Abstract In [Phys. Rev. A 107 012427 (2023)], Baldwin and Jones prove that Uhlmann–Jozsa’s fidelity between two quantum states ρ and σ, i.e., F ( ρ , σ ) ≔ Tr ρ σ ρ 2 , can be written in a simplified form as F ( ρ , σ ) = Tr ρ σ 2 . In this article, we give an alternative proof of this result, using a function power series expansion and the properties of the trace function. Our approach not only reinforces the validity of the simplified expression but also facilitates the exploration of novel dissimilarity functions for quantum states and more complex trace functions of density operators.
Abstract In [Phys. Rev. A 107 012427 (2023)], Baldwin and Jones prove that Uhlmann–Jozsa’s fidelity between two quantum states ρ and σ, i.e., F ( ρ , σ ) ≔ Tr ρ σ ρ 2 , can be written in a simplified form as F ( ρ , σ ) = Tr ρ σ 2 . In this article, we give an alternative proof of this result, using a function power series expansion and the properties of the trace function. Our approach not only reinforces the validity of the simplified expression but also facilitates the exploration of novel dissimilarity functions for quantum states and more complex trace functions of density operators.
Fidelity plays an important role in quantum information theory. In this paper, two pairs of metrics of quantum states are introduced based on the Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity and super-fidelity. They are proved to satisfy the axioms of metrics and return to the Sine metric and Bures metric for the qubit case. The CP expansive property and convex property of the metrics are studied. These metrics have deep connections with the known important metrics such as trace metric, Sine metric, Bures metric, and spectral metric, and are useful to quantify entanglement. I. Background, problem, and result Suppose one has two quantum states ρ and σ, then the Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity [1] between ρ and σ is given by F(ρ, σ) = [Tr ρ 1 2 σρ 1 2] 2. Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity plays an important role in quantum information theory and quantum computation [1], [2]. We know that for the case of qubit, Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity has a simple form. From the Bloch sphere representation of quantum states, a qubit is described by a density matrix as([3]): ρ(u) = 1 (I + σ · u), 2 where I is the 2 × 2 unit matrix and σ = (σ1, σ2, σ3) are the Pauli matrices. Assume ρ(u) and ρ(v) are two states of one qubit, then they can represented by two vectors u and v in the Bloch sphere. The Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity for qubits has an elegant form([4] and [5]): F(ρ(u), ρ(v)) = 1 2 [1 + u · v + √ 1 − |u | 2 √ 1 − |v | 2], where u · v is the inner product of two vectors u and v, and |u | is the magnitude of u. We know that for N × N quantum states, the Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity has no simple form like the case of qubits. To use the simple form of fidelity, we note that in [6], the authors introduce a new fidelity, called super-fidelity, and proved that Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity can be bounded above by the super-fidelity G(ρ1, ρ2): F(ρ1, ρ2) ≤ G(ρ1, ρ2)
Josza’s definition of fidelity [R. Jozsa, J. Mod. Opt. 41(12), 2315–2323 (1994)] for a pair of (mixed) quantum states is studied in the context of two types of operator algebras. The first setting is mainly algebraic in that it involves unital C∗-algebras A that possess a faithful trace functional τ. In this context, the role of quantum states (that is, density operators) in the classical quantum-mechanical framework is assumed by positive elements ρ ∈ A for which τ(ρ) = 1. The second setting is more operator theoretic: by fixing a faithful normal semifinite trace τ on a semifinite von Neumann algebra M, we define and consider the fidelity of pairs of positive operators in M of unit trace. The main results of this paper address monotonicity and preservation of fidelity under the action of certain trace-preserving positive linear maps of A or of the predual M∗. Our results in the von Neumann algebra setting are novel in that we focus on the Schrödinger picture rather than the Heisenberg picture, and they also yield a new proof of a theorem of Molnár [Rep. Math. Phys. 48(3), 299–303 (2001)] on the structure of fidelity-preserving quantum channels on the trace-class operators.
Estimating the trace of quantum state powers, Tr ( ρ k ) , for k identical quantum states is a fundamental task with numerous applications in quantum information processing, including nonlinear function estimation of quantum states and entanglement detection. On near-term quantum devices, reducing the required quantum circuit depth, the number of multi-qubit quantum operations, and the copies of the quantum state needed for such computations is crucial. In this work, inspired by the Newton-Girard method, we significantly improve upon existing results by introducing an algorithm that requires only O ( r ~ ) qubits and O ( r ~ ) multi-qubit gates, where r ~ = min { rank ( ρ ) , ⌈ ln ( 2 k / ϵ ) ⌉ } . This approach is efficient, as it employs the r ~ -entangled copy measurement instead of the conventional k -entangled copy measurement, while asymptotically preserving the known sample complexity upper bound. Furthermore, we prove that estimating { Tr ( ρ i ) } i = 1 r ~ is sufficient to approximate Tr ( ρ k ) even for large integers k > r ~ . This leads to a rank-dependent complexity for solving the problem, providing an efficient algorithm for low-rank quantum states while also improving existing methods when the rank is unknown or when the state is not low-rank. Building upon these advantages, we extend our algorithm to the estimation of Tr ( M ρ k ) for arbitrary observables and Tr ( ρ k σ l ) for multiple quantum states.
We propose an alternative fidelity measure (namely, a measure of the degree of similarity) between quantum states and benchmark it against a number of properties of the standard Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity. This measure is a simple function of the linear entropy and the Hilbert-Schmidt inner product between the given states and is thus, in comparison, not as computationally demanding. It also features several remarkable properties such as being jointly concave and satisfying all of Jozsa's axioms. The trade-off, however, is that it is supermultiplicative and does not behave monotonically under quantum operations. In addition, metrics for the space of density matrices are identified and the joint concavity of the Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity for qubit states is established.
Computing quantum state fidelity will be important to verify and characterize states prepared on a quantum computer. In this work, we propose novel lower and upper bounds for the fidelity F ( ρ , σ ) based on the ``truncated fidelity'' F ( ρ m , σ ) , which is evaluated for a state ρ m obtained by projecting ρ onto its m -largest eigenvalues. Our bounds can be refined, i.e., they tighten monotonically with m . To compute our bounds, we introduce a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm, called Variational Quantum Fidelity Estimation, that involves three steps: (1) variationally diagonalize ρ , (2) compute matrix elements of σ in the eigenbasis of ρ , and (3) combine these matrix elements to compute our bounds. Our algorithm is aimed at the case where σ is arbitrary and ρ is low rank, which we call low-rank fidelity estimation, and we prove that no classical algorithm can efficiently solve this problem under reasonable assumptions. Finally, we demonstrate that our bounds can detect quantum phase transitions and are often tighter than previously known computable bounds for realistic situations.