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arXiv:quant-ph/0506170 · Physical Review Letters

Bounds on Multipartite Entangled Orthogonal State Discrimination Using Local Operations and Classical Communication

Masahito Hayashi, Damian Markham, Mio Murao, Masaki Owari, S. Virmani

Published Feb 2, 2006• 179 citations
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Abstract

We show that entanglement guarantees difficulty in the discrimination of orthogonal multipartite states locally. The number of pure states that can be discriminated by local operations and classical communication is bounded by the total dimension over the average entanglement. A similar, general condition is also shown for pure and mixed states. These results offer a rare operational interpretation for three abstractly defined distancelike measures of multipartite entanglement.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.96.040501

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We show that entanglement guarantees difficulty in the discrimination of orthogonal multipartite states locally. The number of pure states that can be discriminated by local operations and classical communication is bounded by the total dimension over the average entanglement. A similar, general condition is also shown for pure and mixed states. These results offer a rare operational interpretation for three abstractly defined distancelike measures of multipartite entanglement.
It is shown that while entanglement ensures difficulty in discriminating a set of mutually orthogonal states perfectly by local operations and classical communication (LOCC), entanglement content does not. In particular, for a class of entangled multiqubit states, the maximum number of perfectly LOCC distinguishable orthogonal states is shown to be independent of the average entanglement of the states, and the spatial configuration with respect to which LOCC operations may be carried out. It is also pointed out that for this class, the makeup of an ensemble, that is whether it consists only of entangled states or not, determines the maximum number of perfectly distinguishable states.
Quantum state discrimination involves identifying a given state out of a set of possible states. When the states are mutually orthogonal, perfect state discrimination is always possible using a global measurement. In the case of multipartite systems when the parties are constrained to use multiple rounds of local operations and classical communication (LOCC), perfect state discrimination is often impossible even with the use of asymptotic LOCC, wherein an error is allowed but must vanish in the limit of an infinite number of rounds. Utilizing our recent results on asymptotic LOCC, we derive a lower bound on the error probability for LOCC discrimination of any given set of mutually orthogonal pure states. Informed by the insights gained from this lower bound, we are able to prove necessary conditions for perfect state discrimination by asymptotic LOCC. We then illustrate by example the power of these necessary conditions in significantly simplifying the determination of whether perfect discrimination of a given set of states can be accomplished arbitrarily closely using LOCC. The latter examples include a proof that perfect discrimination by asymptotic LOCC is impossible for any minimal unextendible product basis (UPB), where minimal means that for the given multipartite system no UPB with a smaller number of states can exist. We also give a simple proof that what has been called strong nonlocality without entanglement is considerably stronger than had previously been demonstrated.
More than two multipartite orthogonal states cannot always be discriminated if only local operations and classical communication (LOCC) are allowed. We show that four Bell states cannot be discriminated by LOCC, even probabilistically, using the separability properties of a four-party unlockable bound entangled state. Using an existing inequality among the measures of entanglement, we show that any three Bell states cannot be discriminated with certainty by LOCC. Exploiting the inequality, we calculate the distillable entanglement of a certain class of 4 multiply sign in circle 4 mixed states.
Any two orthogonal quantum states can be perfectly distinguished via local operations and classical communication (LOCC), yet whether all orthogonal multipartite pairs incur an identical operational cost remains an open question. Here, we address the resource consumption required for local state discrimination across multipartite pair of states. We demonstrate that distinct pairs of orthogonal multipartite maximally entangled states require unequal amounts of quantum resources to achieve local distinguishability. Extending our framework beyond individual pairs, we analyze larger sets of both locally distinguishable and indistinguishable multipartite orthogonal states, revealing a nontrivial hierarchy in their entanglement consumption. These results show that the resource cost of LOCC discrimination is state-dependent, providing insight into the fine-grained structure of multipartite nonlocality.
We study the discrimination of a pair of orthogonal quantum states in the many-copy setting. This is not a problem when arbitrary quantum measurements are allowed, as then the states can be distinguished perfectly even with one copy. However, it becomes highly nontrivial when we consider states of a multipartite system and locality constraints are imposed. We hence focus on the restricted families of measurements such as local operation and classical communication (LOCC), separable operations (SEP), and the positive-partial-transpose operations (PPT) in this paper. We first study asymptotic discrimination of an arbitrary multipartite entangled pure state against its orthogonal complement using LOCC/SEP/PPT measurements. We prove that the incurred optimal average error probability always decays exponentially in the number of copies, by proving upper and lower bounds on the exponent. In the special case of discriminating a maximally entangled state against its orthogonal complement, we determine the explicit expression for the optimal average error probability, thus establishing the associated Chernoff exponent. Our technique is based on the idea of using PPT operations to approximate LOCC. Then, we show an infinite asymptotic separation between SEP and PPT operations by providing a pair of states constructed from an unextendible product basis (UPB): they can be distinguished perfectly by PPT measurements, while the optimal error probability using SEP measurements admits an exponential lower bound. On the technical side, we prove this result by providing a quantitative version of the well-known statement that the tensor product of UPBs is UPB.
It is shown that the number of orthogonal density matrices that can be perfectly distinguished locally is bounded above by the total dimension over the average of maximal pure state entanglement in the supports of the density matrices. Thus we establish a direct connection between pure state entanglement and local distinguishability for any se t of orthogonal quantum states, pure or mixed. The result holds for any finite dimensional composite quantum system irrespective of the multipartite structure and dimensions of the individual su bsystems.