We study the distinguishability of a particular type of maximally entangled states---the ``lattice states''---using an approach of a semidefinite program. With this, we successfully construct all sets of four ququad-ququad orthogonal maximally entangled states that are locally indistinguishable and find some curious sets of six states having an interesting property of distinguishability. Also, some of the problems that arose from Cosentino and Russo [Quantum Inf. Comput. 14, 1098 (2013)] about the positive-partial-transpose distinguishability of lattice maximally entangled states can be answered.
We present a simple semidefinite program whose optimal value is equal to the maximum probability of perfectly distinguishing orthogonal maximally entangled states using any PPT measurement (a measurement whose operators are positive under partial transpose). When the states to be distinguished are given by the tensor product of Bell states, the semidefinite program simplifies to a linear program. In Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 020506 (2012), Yu, Duan, and Ying exhibit a set of four maximally entangled states in ${\mathbb{C}}^{4}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}{\mathbb{C}}^{4}$, which is distinguishable by any PPT measurement only with probability strictly less than 1. Using semidefinite programming, we show a tight bound of
7/8 on this probability (
3/4 for the case of unambiguous PPT measurements). We generalize this result by demonstrating a simple construction of a set of
k states in ${\mathbb{C}}^{k}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}{\mathbb{C}}^{k}$ with the same property, for any
k that is a power of 2. By running numerical experiments, we show the local indistinguishability of certain sets of generalized Bell states in ${\mathbb{C}}^{5}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}{\mathbb{C}}^{5}$ and ${\mathbb{C}}^{6}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}{\mathbb{C}}^{6}$ previously considered in the literature.
We study the problem of distinguishing quantum states using local operations and classical communication (LOCC). A question of fundamental interest is whether there exist sets of
k≤d orthogonal maximally entangled states in $\complex^{d}\otimes\complex^{d}$ that are not perfectly distinguishable by LOCC. A recent result by Yu, Duan, and Ying [Phys. Rev. Lett. 109 020506 (2012)] gives an affirmative answer for the case
k=d. We give, for the first time, a proof that such sets of states indeed exist even in the case
k<d. Our result is constructive and holds for an even wider class of operations known as positive-partial-transpose measurements (PPT). The proof uses the characterization of the PPT-distinguishability problem as a semidefinite program.
We explicitly exhibit a set of four ququad-ququad orthogonal maximally entangled states that cannot be perfectly distinguished by means of local operations and classical communication. Before our work, it was unknown whether there is a set of d locally indistinguishable d⊗d orthogonal maximally entangled states for some positive integer d. We further show that a 2⊗2 maximally entangled state can be used to locally distinguish this set of states without being consumed, thus demonstrate a novel phenomenon of entanglement discrimination catalysis. Based on this set of states, we construct a new set K consisting of four locally indistinguishable states such that K(⊗m) (with 4(m) members) is locally distinguishable for some m greater than one. As an immediate application, we construct a noisy quantum channel with one sender and two receivers whose local zero-error classical capacity can achieve the full dimension of the input space but only with a multi-shot protocol.
For general quantum systems, many sets of locally indistinguishable orthogonal quantum states have been constructed so far. However, it is interesting how much entanglement resources are sufficient and/or necessary to distinguish these states by local operations and classical communication (LOCC). Here we first present a method to locally distinguish a set of orthogonal product states in $5\ensuremath{\bigotimes}5$ by using two copies of $2\ensuremath{\bigotimes}2$ maximally entangled states. Then we generalize the distinguishing method for a class of orthogonal product states in $d\ensuremath{\bigotimes}d$ (
d is odd). Furthermore, for a class of nonlocality of orthogonal product states in $d\ensuremath{\bigotimes}d$ ($d\ensuremath{\ge}5$), we prove that these states can be distinguished by LOCC with two copies of $2\ensuremath{\bigotimes}2$ maximally entangled states. Finally, for some multipartite orthogonal product states, we also present a similar method to locally distinguish these states with multiple copies of $2\ensuremath{\bigotimes}2$ maximally entangled states. These results also reveal the phenomenon of less nonlocality with more entanglement.
In order to better understand the class of quantum operations that preserve the positivity of partial transpose (PPT operations) and its relation to the widely used class of local operations and classical communication (LOCC), we study the problem of distinguishing orthogonal maximally entangled states (MES) by PPT operations. Firstly, we outline a rather simple proof to show that the number of
d⊗d PPT distinguishable MES is at most
d, which slightly generalizes existing results on this problem. Secondly, we construct 4 MES in
4⊗4 state space that cannot be distinguished by PPT operations. Before our work, it was unknown whether there exists
d MES in
d⊗d state space that are locally indistinguishable. This example leads us to a novel phenomenon of Entanglement Catalysis Discrimination. Moreover, we find there exists a set of locally indistinguishable states
K such that
K⊗m is locally distinguishable for some finite
m. As an interesting application, we exhibit a quantum channel with one sender and two receivers, whose one-shot zero-error local capacity is not optimal, but multi-use would enhance the capacity to achieve the full output dimension even without entangled input. Finally, we consider the entanglement cost of distinguishing three Bell states and a
2⊗2 entangled basis. In the former case a bipartite pure entangled state with the largest Schmidt coefficient at most 2/3 is necessary and sufficient, while in the latter case an additional Bell state, or one ebit, should be supplied.