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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Matrix optimizations for quantum communications

John M. Myers, Hao Shen, Tai Tsun Wu

Published May 5, 2006• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In the simplest problems of quantum communication, Alice transmits one of two quantum states, with equal probabilities, to Bob's receiver, modeled by a positive-operator-valued measure (POVM); one seeks the POVM that is optimal according to one or another criterion. We discuss four such criteria, the first three of which lead to distinctive types of POVM. By introducing a reciprocal basis for the state vectors, we shorten the derivations of known results for the two most popular criteria. A new optimization problem defined by a third criterion, intermediate between the first two, is formulated and solved. Then we turn to a fourth criterion, that of minimizing Bob's Renyi entropy for an arbitrary order α. Depending on the value of α and the separation of Alice's states, the POVM that minimizes Bob's entropy can be any of the preceding three types.

DOI
10.1117/12.665948

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In the simplest problems of quantum communication, Alice transmits one of two quantum states, with equal probabilities, to Bob's receiver, modeled by a positive-operator-valued measure (POVM); one seeks the POVM that is optimal according to one or another criterion. We discuss four such criteria, the first three of which lead to distinctive types of POVM. By introducing a reciprocal basis for the state vectors, we shorten the derivations of known results for the two most popular criteria. A new optimization problem defined by a third criterion, intermediate between the first two, is formulated and solved. Then we turn to a fourth criterion, that of minimizing Bob's Renyi entropy for an arbitrary order α. Depending on the value of α and the separation of Alice's states, the POVM that minimizes Bob's entropy can be any of the preceding three types.
Quantum state discrimination is a fundamental task in the field of quantum communication and quantum information theory. Unless the states to be discriminated are mutually orthogonal, there will be some error in any attempt to determine which state was sent. Several strategies to optimally discriminate between quantum states exist, each maximising some figure of merit. In this thesis we mainly investigate the minimum-error strategy, in which the probability of correctly guessing the signal state is maximised. We introduce a method for constructing the optimal Positive-Operator Valued Measure (POVM) for this figure of merit, which is applicable for arbitrary states and arbitrary prior probabilities. We then use this method to solve minimum-error state discrimination for the so-called trine states with arbitrary prior probabilities - the first such general solution for a set of quantum states since the two-state case was solved when the problem of state discrimination was first introduced. We also investigate the difference between local and global measurements for a bipartite ensemble of states, and find that in certain circumstances the local measurement is superior. We conclude by finding a bipartite analogue to the Helstrom conditions, which indicate when a POVM satisfies the minimum-error criteria.
We consider how the theory of optimal quantum measurements determines the maximum information available to the receiving party of a quantum key distribution (QKD) system employing linearly independent but nonorthogonal quantum states. Such a setting is characteristic of several practical QKD protocols. Due to nonorthogonality, the receiver is not able to discriminate unambiguously between the signals. To understand the fundamental limits that this imposes, the quantity of interest is the maximum mutual information between the transmitter (Alice) and the receiver, whether legitimate (Bob) or an eavesdropper (Eve). To find the optimal measurement—taken individually or collectively—we use a framework based on operator algebra and general results derived from singular-value decomposition, achieving optimal solutions for von Neumann measurements and positive operator-valued measures (POVMs). The formal proof and quantitative analysis elaborated for two signals allow us to conclude that optimal von Neumann measurements are uniquely defined and provide a higher information gain compared to POVMs. Interestingly, collective measurements not only do not provide additional information gain with respect to individual ones but also suffer from a gain reduction in the case of POVMs. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
A quantum measurement can be regarded as a communication channel, in which the parameters of the state are expressed only in the probabilities of the outcomes of the measurement. We begin this paper by considering, in a non-quantum-mechanical setting, the problem of communicating through probabilities. For example, a sender, Alice, wants to convey to a receiver, Bob, the value of a continuous variable, θ, but her only means of conveying this value is by sending Bob a coin in which the value of θ is encoded in the probability of heads. We ask what the optimal encoding is when Bob will be allowed to flip the coin only a finite number of times. As the number of tosses goes to infinity, we find that the optimal encoding is the same as what nature would do if we lived in a world governed by real-vector-space quantum theory. We then ask whether the problem might be modified, so that the optimal communication strategy would be consistent with standard, complex-vector-space quantum theory.
We consider the problem of discrimination between two pure quantum states. It is well known that the optimal measurement under both the error-probability and log-loss criteria is a projection, while under an ``erasure-distortion'' criterion it is a three-outcome positive operator-valued measure (POVM). These results were derived separately. We present a unified approach which finds the optimal measurement under any distortion measure that satisfies a convexity relation with respect to the Bhattacharyya distance. Namely, whenever the measure is relatively convex (resp. concave), the measurement is the projection (resp. three-outcome POVM) above. The three above-mentioned results are obtained as special cases of this simple derivation. As for further measures for which our result applies, we prove that Renyi entropies of order 111 and above (resp. 1/21/21/2 and below) are relatively convex (resp. concave). A special setting of great practical interest, is the discrimination between two coherent-light waveforms. In a remarkable work by Dolinar it was shown that a simple detector consisting of a photon counter and a feedback-controlled local oscillator obtains the quantum-optimal error probability. Later it was shown that the same detector (with the same local signal) is also optimal in the log-loss sense. By applying a similar convexity approach, we obtain in a unified manner the optimal signal for a variety of criteria.
We consider the problem of discrimination between two pure quantum states. It is well known that the optimal measurement under both the error-probability and log-loss criteria is a projection, while under an “erasure-distortion” criterion it is a three-outcome positive operator-valued measure (POVM). These results were derived separately. We present a unified approach which finds the optimal measurement under any distortion measure that satisfies a convexity relation with respect to the Bhattacharyya distance. Namely, whenever the measure is relatively convex (resp. concave), the measurement is the projection (resp. three-outcome POVM) above. The three above-mentioned results are obtained as special cases of this simple derivation. As for further measures for which our result applies, we prove that Rényi entropies of order 1 and above (resp. 1/2 and below) are relatively convex (resp. concave). A special setting of great practical interest, is the discrimination between two coherent-light waveforms. In a remarkable work by Dolinar it was shown that a simple detector consisting of a photon counter and a feedback-controlled local oscillator obtains the quantum-optimal error probability. Later it was shown that the same detector (with the same local signal) is also optimal in the log-loss sense. By applying a similar convexity approach, we obtain in a unified manner the optimal signal for a variety of criteria.