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International Journal of Quantum Information

Distinguishing quantum operations: LOCC versus separable operators

Indrani Chattopadhyay, Debasis Sarkar

Published Aug 15, 2016• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the issue of distinguishing a pair of quantum operation in general. We use Krause theorem for representing the operations in unitary form. This supports the existence of pair of quantum operations that are not locally distinguishable, but distinguishable in asymptotic sense in some higher dimensional system. The process can even be successful without any use of the entangled initial state.

DOI
10.1142/s0219749916400281

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In this paper, we discuss the issue of distinguishing a pair of quantum operation in general. We use Krause theorem for representing the operations in unitary form. This supports the existence of pair of quantum operations that are not locally distinguishable, but distinguishable in asymptotic sense in some higher dimensional system. The process can even be successful without any use of the entangled initial state.
Entanglement is sometimes helpful in distinguishing between quantum operations, as differences between quantum operations can become magnified when their inputs are entangled with auxiliary systems. Bounds on the dimension of the auxiliary system needed to optimally distinguish quantum operations are known in several situations. For instance, the dimension of the auxiliary space never needs to exceed the dimension of the input space of the operations for optimal distinguishability, while no auxiliary system whatsoever is needed to optimally distinguish unitary operations. Another bound, which follows from work of R. Timoney , is that optimal distinguishability is always possible when the dimension of the auxiliary system is twice the number of operators needed to express the difference between the quantum operations in Kraus form. This paper provides an alternate proof of this fact that is based on concepts and tools that are familiar to quantum information theorists.
There exist sets of multipartite orthogonal states which can not be distinguished by local operation and classical communication (LOCC). The simplest example is the set of four Bell states. The problem of characterizing a set in terms of distinguishability is a hard problem in general. For maximally entangled states, some results are known. Local cloning of entangled states by supplying necessary entanglement in the blank state is another idea that was introduced very recently. Interestingly there are sets of orthogonal entangled states which can be distinguished locally but can not be copied by local operation (even if necessary entanglement is supplied in the blank state) contrary to the fact that happens in the case of global operation.
The problem of optimally estimating an unknown unitary quantum operation with the aid of entanglement is addressed. The idea is to prepare an entangled pair, apply the unknown unitary to one of the two parts, and then measure the joint output state. This measurement could be an entangled one or it could be separable (e.g., measurements which can be implemented with local operations and classical communication or LOCC). A comparison is made between these possibilities and it is shown that by using nonseparable measurements one can improve the accuracy of the estimation by a factor of 2(d+1)/d2(d+1)/d2(d+1)/d where d is the dimension of the Hilbert space on which U acts.
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.
In this paper, we study the distinguishability of arbitrary dimensional generalized Bell states under one-way local operations and classical communication (LOCC). We introduce an admissible solutions set and a nonadmissible solutions set for each set of generalized Bell states. Any element that exists in the admissible solution set but not in the nonadmissible one implies the one-way LOCC distinguishablity of a given set. This criterion is very convenient in the following two aspects: both solution sets can be calculated easily and, once the criterion can be applied successfully for a given set, it immediately presents an explicit distinguishing strategy. Furthermore, Fan's results in Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 177905 (2004) can also be deduced as special cases of our results. For the case no such element exists, we disprove a conjecture proposed by Yang et al. in Quantum Inf. Process. 17, 29 (2018) by presenting a counterexample.
A set of orthogonal quantum states is said to be locally indistinguishable if they cannot be perfectly distinguished by local operations and classical communication (LOCC). Otherwise, the states are locally distinguishable. Interestingly, locally indistinguishable states can have productive applications in quantum information processing protocols. In this sense, locally indistinguishable states are useful. On the other hand, it is usual to consider that locally distinguishable states are useless. Nevertheless, recent works suggest that locally distinguishable states should be given due consideration as in certain situations these states can be converted to locally indistinguishable states under orthogonality-preserving LOCC (OP-LOCC). Such a counterintuitive phenomenon motivates us to ask when the aforesaid conversion is possible and when it is not. In this work, we provide different structures of locally distinguishable product and entangled states which do not allow the aforesaid conversion. We also provide certain structures of locally distinguishable states which allow the aforesaid conversion. In this way, we classify the locally distinguishable sets by introducing hierarchies among them. In a multipartite system, this study becomes more involved as there exist multipartite locally distinguishable sets which cannot be converted to locally indistinguishable sets by OP-LOCC across any bipartition. We say this as ``no activation across bi-partitions".