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arXiv:quant-ph/9904056 · Physical Review A

Optimal generalized quantum measurements for arbitrary spin systems

A. Acín, José Ignacio Latorre, P. Pascual

Published Jan 14, 2000• 31 citations
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Abstract

Positive-operator-valued measurements on a finite number of N identically prepared systems of arbitrary spin J are discussed. Pure states are characterized in terms of Bloch-like vectors restricted by a $\mathrm{SU}(2J+1)$ covariant constraint. This representation allows for a simple description of the equations to be fulfilled by optimal measurements. We explicitly find the minimal positive-operator-valued measurement for the $N=2$ case, a rigorous bound for $N=3,$ and set up the analysis for arbitrary N.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.61.022113

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Optimal and finite positive operator valued measurements on a finite number NNN of identically prepared systems have recently been presented. With physical realization in mind, we propose here optimal and minimal generalized quantum measurements for two-level systems. We explicitly construct them up to N=7N\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}7N=7 and verify that they are minimal up to N=5N\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}5N=5.
We present a universal algorithm for the optimal quantum state estimation of an arbitrary finite dimensional system. The algorithm specifies a physically realizable (i.e., finite) positive operator valued measurement on a finite number of identically prepared systems. We illustrate the general formalism by applying it to different scenarios of the state estimation of NNN independent and identically prepared two-level systems (qubits).
A direct derivation is given for the optimal mean fidelity of quantum state estimation of a ddd-dimensional unknown pure state with its NNN copies given as input, which was first obtained by Hayashi in terms of an infinite set of covariant positive operator valued measures (POVM's) and by Bru\ss{} and Macchiavello establishing a connection to optimal quantum cloning. An explicit condition for POVM measurement operators for optimal estimators is obtained, by which we construct optimal estimators with finite POVMs using exact quadratures on a hypersphere. These finite optimal estimators are not generally universal, where universality means the fidelity is independent of input states. However, any optimal estimator with finite POVM for M(>N)M(>N)M(>N) copies is universal if it is used for NNN copies as input.
Given NNN identical copies of the state of a quantum two-level system, we analyze its optimal estimation. We consider two situations: general pure states and (pure) states restricted to lie on the equator of the Bloch sphere. We perform a complete and comprehensive analysis of the optimal schemes based on local measurements, and give results (optimal measurements, maximum fidelity, etc.) for arbitrary NNN, not necessarily large, within the Bayesian framework. We also make a comparative analysis of the asymptotic limit of these results with those derived from a (pointwise) Cram\'er-Rao type of approach. We give explicit schemes based on local measurements and no classical communication that saturate the fidelity bounds of the most general collective schemes.
We consider the problem of constructing measurements optimized to distinguish between a collection of possibly nonorthogonal quantum states. We consider a collection of pure states and seek a positive operator-valued measure (POVM) consisting of rank-one operators with measurement vectors closest in squared norm to the given states. We compare our results to previous measurements suggested by Peres and Wootters (1991) and Hausladen et al. (1996), where we refer to the latter as the square-root measurement (SRM). We obtain a new characterization of the SRM, and prove that it is optimal in a least-squares sense. In addition, we show that for a geometrically uniform state set the SRM minimizes the probability of a detection error. This generalizes a similar result of Ban et al. (see Int. J. Theor. Phys., vol.36, p.1269-88, 1997).
We obtain the optimal scheme for estimating unknown qubit mixed states when an arbitrary number NNN of identically prepared copies is available. We discuss the case of states in the whole Bloch sphere as well as the restricted situation where these states are known to lie on the equatorial plane. For the former case we obtain that the optimal measurement does not depend on the prior probability distribution provided it is isotropic. Although the equatorial-plane case does not have this property for arbitrary NNN, we give a prior-independent scheme which becomes optimal in the asymptotic limit of large NNN. We compute the maximum mean fidelity in this asymptotic regime for the two cases. We show that within the pointwise estimation approach these limits can be obtained in a rather easy and rapid way. This derivation is based on heuristic arguments that are made rigorous by using van Trees inequalities. The interrelation between the estimation of the purity and the direction of the state is also discussed. In the general case we show that they correspond to independent estimations whereas for the equatorial-plane states this is only true asymptotically.