We investigate the local distinguishability of a set of orthogonal states on C2⊗Cn by mathematical induction. We prove that a set of 2n − 1 orthogonal states on C2⊗Cn can be locally discriminated by local operation and classical communication if and only if at most one of them is entangled, that is, the sum of Schmidt rank of these states should be no greater than the total Hilbert space dimension, 2n. Furthermore, we give some discussion about locally distinguishing any number of orthogonal states on C2⊗Cn and explain why this Schmidt-rank criterion cannot be generalized to locally discriminate any number of orthogonal states.
We investigate the local distinguishability of a set of orthogonal states on C2⊗Cn by mathematical induction. We prove that a set of 2n − 1 orthogonal states on C2⊗Cn can be locally discriminated by local operation and classical communication if and only if at most one of them is entangled, that is, the sum of Schmidt rank of these states should be no greater than the total Hilbert space dimension, 2n. Furthermore, we give some discussion about locally distinguishing any number of orthogonal states on C2⊗Cn and explain why this Schmidt-rank criterion cannot be generalized to locally discriminate any number of orthogonal states.
Now, the known ensembles of orthogonal states which are distinguishable by local operators and classical communication (LOCC) satisfy the condition that the sum of Schmidit numbers of the orthogonal states is not bigger than the dimensions of the whole space. A natural question is whether an arbitary ensembles of LOCC-distinguishable orthogonal states satisfies the condition. We first show that, in this paper, the answer is positive. Then we generalize it into multipartite systems, and show that a necessary condition for LOCC-distinguishability of multipartite orthogonal quantum states is that the sum of the least numbers of the product states (For bipartite system, the least number of product states is Schmidit number) of the orthogonal states is not bigger than the dimensions of the Hilbert space of the multipartite system. This necessary condition is very simple and general, and one can get many cases of indistinguishability by it. It means that the least number of the product states acts an important role in distinguishablity of states, and implies that the least number of the product states may be an good manifestion of quantum nonlocality in some sense. In fact, entanglement emphases the "amount" of nonlocality, but the least number of the product states emphases the types of nonlocality. For example, the known W states and GHZ states have different least number of the product states, and are different in type.
I consider the deterministic distinguishability of a set of orthogonal, bipartite states when only a single copy is available and the parties are restricted to local operations and classical communication, but with the additional requirement that entanglement must be preserved in the process. Several general theorems aimed at characterizing sets of states with which the parties can succeed in such a task are proven. These include (i) a maximum for the number of states when the Schmidt rank of every outcome must be at least a given minimum, (ii) an upper bound (equal to the dimension of Hilbert space if entanglement need not be preserved) for the sum over Schmidt ranks of the initial states when only one-way classical communication is allowed, and (iii) separately, a necessary and a sufficient condition on the states such that their original Schmidt ranks can always be preserved. Two additional theorems explicitly demonstrate a trade-off between the extent to which the set of states fill Hilbert space, as measured by their Schmidt ranks, and how refined the parties must make their measurements, an important factor in determining the Schmidt rank the state can retain after it has been identified. It is shown that our bound on the sum of Schmidt ranks can be exceeded if two-way communication is permitted, and this includes the case that entanglement need not be preserved, so that this sum can exceed the dimension of Hilbert space. Such questions, concerning how the various results are affected by the resources used by the parties (amount of classical communication and types of local operations), are addressed for each theorem. This subject is closely related to the problem of locally purifying an entangled state from a mixed state, which is of direct relevance to teleportation and dense coding using a mixed-state resource. In an appendix, I give an extremely simple and transparent proof of ``nonlocality without entanglement,'' a phenomenon originally discussed by Bennett and co-workers several years ago.
In this work, we construct small sets of bipartite orthogonal pure states that cannot be perfectly distinguished by local operations and classical communication (LOCC). We mention that not all the states within the constructed sets are necessarily entangled. However, such a set contains at least one entangled state which cannot be conclusively identified by LOCC (with nonzero probability). Then, we show that the states of any such set can be perfectly distinguished by LOCC using a minimal-dimensional entangled resource state. Clearly, here the entangled resource state provides an advantage irrespective of the dimension of the given set. Using this result, we also prove that any pure entangled state is useful as a resource to distinguish the states of any present set unambiguously with nonzero probability under LOCC. These sets exist in all two-qudit Hilbert spaces. Furthermore, it is possible to decrease the average entanglement content of such a set or to increase the cardinality of the set without changing certain properties of the same.
We consider the relation between the orthogonality and the distinguishability of a set of arbitrary states (including multipartite states). It is shown that if a set of arbitrary states can be distinguished by local operations and classical communication (LOCC), each of the states can be written as a linear combination of product vectors such that all product vectors of one of the states are orthogonal to the other states. With this result we then prove a simple necessary condition for LOCC distinguishability of a class of orthogonal states. These conclusions may be useful in discussing the distinguishability of orthogonal quantum states further, understanding the essence of nonlocality and discussing the distillation of entanglement.
Abstract It is an interesting topic how much entanglement resources are necessary to distinguish locally indistinguishable orthogonal quantum states by local operations and classical communication (LOCC). Using only one ebit of entanglement some locally indistinguishable orthogonal product bases can be distinguished by LOCC [2019 Phys. Rev. A 99 012343]. However, it is still an open question whether one ebit of entanglement is sufficient for distinguishing a locally indistinguishable set of orthogonal maximally entangled states. We focus on the generalized Bell states (GBSs), and firstly find that any four GBSs in a 4 ⊗ 4 quantum system are always distinguished by one-way LOCC using one ebit of entanglement. Then we consider a general case, i.e., d ⊗ d quantum system ( d is even), and show that the set L of any GBSs can be distinguished by one-way LOCC using one ebit of entanglement if S A \ S L is nonempty, where S A is the admissible solutions set of L and S L is the genuinely nonadmissible solutions set of L . This criterion is very simple and convenient since only some congruence equations are calculated. Finally, we find a curious and counterintuitive case, i.e., in a 3 ⊗ 3 quantum system there exist four GBSs which cannot be distinguished by one-way LOCC using one ebit of entanglement, although the dimension of the subsystem is less than four. These results can help us better understand the role of entanglement as a resource in local state discrimination problems.
We consider the question of perfect local distinguishability of mutually orthogonal bipartite quantum states, with the property that every state can be specified by a unitary operator acting on the local Hilbert space of Bob. We show that if the states can be exactly discriminated by one-way local operations and classical communication (LOCC) where Alice goes first, then the unitary operators can also be perfectly distinguished by an orthogonal measurement on Bob's Hilbert space. We give examples of sets of N ⩽ d maximally entangled states in d ⊗ d for d = 4,5,6 that are not perfectly distinguishable by one-way LOCC. Interestingly, for d = 5,6, our examples consist of four and five states, respectively. We conjecture that these states cannot be perfectly discriminated by two-way LOCC.