Optimal Manipulations with Quantum Information: Universal Quantum Machines

Fabio Sciarrino, F. De Martini

Abstract Since manipulations of qubits are constrained by the quantum mechanical rules, several classical information tasks can not be perfectly extended to the quantum world. The more relevant limitations in quantum information processing are the impossibility to perfectly clone any unknown qubit and to map it in its orthogonal state. Even if these two processes are unrealizable in their exact forms, they can be optimally approximated by the so‐called universal quantum machines: the optimal quantum cloning machine (UOQCM) and the universal‐NOT (U‐NOT) gate. Investigation of these optimal transformations is important since it reveals bounds on optimal manipulations of information with quantum systems. The 1−>1 U‐NOT gate and the 1−>2 UOQCM have been experimentally demonstrated by adopting the process of stimulated emission into an optical parametric amplifier and by slightly modifying the quantum state teleportation protocol.

David Peter Divincenzo

Vladimír Bužek, Mark S. Hillery

We analyze how information encoded in quantum systems can be optimally processed. In particular, we investigate copying (cloning) of quantum information (represented as states of 2-level quantum systems--qubits). We present unitary transformations which describe the optimal universal cloning of a qubit. Universality of the transformation guarantees that the fidelity of the cloning does not depend on the input state of the qubit, i.e. all states are cloned equally well. We present network for the optimal universal quantum cloning `machine' (transformation) which produces N + 1 copies from the original qubit. Here again the quality (fidelity) of the copies does not depend on the state of the original and is only a function of the number of copes, N. We also present the `machine' which universally and optimally clones states of quantum objects in arbitrary- dimensional Hilbert spaces. In particular, we discuss universal cloning of quantum registers. In addition to cloning of qubits we analyzed another universal operation-- the Universal NOT. We present the optimal transformation and the corresponding logical network which optimally complements an arbitrary input state of a qubit. We show that the fidelity of the performance of the Universal NOT operation increases as a function of the number of input qubits prepared in the same state.

Källstrand, Björn

The no-cloning theorem is one of the fundamental concepts of quantum information theory. It tells us that no general quantum state can be perfectly replicated. In this thesis we introduce the notion of imperfect cloning, and define the properties of the universal cloning machine. Furthermore, we construct an ansatz of how our universal cloning machine should perform as to produce two imperfect clones from one input qubit. We find an optimal fidelity of 5/6 for our universal cloning machine. We then reevaluate our ansatz and construct a class of unitary transformations such that an optimal fidelity is always achieved. Lastly, we present an overview of some applications of imperfect quantum cloning in the field of quantum information.

Yu Shi