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Physical Review A

Optimal cloning of two known nonorthogonal quantum states

Wen‐Hai Zhang, Long-Bao Yu, Zhuo‐Liang Cao, Liu Ye

Published Aug 22, 2012• 21 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Two known nonorthogonal quantum states can be cloned either deterministically or probabilistically. In this paper, we investigate quantum cloning by combining these two extreme cases, i.e., a trade-off between the copy fidelity and the success probability. For a special set of two known nonorthogonal quantum states, we start with an explicit unitary transformation and derive the copy fidelity as a function of the success probability. The result shows that the higher is the copy fidelity, the less is the success probability. This quantum cloning may have important applications in quantum cryptography.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.86.022322

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We further verify the impossibility of deleting an arbitrary unknown quantum state, and also show it is impossible to delete two nonorthogonal quantum states as a consequence of unitarity of quantum mechanics. A quantum approximate (deterministic) deleting machine and a probabilistic (exact) deleting machine are constructed. The estimation for the global fidelity characterizing the efficiency of the quantum approximate deleting is given. We then demonstrate that unknown nonorthogonal states chosen from a set with their multiple copies can evolve into a linear superposition of multiple deletions and failure branches by a unitary process if and only if the states are linearly independent. It is notable that the proof for necessity is somewhat different from Pati's [Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 2849 (1999)]. Another deleting machine for the input states that are unnecessarily linearly independent is also presented. The bounds on the success probabilities of these deleting machines are derived. So we expound some preliminary analogies between quantum cloning and deleting.

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Two known nonorthogonal quantum states can be cloned either deterministically or probabilistically. In this paper, we investigate quantum cloning by combining these two extreme cases, i.e., a trade-off between the copy fidelity and the success probability. For a special set of two known nonorthogonal quantum states, we start with an explicit unitary transformation and derive the copy fidelity as a function of the success probability. The result shows that the higher is the copy fidelity, the less is the success probability. This quantum cloning may have important applications in quantum cryptography.
We propose a scheme to enhance the fidelity of a symmetric quantum cloning machine via weak measurements. By adjusting the intensity of the weak measurement parameter ppp, we obtain copies of initial states with different values of fidelity. Choosing a proper value of ppp, we can obtain perfect copies. In this paper, we focus on $1\ensuremath{-}2$ quantum cloning for two nonorthogonal states. Sets containing more than two linear independent states are also briefly discussed. Due to the probabilistic nature of weak measurements, we obtain high-fidelity copies probabilistically. If the weak measurement is a success, we do subsequent operations to obtain high-fidelity copies; otherwise, the cloning process fails and we quit. From this perspective, the scheme we propose is economical for saving quantum resources and time. Our scheme may be very useful in quantum information processing.
We study the problem of universal quantum cloning – taking several identical copies of a pure but unknown quantum state and producing further copies. While it is well known that it is impossible to perfectly reproduce the state, how well the copies can be cloned can be quantified using the fidelity. We examine how individual fidelities can be traded against each other, and how different fidelity measures can be incorporated. The broadly applicable formalism into which we transform the cloning problem is described as a series of quadratic constraints which are amenable to mathematical and computational scrutiny. As such, we reproduce all known results on optimal universal cloning, and push the recent results on asymmetric cloning much further, giving new trade-off relations between fidelities for broad classes of optimal cloning machines. We also provide substantial evidence that motivates why other parameter ranges (number of input copies) have not, and will not, yield to similar analysis.
We study the problem of universal quantum cloning -- taking several identical copies of a pure but unknown quantum state and producing further copies. While it is well known that it is impossible to perfectly reproduce the state, how well the copies can be cloned can be quantified using the fidelity. We examine how individual fidelities can be traded against each other, and how different fidelity measures can be incorporated. The broadly applicable formalism into which we transform the cloning problem is described as a series of quadratic constraints which are amenable to mathematical and computational scrutiny. As such, we reproduce all known results on optimal universal cloning, and push the recent results on asymmetric cloning much further, giving new trade-off relations between fidelities for broad classes of optimal cloning machines. We also provide substantial evidence that motivates why other parameter ranges (number of input copies) have not, and will not, yield to similar analysis.
We establish the best possible approximation to a perfect quantum cloning machine that produces two clones out of a single input. We analyze both universal and state-dependent cloners. The maximal fidelity of cloning is shown to be 5/6 for universal cloners. It can be achieved either by a special unitary evolution or by a teleportation scheme. We construct the optimal state-dependent cloners operating on any prescribed two nonorthogonal states and discuss their fidelities and the use of auxiliary physical resources in the process of cloning. The optimal universal cloners permit us to derive an upper bound on the quantum capacity of the depolarizing quantum channel.
Quantum state cloning is the task of approximately producing additional copies of an unknown quantum state from a finite number of input copies. The optimal cloning fidelity is known exactly for pure states, but no comparable characterization is known for general mixed states. We determine the optimal asymptotic copy complexity for ddd-dimensional states of rank at most rrr: producing MMM additional copies with worst-case fidelity at least 1−ε1-\varepsilon1−ε requires and is achievable with N=Θ(Mrd/ε)N=Θ(Mrd/\varepsilon)N=Θ(Mrd/ε) input copies. Remarkably, the lower bound already holds for a family of states with a fixed flat spectrum, while the matching upper bound is achieved by random purification followed by optimal pure-state cloning. For M=1M=1M=1, we further show that high-fidelity tomography can be coherently converted into cloning with comparable error, revealing an operational origin of the matching cloning and tomography complexities.
We further verify the impossibility of deleting an arbitrary unknown quantum state, and also show it is impossible to delete two nonorthogonal quantum states as a consequence of unitarity of quantum mechanics. A quantum approximate (deterministic) deleting machine and a probabilistic (exact) deleting machine are constructed. The estimation for the global fidelity characterizing the efficiency of the quantum approximate deleting is given. We then demonstrate that unknown nonorthogonal states chosen from a set with their multiple copies can evolve into a linear superposition of multiple deletions and failure branches by a unitary process if and only if the states are linearly independent. It is notable that the proof for necessity is somewhat different from Pati's [Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 2849 (1999)]. Another deleting machine for the input states that are unnecessarily linearly independent is also presented. The bounds on the success probabilities of these deleting machines are derived. So we expound some preliminary analogies between quantum cloning and deleting.