We investigate antidistinguishability of states within the framework of general probabilistic theories (GPTs). We formulate antidistinguishability, strong and equal antidistinguishability as refined notions that imposed additional constraint on the measurement effects. We establish general results relating these notions of antidistinguishability and derive an upper bound on the cardinality of equally antidistinguishable sets in terms of the affine dimension of the state space. We then study antidistinguishability in polygonal theories, obtaining conditions for antidistinguishability of a set of states. In consequence, we show that the set of all pure states in a polygon model is antidistinguishable. Additionally, we identify broad families of strongly and equally antidistinguishable states. Finally, using Random Exclusion Codes, whose success probability is governed by the antidistinguishability of different sets of encoding states, we probe the nonclassicality of polygon theories. We find that certain polygon models can outperform the optimal quantum value, while their optimal performance converges to the quantum limit in the large-polygon limit.
We investigate antidistinguishability of states within the framework of general probabilistic theories (GPTs). We formulate antidistinguishability, strong and equal antidistinguishability as refined notions that imposed additional constraint on the measurement effects. We establish general results relating these notions of antidistinguishability and derive an upper bound on the cardinality of equally antidistinguishable sets in terms of the affine dimension of the state space. We then study antidistinguishability in polygonal theories, obtaining conditions for antidistinguishability of a set of states. In consequence, we show that the set of all pure states in a polygon model is antidistinguishable. Additionally, we identify broad families of strongly and equally antidistinguishable states. Finally, using Random Exclusion Codes, whose success probability is governed by the antidistinguishability of different sets of encoding states, we probe the nonclassicality of polygon theories. We find that certain polygon models can outperform the optimal quantum value, while their optimal performance converges to the quantum limit in the large-polygon limit.
Abstract The entropy principle asserts that spontaneous processes drive systems toward states of higher disorder. Operational origin of such randomness is a question of utmost importance. The seminal Birkhoff theorem (also known as Birkhoff–von Neumann theorem) identifies doubly stochastic transformations as convex mixtures of reversible transformations, thereby providing an epistemic account of disorder. Quantum theory, however, does not satisfy this equivalence in general. In this work, we investigate this question within the framework of Generalized Probabilistic Theories (GPTs). We prove a violation of the Birkhoff theorem in the square-bit model, a canonical non-quantum GPT, and further show that this violation persists asymptotically under tensor products of any finite, yet arbitrarily large, number of copies of even-polygon models. This provides evidence that the failure of the Birkhoff theorem is an intrinsic operational feature of a wide class of GPTs, rather than a peculiarity of quantum theory. Furthermore, we show that, beyond quantum theory, the preorder over states induced by mixtures of reversible transformations can differ from that induced by doubly stochastic transformations, leading to inequivalent notions of state convertibility and distinct resource theories of purity. Beyond its foundational significance, we show that the violation of the Birkhoff theorem admits a concrete operational interpretation: in the square-bit theory, it serves as a genuine resource for enhancing the performance of Random Access Codes. Finally, we discuss the construction of entropy functions in GPTs that remain consistent with thermodynamic principles, in the spirit of von Neumann’s formulation.
Among the surprising features of quantum measurements, the problem of distinguishing and antidistinguishing general quantum measurements is fundamentally appealing. Unlike classical systems, quantum theory offers entangled states and peculiar state update rule of the postmeasurement state, which gives rise to four distinct scenarios for distinguishing (and antidistinguishing) quantum measurements: (i) probing single systems and without access to the postmeasurement states, (ii) probing entangled systems and without access to the postmeasurement states, (iii) probing single systems with access to the postmeasurement states, and (iv) probing entangled systems with access to the postmeasurement states. In these scenarios, we consider the probability of distinguishing (and antidistinguishing) quantum measurements sampled from a given set in the single-shot regime. For some scenarios, we provide the analytical expressions of distinguishability (and antidistinguishability) for qubit projective measurements. We show that the distinguishability of any pair of qubit projective measurements in scenario (iii) is always greater than its values in scenario (ii). Interestingly, we find certain pairs of qubit nonprojective measurements for which the optimal distinguishability in scenario (ii) is achieved using a nonmaximally entangled state. It turns out that, for any set of measurements, distinguishability (and antidistinguishability) in scenario (i) is always less than or equal to in any other scenario, while it reaches its highest possible value in scenario (iv). We establish that the relations form a strict hierarchy, and there is no hierarchical relation between scenarios (ii) and (iii). In particular, we introduce different variants of the well-known ``trine'' qubit measurement to construct pairs (and triples) of qubit quantum measurements such that they are perfectly distinguishable (and antidistinguishable) in scenario (ii) but not in scenario (iii) and vice versa. Additionally, we present qubit measurements that are perfectly distinguishable (and antidistinguishable) in scenario (iv) but not in any other scenario.
We study incompatibility of measurements and its relation to steering and nonlocality in a class of finite-dimensional general probabilistic theories (GPTs). The basic idea is to represent finite collections of measurements as affine maps of a state space into a polysimplex and show that incompatibility is characterized by properties of these maps. We introduce the notion of an incompatibility witness and show its relation to incompatibility degree. We find the largest incompatibility degree attainable by pairs of two-outcome quantum measurements and characterize state spaces for which incompatibility degree attains maximal values possible in GPTs. As examples, we study the spaces of classical and quantum channels and show their close relation to polysimplices. This relation explains the superquantum nonclassical effects that were observed on these spaces.
The notion of antidistinguishability captures the possibility of ruling out certain alternatives in a quantum experiment without identifying the actual outcome. Although extensively studied for quantum states, the antidistinguishability of quantum channels remains largely unexplored. In this work, we investigate the single-shot antidistinguishability of unitary operations. We analyse two scenarios: antidistinguishability with single-system probes and with entangled probes. For sets of three unitaries, we first prove that all maximally entangled states are equivalent in their performance as probe. In the qubit case, we further establish that maximally entangled probes are always sufficient: if a set of three qubit unitaries is antidistinguishable with either a single-system or non-maximally entangled probe, then it is also antidistinguishable with a maximally entangled one. However, in higher dimension, this equivalence fails. In \textit{dimension 3}, there exists a set of unitaries that are antidistinguishable with non-maximally entangled probe or single-system probe but not with maximally entangled probe. We also establish that union of two antidistinguishable sets of three qubit unitaries also forms a set of antidistinguishable unitaries. Lastly, we provide methods to construct antidistinguishable unitaries from non-antidistinguishable ones.
A set of pure quantum states is said to be antidistinguishable if upon sampling one at random, there exists a measurement to perfectly determine some state that was not sampled. We show that antidistinguishability of a set of n pure states is equivalent to a property of its Gram matrix called ( n − 1 ) -incoherence, thus establishing a connection with quantum resource theories that lets us apply a wide variety of new tools to antidistinguishability. As a particular application of our result, we present an explicit formula (not involving any semidefinite programming) that determines whether or not a set with a circulant Gram matrix is antidistinguishable. We also show that if all inner products are smaller than ( n − 2 ) / ( 2 n − 2 ) then the set must be antidistinguishable, and we show that this bound is tight when n ≤ 4 . We also give a simpler proof that if all the inner products are strictly larger than ( n − 2 ) / ( n − 1 ) , then the set cannot be antidistinguishable, and we show that this bound is tight for all n .
Abstract In this study, we consider generalized probabilistic theories (GPTs) and focus on a class of theories called regular polygon theories, which can be regarded as natural generalizations of a two-level quantum system (a qubit system). In the usual CHSH setting for quantum theory, the CHSH value is known to be optimized by maximally entangled states. This research will reveal that the same observations are obtained also in regular polygon theories. Our result gives a physical meaning to the concept of ‘maximal entanglement’ in regular polygon theories.