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arXiv:2112.12651 · Entropy

Unambiguous State Discrimination with Intrinsic Coherence

Jin-Hua Zhang, Fulin Zhang, Zhi‐Xi Wang, Hui Yang, Shao-Ming Fei

Published Dec 23, 2021• 3 citations
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Abstract

We investigate the discrimination of pure-mixed (quantum filtering) and mixed-mixed states and compare their optimal success probability with the one for discriminating other pairs of pure states superposed by the vectors included in the mixed states. We prove that under the equal-fidelity condition, the pure-pure state discrimination scheme is superior to the pure-mixed (mixed-mixed) one. With respect to quantum filtering, the coherence exists only in one pure state and is detrimental to the state discrimination for lower dimensional systems; while it is the opposite for the mixed-mixed case with symmetrically distributed coherence. Making an extension to infinite-dimensional systems, we find that the coherence which is detrimental to state discrimination may become helpful and vice versa.

DOI
10.3390/e24010018

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•Jan 1, 2008•0 citations
We investigate the discrimination of pure-mixed (quantum filtering) and mixed-mixed states and compare their optimal success probability with the one for discriminating other pairs of pure states superposed by the vectors included in the mixed states. We prove that under the equal-fidelity condition, the pure-pure state discrimination scheme is superior to the pure-mixed (mixed-mixed) one. With respect to quantum filtering, the coherence exists only in one pure state and is detrimental to the state discrimination for lower dimensional systems; while it is the opposite for the mixed-mixed case with symmetrically distributed coherence. Making an extension to infinite-dimensional systems, we find that the coherence which is detrimental to state discrimination may become helpful and vice versa.
Classical mixtures of quantum states often give rise to decoherence and are generally considered detrimental to quantum processing. However, in the framework of sequential measurement, such mixtures can be beneficial for state discrimination. We investigate the sequential discrimination of mixed states and compare the results with those of pure states under the condition of equal fidelity. It is found that the successful probability of the mixed-state protocol is superior to the pure one under the equal-fidelity condition. It is shown that the difference between the sequential discrimination of pure and mixed states is more reliable under the equal-fidelity condition than under single-shot discrimination, and this difference increases with the mixability of the initial mixed states. For scenarios in which classical communication is allowed, the optimal successful probability of pure-state discriminations is larger than that for mixed states on the contrary. We also show that the classical mixture of basic vectors from quantum decoherence has a subtle impact on the communication channel induced by the coincidence of the maximal mutual information and optimal successful probability of sequential discrimination for pure states.
Deterministic discrimination of nonorthogonal states is forbidden by quantum measurement theory. However, if we do not want to succeed all the time, i.e., allow for inconclusive outcomes to occur, then unambiguous discrimination becomes possible with a certain probability of success. A variant of the problem is set discrimination: the states are grouped in sets and we want to determine to which particular set a given pure input state belongs. We consider here the simplest case, termed quantum state filtering, when the NNN given nonorthogonal states ${\ensuremath{\mid}{\ensuremath{\psi}}_{1}⟩,\dots{},\ensuremath{\mid}{\ensuremath{\psi}}_{N}⟩}$ are divided into two sets and the first set consists of one state only while the second consists of all of the remaining states. We present the derivation of the optimal measurement strategy, in terms of a generalized measurement (positive-operator-valued measure), to distinguish $\ensuremath{\mid}{\ensuremath{\psi}}_{1}⟩$ from the set ${\ensuremath{\mid}{\ensuremath{\psi}}_{2}⟩,\dots{},\ensuremath{\mid}{\ensuremath{\psi}}_{N}⟩}$ and the corresponding optimal success and failure probabilities. The results, but not the complete derivation, were presented previously [Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 25901 (2003)] as the emphasis there was on appplication of the results to probabilistic quantum algorithms. We also show that the problem is equivalent to the discrimination of a pure state and an arbitrary mixed state.
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In this thesis we study the problem of unambiguously discriminating two mixed quantum states. We first present reduction theorems for optimal unambiguous discrimination of two generic density matrices. We show that this problem can be reduced to that of two density matrices that have the same rank rrr in a 2rrr-dimensional Hilbert space. These reduction theorems also allow us to reduce USD problems to simpler ones for which the solution might be known. As an application, we consider the unambiguous comparison of nnn linearly independent pure states with a simple symmetry. Moreover, lower bounds on the optimal failure probability have been derived. For two mixed states they are given in terms of the fidelity. Here we give tighter bounds as well as necessary and sufficient conditions for two mixed states to reach these bounds. We also construct the corresponding optimal measurement. With this result, we provide analytical solutions for unambiguously discriminating a class of generic mixed states. This goes beyond known results which are all reducible to some pure state case. We however show that examples exist where the bounds cannot be reached. Next, we derive properties on the rank and the spectrum of an optimal USD measurement. This finally leads to a second class of exact solutions. Indeed we present the optimal failure probability as well as the optimal measurement for unambiguously discriminating any pair of geometrically uniform mixed states in four dimensions. This class of problems includes for example the discrimination of both the basis and the bit value mixed states in the BB84 QKD protocol with coherent states.
The discrimination of two mixed quantum states is a fundamental task in quantum state estimation and quantum information theory. In quantum state discrimination a quantum system is assumed to be in one of two possible – in general mixed – non-orthogonal quantum states. The discrimination then consists of a measurement strategy that allows to decide in which state the system was before the measurement. In unambiguous state discrimination the aim is to make this decision without errors, but it is allowed to give an inconclusive answer. Especially interesting are measurement strategies that minimize the probability of an inconclusive answer. A starting point for the analysis of this optimization problem was a result by Eldar et al. [Phys. Rev. A 69, 062318 (2004)], which provides non-operational necessary and sufficient conditions for a given measurement strategy to be optimal. These conditions are reconsidered and simplified in such a way that they become operational. The simplified conditions are the basis for further central results: It is shown that the optimal measurement strategy is unique, a statement that is e.g. of importance for the complexity analysis of optimal measurement devices. The optimal measurement strategy is derived for the case, where one of the possible input states has at most rank two, which was an open problem for many years. Furthermore, using the optimality criterion it is shown that there always exists a threshold probability for each state, such that below this probability it is optimal to exclude this state from the discrimination strategy. If the two states subject to discrimination can be brought to a diagonal structure with (2×2)-dimensional blocks, then the unambiguous discrimination of these states can be reduced to the unambiguous discrimination of pure states. A criterion is presented that allows to identify the presence of such a structure for two self-adjoint operators. This criterion consists of the evaluation of three commutators and allows an explicit construction of the (2×2)-dimensional blocks. As an important application of unambiguous state discrimination, unambiguous state comparison, i.e., the question whether two states are identical or not, is generalized and optimal measurements for this problem are constructed. If for a certain family of states, a physical device maps the input state to an output state, such that a second device can be built that yields back the original input state, such a map is called reversible on this family. With respect to state discrimination, such reversible maps are particularly interesting, if the output states are pure. A complete characterization of all families that allow such a reversible and purifying map is provided. If the states are mapped to pure states, but the map itself is not reversible, upper and lower bounds are analyzed for the “deviation from perfect faithfulness”, a quantity which measures the deviation from a reversible mapping.