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arXiv:quant-ph/0204052 · Physical Review Letters

Distilling Gaussian States with Gaussian Operations is Impossible

Jens Eisert, Stefan Scheel, Martin Bodo Plenio

Published Sep 4, 2002• 608 citations
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Abstract

We show that no distillation protocol for Gaussian quantum states exists that relies on (i) arbitrary local unitary operations that preserve the Gaussian character of the state and (ii) homodyne detection together with classical communication and postprocessing by means of local Gaussian unitary operations on two symmetric identically prepared copies. This is in contrast to the finite-dimensional case, where entanglement can be distilled in an iterative protocol using two copies at a time. The ramifications for the distribution of Gaussian states over large distances will be outlined. We also comment on the generality of the approach and sketch the most general form of a Gaussian local operation with classical communication in a bipartite setting.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.89.137903

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We show that no distillation protocol for Gaussian quantum states exists that relies on (i) arbitrary local unitary operations that preserve the Gaussian character of the state and (ii) homodyne detection together with classical communication and postprocessing by means of local Gaussian unitary operations on two symmetric identically prepared copies. This is in contrast to the finite-dimensional case, where entanglement can be distilled in an iterative protocol using two copies at a time. The ramifications for the distribution of Gaussian states over large distances will be outlined. We also comment on the generality of the approach and sketch the most general form of a Gaussian local operation with classical communication in a bipartite setting.
We will show that no distillation protocol for Gaussian quantum states exists that relies on (i) arbitrary local unitary operations that preserve the Gaussian character of the state and (ii) homodyne detection together with classical communication and postprocessing by means of local Gaussian unitary operations on two symmetric identically prepared copies. This analysis shows that unlike the finite-dimensional case, where entanglement can be distilled in an iterative protocol using two copies at a time, there is no such procedure in the case of continuous variables for Gaussian initial states and the above Gaussian operations. The ramifications for the distribution of Gaussian states over large distances will be outlined. We will also comment on the generality of the approach and sketch the most general form of a Gaussian local operation with classical communication in a bi-partite setting.
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Entanglement distillation is a fundamental building block in long-distance quantum communication. Though known to be useless on their own for distilling Gaussian entangled states, local Gaussian operations may still help to improve non-Gaussian entanglement distillation schemes. Here we show that by applying local squeezing operations both the performance and the efficiency of existing distillation protocols can be enhanced. We find that such an enhancement through local Gaussian unitaries can be obtained even when the initially shared Gaussian entangled states are mixed, as, for instance, after their distribution through a lossy-fiber communication channel.
We characterize the class of all physical operations that transform Gaussian states to Gaussian states. We show that this class coincides with that of all operations that can be performed on Gaussian states using linear optical elements and homodyne measurements. For bipartite systems we characterize the processes that can be implemented by local operations and classical communication, as well as those that can be implemented using positive partial transpose preserving maps. As an application, we show that Gaussian states cannot be distilled by local Gaussian operations and classical communication. We also define and characterize positive (but not completely positive) Gaussian maps.