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Entropy

Mutual Information and Quantum Coherence in Minimum Error Discrimination of N Pure Equidistant Quantum States

O. Jiménez

Published Aug 14, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study the quantum state discrimination problem under the minimum error (ME) strategy for a set of N pure equidistant states. These states are characterized by the property that the inner product between any pair of states is given by a unique complex number S. We provide the explicit form of the states and analyze their main structural properties. The optimal success probability for ME discrimination is evaluated as a function of the number of states, as well as the modulus and phase of the inner product S. Furthermore, we propose an experimental scheme for implementing the ME discrimination of equidistant states. We also investigate the quantum coherence consumed in the implementation of the minimum error discrimination of the equidistant states, which has an established operational interpretation as cryptographic randomness gain. As an application, we propose a quantum communication protocol in which Alice prepares and sends one of the equidistant states, while Bob applies the minimum error discrimination to extract the classical information encoded in the state. Finally, we discuss the optimal conditions under which the protocol achieves an optimal balance of classical correlations and quantum coherence, thereby ensuring effective information transfer and cryptographic security.

DOI
10.3390/e27080863

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We study the quantum state discrimination problem under the minimum error (ME) strategy for a set of N pure equidistant states. These states are characterized by the property that the inner product between any pair of states is given by a unique complex number S. We provide the explicit form of the states and analyze their main structural properties. The optimal success probability for ME discrimination is evaluated as a function of the number of states, as well as the modulus and phase of the inner product S. Furthermore, we propose an experimental scheme for implementing the ME discrimination of equidistant states. We also investigate the quantum coherence consumed in the implementation of the minimum error discrimination of the equidistant states, which has an established operational interpretation as cryptographic randomness gain. As an application, we propose a quantum communication protocol in which Alice prepares and sends one of the equidistant states, while Bob applies the minimum error discrimination to extract the classical information encoded in the state. Finally, we discuss the optimal conditions under which the protocol achieves an optimal balance of classical correlations and quantum coherence, thereby ensuring effective information transfer and cryptographic security.
We studied the mutual information and quantum discord that Alice and Bob share when Bob implements a discrimination with a fixed rate of inconclusive outcomes (FRIO) onto two pure non-orthogonal quantum states, generated with arbitrary a priori probabilities. FRIO discrimination interpolates between minimum error (ME) and unambiguous state discrimination (UD). ME and UD are well known discrimination protocols with several applications in quantum information theory. FRIO discrimination provides a more general framework where the discrimination process together with its applications can be studied. In this setting, we compared the performance of optimum probability of discrimination, mutual information, and quantum discord. We found that the accessible information is obtained when Bob implements the ME strategy. The most (least) efficient discrimination scheme is ME (UD), from the point of view of correlations that are lost in the initial state and remain in the final state, after Bob's measurement.
We study the classical and quantum correlations in the minimum error discrimination (ME) of two non-orthogonal pure quantum states. In particular, we consider quantum discord, thermal discord and entropy generation. We show that ME allows one to reach the accessible information between the two involved parties, Alice and Bob, in the discrimination process. We determine the amount of quantum discord that is consumed in the ME and show that the entropy generation is, in general, higher than the thermal discord. However, in certain cases the entropy generation is very close to thermal discord, which indicates that, in these cases, the process generates the least possible entropy. Moreover, we also study the ME process as a thermodynamic cycle and we show that it is in agreement with the second law of thermodynamics. Finally, we study the relation between the accessible information and the optimum success probability in ME.
Distinguishing different quantum states is a fundamental task having practical applications in information processing. Despite the effort devoted so far, however, strategies for optimal discrimination are known only for specific examples. In this paper we consider the problem of minimum-error quantum state discrimination where one attempts to minimize the average error. We show the general structure of minimum-error state discrimination as well as useful properties to derive analytic solutions. Based on the general structure, we present a geometric formulation of the problem, which can be applied to cases where quantum state geometry is clear. We also introduce equivalent classes of sets of quantum states in terms of minimum-error discrimination: sets of quantum states in an equivalent class that share the same guessing probability. In particular, for qubit states where the state geometry is found with the Bloch sphere, we illustrate that for an arbitrary set of qubit states, the minimum-error state discrimination with equal prior probabilities can be analytically solved, that is, optimal measurement and the guessing probability are explicitly obtained.
Quantum mechanics forbids perfect discrimination among nonorthogonal states through a single shot measurement. To optimize this task, many strategies were devised that later became fundamental tools for quantum information processing. Here, we address the pioneering minimum-error (ME) measurement and give the first experimental demonstration of its application for discriminating nonorthogonal states in high dimensions. Our scheme is designed to distinguish symmetric pure states encoded in the transverse spatial modes of an optical field; the optimal measurement is performed by a projection onto the Fourier transform basis of these modes. For dimensions ranging from D=2 to D=21 and nearly 14 000 states tested, the deviations of the experimental results from the theoretical values range from 0.3% to 3.6% (getting below 2% for the vast majority), thus showing the excellent performance of our scheme. This ME measurement is a building block for high-dimensional implementations of many quantum communication protocols, including probabilistic state discrimination, dense coding with nonmaximal entanglement, and cryptographic schemes.
There are two common settings in a quantum-state discrimination problem. One is minimum-error discrimination where a wrong guess (error) is allowed and the discrimination success probability is maximized. The other is unambiguous discrimination where errors are not allowed but the inconclusive result ``I do not know'' is possible. We investigate a discrimination problem with a finite margin imposed on the error probability. The two common settings correspond to the error margins 1 and 0. For arbitrary error margin, we determine the optimal discrimination probability for two pure states with equal occurrence probabilities. We also consider the case where the states to be discriminated are multipartite and show that the optimal discrimination probability can be achieved by local operations and classical communication.
The quantum state discrimination problem is ubiquitous in quantum information and serves as the foundation for many quantum communication schemes proposed so far. This paper investigates the optimal discrimination of three symmetric quantum states with equal prior probabilities. To obtain completely accessible information about the input pure states, this strategy makes improvements to the two standard strategies of quantum state discrimination, namely the minimum error discrimination and unambiguous discrimination. The new discrimination strategy proposed in this paper can be applied to both linearly independent and dependent quantum states.