In classical information theory one can, in principle, produce a perfect copy of any input state. In quantum information theory, the no cloning theorem prohibits exact copying of non-orthogonal states. Moreover, if we wish to copy multiparticle entangled states and can perform only local operations and classical communication (LOCC), then further restrictions apply. We investigate the problem of copying orthogonal, entangled quantum states with an entangled blank state under the restriction to LOCC. Throughout, the subsystems have finite dimension D . We show that if all of the states to be copied are non-maximally entangled, then novel LOCC copying procedures based on entanglement catalysis are possible. We then study in detail the LOCC copying problem where both the blank state and at least one of the states to be copied are maximally entangled. For this to be possible, we find that all the states to be copied must be maximally entangled. We obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for LOCC copying under these conditions. For two orthogonal, maximally entangled states, we provide the general solution to this condition. We use it to show that for D = 2, 3, any pair of orthogonal, maximally entangled states can be locally copied using a maximally entangled blank state. However, we also show that for any D which is not prime, one can construct pairs of such states for which this is impossible.
In classical information theory one can, in principle, produce a perfect copy of any input state. In quantum information theory, the no cloning theorem prohibits exact copying of nonorthogonal states. Moreover, if we wish to copy multiparticle entangled states and can perform only local operations and classical communication (LOCC), then further restrictions apply. We investigate the problem of copying orthogonal quantum states with an entangled blank state under the restriction to LOCC. Throughout, the subsystems have finite dimension D. We show that if some of the states to be copied are non-maximally entangled, then novel LOCC copying procedures based on entanglement catalysis are possible. We then study in detail the LOCC copying problem where both the blank state and at least one of the states to be copied are maximally entangled. For this to be possible, we find that all the states to be copied must be maximally entangled. We obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for LOCC copying under these conditions. For two orthogonal, maximally entangled states, we provide the general solution to this condition. We use it to show that for D=2,3, any pair of orthogonal, maximally entangled states can be locally copied using a maximally entangled blank state. However, we also show that for any D which is not prime, one can construct pairs of such states for which this is impossible.
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.
In the quantum system, perfect copying is impossible without prior knowledge. But, perfect copying is possible, if it is known that unknown states to be copied is contained by the set of orthogonal states, which is called the copied set. However, if our operation is limited to local operations and classical communications, this problem is not trivial. Recently, F. Anselmi, A. Chefles and M.B. Plenio constructed theory of local copying when the copied set consists of maximally entangled states. They also classified the copied set when it consists of two orthogonal states (New. J. Phys. 6, 164 (2004)). In this paper, we completely classify the copied set of local copying of the maximally entangled states in the prime dimensional system. That is, we prove that, in the prime dimensional system, the set of locally copiable maximally entangled states is equivalent to the set of Simultaneously Schmidt decomposable canonical form Bell states. As a result, we conclude that local copying of maximally entangled states is much more difficult than local discrimination at least in prime dimensional systems.
We investigate the conditions under which a set
S of pure bipartite quantum states on a $D\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}D$ system can be locally cloned deterministically by separable operations, when at least one of the states is full Schmidt rank. We allow for the possibility of cloning using a resource state that is less than maximally entangled. Our results include that: (i) all states in
S must be full Schmidt rank and equally entangled under the
G-concurrence measure, and (ii) the set
S can be extended to a larger clonable set generated by a finite group
G of order
∣G∣=N, the number of states in the larger set. It is then shown that any local cloning apparatus is capable of cloning a number of states that divides
D exactly. We provide a complete solution for two central problems in local cloning, giving necessary and sufficient conditions for (i) when a set of maximally entangled states can be locally cloned, valid for all
D; and (ii) local cloning of entangled qubit states with nonvanishing entanglement. In both of these cases, we show that a maximally entangled resource is necessary and sufficient, and the states must be related to each other by local unitary ``shift'' operations. These shifts are determined by the group structure, so need not be simple cyclic permutations. Assuming this shifted form and partially entangled states, then in
D=3 we show that a maximally entangled resource is again necessary and sufficient, while for higher-dimensional systems, we find that the resource state must be strictly more entangled than the states in
S. All of our necessary conditions for separable operations are also necessary conditions for local operations and classical communication (LOCC), since the latter is a proper subset of the former. In fact, all our results hold for LOCC, as our sufficient conditions are demonstrated for LOCC, directly.
We discuss the exact cloning of orthogonal but entangled qubits under local operations and classical communication. The amount of entanglement necessary in a blank copy is obtained for various cases. Surprisingly, this amount is more than 1 ebit for certain sets of two nonmaximal but equally entangled states of two qubits. To clone any three Bell states, at least
log2 3 ebit is necessary.
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.