A set of orthogonal quantum states is said to be locally indistinguishable if they cannot be perfectly distinguished by local operations and classical communication (LOCC). Otherwise, the states are locally distinguishable. Interestingly, locally indistinguishable states can have productive applications in quantum information processing protocols. In this sense, locally indistinguishable states are useful. On the other hand, it is usual to consider that locally distinguishable states are useless. Nevertheless, recent works suggest that locally distinguishable states should be given due consideration as in certain situations these states can be converted to locally indistinguishable states under orthogonality-preserving LOCC (OP-LOCC). Such a counterintuitive phenomenon motivates us to ask when the aforesaid conversion is possible and when it is not. In this work, we provide different structures of locally distinguishable product and entangled states which do not allow the aforesaid conversion. We also provide certain structures of locally distinguishable states which allow the aforesaid conversion. In this way, we classify the locally distinguishable sets by introducing hierarchies among them. In a multipartite system, this study becomes more involved as there exist multipartite locally distinguishable sets which cannot be converted to locally indistinguishable sets by OP-LOCC across any bipartition. We say this as ``no activation across bi-partitions".
A set of orthogonal quantum states is said to be locally indistinguishable if they cannot be perfectly distinguished by local operations and classical communication (LOCC). Otherwise, the states are locally distinguishable. Interestingly, locally indistinguishable states can have productive applications in quantum information processing protocols. In this sense, locally indistinguishable states are useful. On the other hand, it is usual to consider that locally distinguishable states are useless. Nevertheless, recent works suggest that locally distinguishable states should be given due consideration as in certain situations these states can be converted to locally indistinguishable states under orthogonality-preserving LOCC (OP-LOCC). Such a counterintuitive phenomenon motivates us to ask when the aforesaid conversion is possible and when it is not. In this work, we provide different structures of locally distinguishable product and entangled states which do not allow the aforesaid conversion. We also provide certain structures of locally distinguishable states which allow the aforesaid conversion. In this way, we classify the locally distinguishable sets by introducing hierarchies among them. In a multipartite system, this study becomes more involved as there exist multipartite locally distinguishable sets which cannot be converted to locally indistinguishable sets by OP-LOCC across any bipartition. We say this as ``no activation across bi-partitions".
A set of orthogonal product states is said to exhibit "quantum nonlocality without entanglement" if it is locally indistinguishable, i.e. no sequence of local operations and classical communication (LOCC) can perfectly discriminate the states. Building on this foundational idea, recent studies have highlighted the phenomenon of "genuine activation of hidden nonlocality", where a set of initially distinguishable orthogonal states becomes locally indistinguishable through orthogonality-preserving LOCC transformations. In this letter, we establish that any complete orthogonal product basis that is initially locally distinguishable remains so under all orthogonality-preserving local projective measurements, thereby ruling out activation via orthogonality-preserving local projective measurements and classical communication. We further introduce and formalise the notions of "strongly local sets", namely locally distinguishable sets that remain non-activable under all bipartitions. Interestingly, the study of "local activability" of distinguishable sets is useful to characterise the boundary between LOCC distinguishability and its irreversible loss in multipartite systems. Our results provide a rigorous structural understanding of local-to-nonlocal transitions in quantum state discrimination.
Quantum nonlocality has different manifestations that, in general, are revealed by local measurements of the parts of a composite system. In this paper, we study nonlocality arising from a set of orthogonal states that cannot be perfectly distinguished by local operations and classical communication (LOCC). Such a set is deemed nonlocal, for a joint measurement on the whole system is necessary for perfect discrimination of the states with certainty. On the other hand, a set of orthogonal states that can be perfectly distinguished by LOCC is believed to be devoid of nonlocal properties. Here, we show that there exist orthogonal sets that are locally distinguishable but without local redundancy (i.e., they become nonorthogonal on discarding one or more subsystems) whose nonlocality can be activated by local measurements. In particular, a state chosen from such a set can be locally converted, with certainty, into another state, the identity of which can now only be ascertained by global measurement and no longer by LOCC. In other words, a locally distinguishable set without local redundancy may be locally converted into a locally indistinguishable set with certainty. We also suggest an application, namely, local hiding of information, that allows us to locally hide locally available information without losing any part. Once hidden, the information in its entirety can only be retrieved using entanglement.
In the general bipartite quantum system $m\ensuremath{\bigotimes}n\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}(m,n\ensuremath{\ge}3)$, Y.-L. Wang et al. [Phys. Rev. A 92, 032313 (2015)] presented $3(m+n)\ensuremath{-}9$ orthogonal product states which cannot be distinguished by local operations and classical communication (LOCC). In this paper, we aim to construct less locally indistinguishable orthogonal product states in $m\ensuremath{\bigotimes}n$. First, in the $3\ensuremath{\bigotimes}n\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}(3<n)$ quantum system, we construct $3n\ensuremath{-}2$ locally indistinguishable orthogonal product states which are not unextendible product bases. Then, for $m\ensuremath{\bigotimes}n\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}(4\ensuremath{\le}m\ensuremath{\le}n)$, we present $3n+m\ensuremath{-}4$ orthogonal product states which cannot be perfectly distinguished by LOCC. Finally, in the general bipartite quantum system $m\ensuremath{\bigotimes}n\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}(3\ensuremath{\le}m\ensuremath{\le}n)$, we show a smaller set with $2n\ensuremath{-}1$ orthogonal product states and prove that these states are LOCC indistinguishable using a very simple but quite effective method. All of the above results demonstrate the phenomenon of nonlocality without entanglement.
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.
In the topic of perfect local distinguishability of orthogonal multipartite quantum states, most results obtained so far pertain to bipartite systems whose subsystems are of specific dimensions. In contrast very few results for bipartite systems whose subsystems are of arbitrary dimensions, are known. This is because a rich variety of (algebraic or geometric) structure is exhibited by different sets of orthogonal states owing to which it is difficult to associate some common property underlying them all, i.e., a common property that would play a crucial role in the local distinguishability of these states. In this Rapid Communication, I propose a framework for the distinguishability by one-way local operations and classical communication (1-LOCC) of sets of orthogonal bipartite states in a ${d}_{A}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}{d}_{B}$ bipartite system, where dA,dB are the dimensions of both subsytems, labeled as A and B. I show that if the ith party (where i=A,B) can initiate a 1-LOCC protocol to perfectly distinguish among a set of orthogonal bipartite states, then the information of the existence of such a 1-LOCC protocol lies in a subspace of ${d}_{i}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{d}_{i}$ Hermitian matrices, denoted by ${\mathcal{T}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{(i)}$, and that the method to extract this information (of the existence of this 1-LOCC protocol) from ${\mathcal{T}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{(i)}$ depends on the value of $\mathrm{dim}{\mathcal{T}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{(i)}$. In this way one can give sweeping results for the 1-LOCC (in)distinguishability of all sets of orthogonal bipartite states corresponding to certain values of $\mathrm{dim}{\mathcal{T}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{(i)}$. Thus I propose that the value of $\mathrm{dim}{\mathcal{T}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{(i)}$ gives the common underlying property based on which sweeping results for the 1-LOCC (in)distinguishability of orthogonal bipartite quantum states can be made.
It is necessary to investigate the local distinguishability of orthogonal quantum state sets, as their adoption in protocol design helps diminish quantum state transmission and cut operational costs. In this paper, we explore the local distinguishability of six orthogonal product states (OPSs) on any bipartite quantum system. We classify different sets of six bipartite OPSs into eight categories by using the vectors of the numbers of pairwise orthogonality relations, where any two states are orthogonal on only one subsystem within each set. We find that these eight categories contain a total of 78 distinct cases, all but five of which are perfectly distinguishable via local operations and classical communication (LOCC). Furthermore, we discuss the local distinguishability of those five distinct cases in detail. Our work explicitly characterizes the local distinguishability of six bipartite OPSs.