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arXiv:2011.09287 · Physical Review Letters

Multicopy Adaptive Local Discrimination: Strongest Possible Two-Qubit Nonlocal Bases

Manik Banik, Tamal Guha, Mir Alimuddin, Guruprasad Kar, Saronath Halder, Some Sankar Bhattacharya

Published May 28, 2021• 22 citations
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Abstract

Ensembles of composite quantum states can exhibit nonlocal behavior in the sense that their optimal discrimination may require global operations. Such an ensemble containing N pairwise orthogonal pure states, however, can always be perfectly distinguished under an adaptive local scheme if (N-1) copies of the state are available. In this Letter, we provide examples of orthonormal bases in two-qubit Hilbert space whose adaptive discrimination require three copies of the state. For this composite system, we analyze multicopy adaptive local distinguishability of orthogonal ensembles in full generality which, in turn, assigns varying nonlocal strength to different such ensembles. We also come up with ensembles whose discrimination under an adaptive separable scheme require less numbers of copies than adaptive local schemes. Our construction finds important application in multipartite secret sharing tasks and indicates toward an intriguing superadditivity phenomenon for locally accessible information.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.126.210505

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Ensembles of composite quantum states can exhibit nonlocal behavior in the sense that their optimal discrimination may require global operations. Such an ensemble containing N pairwise orthogonal pure states, however, can always be perfectly distinguished under an adaptive local scheme if (N-1) copies of the state are available. In this Letter, we provide examples of orthonormal bases in two-qubit Hilbert space whose adaptive discrimination require three copies of the state. For this composite system, we analyze multicopy adaptive local distinguishability of orthogonal ensembles in full generality which, in turn, assigns varying nonlocal strength to different such ensembles. We also come up with ensembles whose discrimination under an adaptive separable scheme require less numbers of copies than adaptive local schemes. Our construction finds important application in multipartite secret sharing tasks and indicates toward an intriguing superadditivity phenomenon for locally accessible information.
We consider a general version of the phenomenon of more nonlocality with less entanglement within the framework of the unambiguous (i.e., conclusive) quantum state discrimination problem under local quantum operations and classical communication. We show that although the phenomenon was obtained before for two qutrits, it can also be observed for two qubits, whereas still being at the single-copy level. We establish that the phenomenon is intrinsically connected to the concept of unextendible entangled bases in the two-qubit case. In the process, we demonstrate a hierarchy of nonlocality among sets of two-qubit orthogonal pure states where the ``nonlocality'' is in the sense of a difference between global and local abilities of quantum state discrimination. We present a complete characterization of two-qubit pure orthogonal state sets of cardinality three with respect to their nonlocality in terms of unambiguous local distinguishability, the status for other cardinalities being already known. The results are potentially useful for secure quantum communication technologies with an optimal amount of resources.
More than two decades ago, Bennett \emph{et al.} [Phys. Rev. A \textbf{59}, 1070 (1999)] asked whether perfect local discrimination of orthogonal quantum states can require more than two copies. This question was subsequently answered for adaptive protocols that process the copies separately [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{126}, 210505 (2021)], but remained open when each laboratory is allowed to process its local copies collectively. Here we resolve this stronger setting and identify collective access across repeated local inputs as a distinct resource. For every fixed odd-prime local dimension, there exist complete maximal-stabilizer eigenbases whose copy complexity under individual-copy separable measurements diverges with system size. Under collective processing this behavior changes sharply: every maximal-stabilizer eigenbasis in odd-prime local dimension is perfectly decoded by one-round collective LOCC using at most three copies. Collective processing, however, does not remove multicopy hardness in general. For every fixed local dimension d≥2d\ge2d≥2, we prove the existence, within an explicit phase family, of complete bases whose copy complexity remains unbounded even under collective separable measurements, with a square root of the number of subsystems as lower-bound scale. Thus sample number, spatial measurement power, and coherent access across repeated local inputs are distinct resources in distributed quantum measurement.
In this paper, we consider the conditions under which a given ensemble of two-qubit states can be optimally distinguished by local operations and classical communication (LOCC). We begin by completing the perfect distinguishability problem of two-qubit ensembles-both for separable operations and LOCC-by providing necessary and sufficient conditions for the perfect discrimination of one pure and one mixed state. Then, for the well-known task of minimum error discrimination, it is shown that almost all two-qubit ensembles consisting of three pure states cannot be optimally discriminated using LOCC. This is surprising considering that any two pure states can be distinguished optimally by LOCC. Special attention is given to ensembles that lack entanglement, and we prove an easy sufficient condition for when a set of three product states cannot be optimally distinguished by LOCC, thus providing new examples of the phenomenon known as non-locality without entanglement. We next consider an example of N parties who each share the same state but who are ignorant of its identity. The state is drawn from the rotationally invariant trine ensemble, and we establish a tight connection between the N-copy ensemble and Shor's lifted single-copy ensemble. For any finite N, we prove that optimal identification of the states cannot be achieved by LOCC; however, as N→∞, LOCC can indeed discriminate the states optimally. This is the first result of its kind. Finally, we turn to the task of unambiguous discrimination and derive new lower bounds on the LOCC inconclusive probability for symmetric states. When applied to the double trine ensemble, this leads to a rather different distinguishability character than when the minimum error probability is considered.
Quantum nonlocality based on state discrimination describes the global property of the set of orthogonal states and has a wide range of applications in quantum cryptographic protocols. Strongest nonlocality is the strongest form of quantum nonlocality recently presented in multipartite quantum systems: a set of orthogonal multipartite quantum states is strongest nonlocal if the only orthogonality-preserving local measurements on the subsystems in every bipartition are trivial. In this work, we found a construction of strongest nonlocal sets in Cd1⊗Cd2⊗Cd3\mathbb{C}^{d_{1}}\otimes \mathbb{C}^{d_{2}}\otimes \mathbb{C}^{d_{3}}Cd1​⊗Cd2​⊗Cd3​ (2≤d1≤d2≤d3)(2\leq d_{1}\leq d_{2}\leq d_{3})(2≤d1​≤d2​≤d3​) of size d2d3+1d_2d_3+1d2​d3​+1 without stopper states. Then we obtain the strongest nonlocal sets in four-partite systems with d3+1d^3+1d3+1 orthogonal states in Cd⊗Cd⊗Cd⊗Cd\mathbb{C}^d\otimes \mathbb{C}^{d}\otimes \mathbb{C}^{d}\otimes \mathbb{C}^{d}Cd⊗Cd⊗Cd⊗Cd (d≥2)(d\geq2)(d≥2) and d2d3d4+1d_{2}d_{3}d_{4}+1d2​d3​d4​+1 orthogonal states in Cd1⊗Cd2⊗Cd3⊗Cd4\mathbb{C}^{d_{1}}\otimes \mathbb{C}^{d_{2}}\otimes \mathbb{C}^{d_{3}}\otimes \mathbb{C}^{d_{4}}Cd1​⊗Cd2​⊗Cd3​⊗Cd4​ (2≤d1≤d2≤d3≤d4)(2\leq d_{1}\leq d_{2}\leq d_{3}\leq d_{4})(2≤d1​≤d2​≤d3​≤d4​). Surprisingly, the number of the elements in all above constructions perfectly reaches the recent conjectured lower bound and reduces the size of the strongest nonlocal set in Cd⊗Cd⊗Cd⊗Cd\mathbb{C}^{d}\otimes \mathbb{C}^{d}\otimes \mathbb{C}^{d}\otimes \mathbb{C}^{d}Cd⊗Cd⊗Cd⊗Cd of [\href{https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.108.062407}{Phys. Rev. A \textbf{108}, 062407 (2023)}] by d−2d-2d−2. In particular, the general optimal construction of the strongest nonlocal set in four-partite system is completely solved for the first time, which further highlights the theory of quantum nonlocality from the perspective of state discrimination.
Quantum nonlocality, a form of nonclassicality, serves as a crucial resource in quantum information processing. Nonlocality in quantum systems is exemplified by the perfect discrimination of orthogonal quantum states through single joint measurements, which is unattainable using local operations and classical communication (LOCC). Bandyopadhyay [S. Bandyopadhyay, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 210402 (2011)] established that, with LOCC alone, at most $N\ensuremath{-}1$ copies of NNN orthogonal quantum states are required for perfect discrimination. Here, we present the experimental verification of orthogonal quantum state discrimination employing LOCC. Our results demonstrate that up to three copies suffice for the perfect distinction of four orthogonal two-qubit states via LOCC. The verified method of perfectly distinguishing orthogonal quantum state sets offers potential applications in quantum information processes, including quantum secret sharing and quantum teleportation.
It is known that there exist sets of pure orthogonal product states which cannot be perfectly distinguished by local operations and classical communication (LOCC). Such sets are nonlocal sets which exhibit nonlocality without entanglement. These nonlocal sets can be completable or uncompletable. In this work both completable and uncompletable small nonlocal sets of multipartite orthogonal product states are constructed. Apart from nonlocality, these sets have other interesting properties. In particular, the completable sets lead to the construction of a class of complete orthogonal product bases with the property that if such a basis is given then no state can be eliminated from that basis by performing orthogonality-preserving measurements. On the other hand, an uncompletable set of the present kind contains several Shifts unextendible product bases (UPBs) that belong to qubit subspaces. Identifying these subspace UPBs, it is possible to obtain a class of high-dimensional multipartite bound entangled states. Finally, it is shown that a two-qubit maximally entangled Bell state shared between any two parties is sufficient as a resource to distinguish the states of any completable set (of the above kind) perfectly by LOCC. This constitutes an example where the amount of entanglement, sufficient to accomplish the aforesaid task, depends neither on the dimension of the individual subsystems nor on the number of parties.