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.
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.
In this work, we construct small sets of bipartite orthogonal pure states that cannot be perfectly distinguished by local operations and classical communication (LOCC). We mention that not all the states within the constructed sets are necessarily entangled. However, such a set contains at least one entangled state which cannot be conclusively identified by LOCC (with nonzero probability). Then, we show that the states of any such set can be perfectly distinguished by LOCC using a minimal-dimensional entangled resource state. Clearly, here the entangled resource state provides an advantage irrespective of the dimension of the given set. Using this result, we also prove that any pure entangled state is useful as a resource to distinguish the states of any present set unambiguously with nonzero probability under LOCC. These sets exist in all two-qudit Hilbert spaces. Furthermore, it is possible to decrease the average entanglement content of such a set or to increase the cardinality of the set without changing certain properties of the same.
Any set of states which cannot be perfectly distinguished by local operations and classical communication (LOCC) alone can always be locally distinguished using quantum teleportation with a maximally entangled state as resource. However, in quantum information theory, entanglement is a very valuable resource, so it leaves the following problem: How to accomplish this task more efficiently than teleportation, that is, design the local discrimination protocol using less entanglement. In this paper, we first present two protocols to locally distinguish a particular unextendible product bases (UPB) in $5\ensuremath{\bigotimes}5$ by using different entanglement resource. Then, we generalize the distinguishing methods for a class of UPB in $d\ensuremath{\bigotimes}d$, where d is odd and $d\ensuremath{\geqslant}3$. Furthermore, for a class of UPB in $d\ensuremath{\bigotimes}d$, where d is even and $d\ensuremath{\geqslant}4$, we prove that these states can also be distinguished by LOCC with multiple copies of low-dimensional entanglement resource. These results offer rather general insight into how to use entanglement resource more efficiently and also reveal the phenomenon of less nonlocality with more entanglement.
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.
Quantum nonlocality admits several operational manifestations, one of which emerges from sets of orthogonal quantum states that cannot be perfectly distinguished by local operations and classical communication (LOCC). Such sets are regarded as nonlocal because their perfect discrimination requires global measurements. In contrast, sets that are perfectly distinguishable by LOCC are generally considered locally accessible and operationally classical. In this work, we investigate the role of incompletability in local state discrimination and introduce the notion of \emph{activation of incompletability}. Specifically, we demonstrate the existence of orthogonal sets that are initially perfectly distinguishable by LOCC and free from local redundancy, but which can be transformed via LOCC into strictly incompletable sets. We prove that activation of incompletability necessarily implies activation of nonlocality, whereas the converse fails in general, thereby establishing a hierarchy between the two activation phenomena. Furthermore, within the framework of local incoherent operations and classical communication (LICC), we show that any set whose incompletability can be activated can nevertheless be extended to a complete orthonormal basis of the Hilbert space, although the resulting completed basis is no longer perfectly distinguishable by LOCC. Our results uncover a fundamental interplay among local distinguishability, incompletability, coherence, and nonlocality, and provide new insight into the structure of locally accessible quantum information.
Ensembles containing orthogonal product states are found to be indistinguishable under local operations and classical communication (LOCC), thereby showing irreversibility in the preparation and distinguishing processes, which is commonly known as nonlocality without entanglement. On the other hand, correlations arising from incompatible measurements on entangled states lead to Bell-nonlocality. We unify these two concepts from the change in certain property incurred in the ensemble under a suitable global unitary transformation. Specifically, we prove that under controlled-NOT (CNOT) operation, a full product basis can create entangled states if and only if the full bases or any subspace of it become irreducible in the process of LOCC discrimination. The proposed criteria quantifies the amount of nonlocality associated with the sets of product states which are even incomplete. For a set having entangled states, we modify the quantity accordingly and show that it can provide an explanation for the phenomena of more nonlocality with less entanglement.
Abstract A set of multipartite orthogonal product states is strongly nonlocal if it is locally irreducible in every bipartition, which shows the phenomenon of strong quantum nonlocality without entanglement. It is known that unextendible product bases (UPBs) can show the phenomenon of quantum nonlocality without entanglement. Thus it is interesting to investigate the strong quantum nonlocality for UPBs. Most of the UPBs with the minimum size cannot demonstrate strong quantum nonlocality. In this paper, we construct a series of UPBs with different large sizes in d A ⊗ d B ⊗ d C and d A ⊗ d B ⊗ d C ⊗ d D for d A , d B , d C , d D ⩾ 3, and we also show that these UPBs have strong quantum nonlocality, which answers an open question given by Halder et al (2019 Phys. Rev. Lett. 122 040403) and Yuan et al (2020 Phys. Rev. A 102 042228) for any possible three and four-partite systems. Furthermore, we propose an entanglement-assisted protocol to locally discriminate the UPB in 3 ⊗ 3 ⊗ 4, and it consumes less entanglement resource than the teleportation-based protocol. Our results build the connection between strong quantum nonlocality and UPBs.