

Efficiency of an enhanced linear optical Bell-state measurement scheme with realistic imperfections

Stephen C. Wein, Khabat Heshami, Christopher A. Fuchs +4 more

We compare the standard 50%-efficient single beam splitter method for Bell-state measurement to a proposed 75%-efficient auxiliary-photon-enhanced scheme [W. P. Grice, Phys. Rev. A 84, 042331 (2011)] in light of realistic conditions. The two schemes are compared with consideration for high input state photon loss, auxiliary state photon loss, detector inefficiency and coupling loss, detector dark counts, and non-number-resolving detectors. We also analyze the two schemes when multiplexed arrays of non-number-resolving detectors are used. Furthermore, we explore the possibility of utilizing spontaneous parametric down-conversion as the auxiliary photon pair source required by the enhanced scheme. In these different cases, we determine the bounds on the detector parameters at which the enhanced scheme becomes superior to the standard scheme and describe the impact of the different imperfections on measurement success rate and discrimination fidelity. This is done using a combination of numeric and analytic techniques. For many of the cases discussed, the size of the Hilbert space and the number of measurement outcomes can be very large, which makes direct numerical solutions computationally costly. To alleviate this problem, all of our numerical computations are performed using pure states. This requires tracking the loss modes until measurement and treating dark counts as variations on measurement outcomes rather than modifications to the state itself. In addition, we provide approximate analytic expressions that illustrate the effect of different imperfections on the Bell-state analyzer quality.

arXiv:1509.00088•Physical Review A•Sep 29, 2016•29 citations
In the last decade Grice [Phys. Rev. A 84, 042331 (2011)] and Ewert and van Loock [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 140403 (2014)] found linear optical networks achieving near-unit efficiency unambiguous Bell state discrimination, when fed with increasingly complex ancillary states. However, except for the vacuum ancilla case [Appl. Phys. B 72, 67 (2001)], the optimality of these schemes is unknown. Here, the optimality of these networks is investigated through analytical and numerical means. We show an analytical upper bound to the success probability for interferometers that preserve the polarization of the input photons, saturated by both Grice's and Ewert--van Loock's strategies. Furthermore, such an upper bound links the complexity of their ancilla states with the scaling of their performance. We also show a computer-aided approach to the optimization of such measurement schemes for generic interferometers, by simulating an optical network supplied with various kinds of ancillary input states. We numerically confirm the optimality of known small schemes. We use both methods to investigate other ancilla states, some of them never studied before.
Quantum information processing using linear optics is challenging due to the limited set of deterministic operations achievable without using complicated resource-intensive methods. While techniques such as the use of ancillary photons can enhance the information processing capabilities of linear optical systems, they are technologically demanding. Therefore, determining the constraints posed by linear optics and optimizing linear optical operations for specific tasks under those constraints, without the use of ancillae, can facilitate their potential implementation. Here, we consider the task of unambiguously discriminating between Bell-like states using linear optics and without the use of ancillary photons. This is a basic problem relevant in diverse settings, for example, in the measurement of the output of an entangling quantum circuit or for entanglement swapping at a quantum repeater station. While it is known that exact Bell states of two qubits can be discriminated with an optimal success probability of 50%, we find, surprisingly, that for Bell-like states the optimal probability can be only 25%. We analyze a set of Bell-like states in terms of their distinguishability, entanglement as measured by concurrence, and parameters of the beam-splitter network used for unambiguous discrimination. Further, we provide the linear optical configuration comprising single-photon detectors and beam splitters with input-state-dependent parameters that achieves optimal discrimination in the Bell-like case.
We propose a framework to analyze linear optical circuits based on an analogy with stabilizer formalism in quantum circuits, which provides efficiently computable formulas related to state discriminations. Hence, we analyze a Bell-state discrimination scheme with linear optics and ancillary single photons. With an increasing number of ancilla photons, the success probability of Bell-state discrimination has a maximum of 403512≃0.787\frac{403}{512} \simeq 0.787512403​≃0.787 at 282828 ancilla photons. By contrast, the corresponding two-qubit measurement asymptotically approaches a maximally entangling measurement.
Ancillary photons allow passive linear-optical Bell-state discrimination to exceed the one-half probability of success limit achievable with vacuum auxiliary modes. For a fixed analyzer and ancillary resource, the discrimination probability is determined by the photon-counting patterns that occur uniquely for each Bell input. We develop a photon-number-resolved tree tensor network method for evaluating these detector supports in recursively structured analyzers. Photon-number conservation and mode symmetries separate most of the Bell-state outputs before the remaining detector support is examined. We establish a tree tensor network based construction to evaluate the remaining support without need of recalling all relevant photon detector patterns separately. We apply the method to recursive, product, and asymmetric ancillary states with up to 323232 optical modes and reproduce known analytical and literature benchmarks. For factorized ancillary resources with fixed photon numbers in halves of the analyzer and the symmetry property used in our analysis, we also derive an exact composition relation; for reflected asymmetric pairings the success probability is the arithmetic mean of the corresponding symmetric configurations. The complete enumeration for smaller systems, permanent-based amplitude calculations, and independent evaluations provide additional checks of the numerical results.
One major challenge in utilizing linear optical setups for quantum computing, is that only a limited set of operations can be preformed. Achieving universal quantum computing using only linear optical components comes at the cost of either requiring an untenable number of ancillary photons or the acceptance of some probability of failure. Understanding the constraints and optimizing general linear optical operations under these constraints is both an important and challenging task. Here we consider the problem of perfectly discriminating between Bell-like states without the use of ancillary photons. For the discrimination between Bell states, the optimal success probability cannot exceed 50%. Here we derive the optimal approach for Bell-like states and show that the success probability without ancillary photons can only reach 25%.
We compare the standard 50%-efficient single beam splitter method for Bell-state measurement to a proposed 75%-efficient auxiliary-photon-enhanced scheme [W. P. Grice, Phys. Rev. A 84, 042331 (2011)] in light of realistic conditions. The two schemes are compared with consideration for high input state photon loss, auxiliary state photon loss, detector inefficiency and coupling loss, detector dark counts, and non-number-resolving detectors. We also analyze the two schemes when multiplexed arrays of non-number-resolving detectors are used. Furthermore, we explore the possibility of utilizing spontaneous parametric down-conversion as the auxiliary photon pair source required by the enhanced scheme. In these different cases, we determine the bounds on the detector parameters at which the enhanced scheme becomes superior to the standard scheme and describe the impact of the different imperfections on measurement success rate and discrimination fidelity. This is done using a combination of numeric and analytic techniques. For many of the cases discussed, the size of the Hilbert space and the number of measurement outcomes can be very large, which makes direct numerical solutions computationally costly. To alleviate this problem, all of our numerical computations are performed using pure states. This requires tracking the loss modes until measurement and treating dark counts as variations on measurement outcomes rather than modifications to the state itself. In addition, we provide approximate analytic expressions that illustrate the effect of different imperfections on the Bell-state analyzer quality.