In this work we relate the well-known no-go theorem that two non-orthogonal (mixed) quantum states cannot be perfectly discriminated, to the general principle in physics, the no-signalling condition. In fact, we derive the minimum error in discrimination between two quantum states, using the no-signalling condition.
A no-signalling channel transforming quantum systems in Alice's and Bob's laboratories is compatible with two different causal structures: (A < B) Alice's output causally precedes Bob's input and (B< A) Bob's output causally precedes Alice's input. I show that a quantum superposition of circuits operating within these two causal structures enables the perfect discrimination between no-signalling channels that can not be perfectly distinguished by any ordinary circuit.
Quantum correlations do not allow signalling, and any operation which may be performed on one system of an entangled pair cannot be detected by measurement of the other system alone. This no-signalling condition limits allowed operations and, in the context of quantum communication, may be used to put bounds on quantum state discrimination. We find that the natural figure of merit to consider is the confidence in identifying a state, which is optimised by the maximum confidence strategy. We show that this strategy may be derived from the no-signalling condition, and demonstrate the relationshi…
Distinguishing assigned quantum states with assigned probabilities via quantum measurements is a crucial problem for the transmission of classical information through quantum channels. Measurement operators maximizing the probability of correct discrimination have been characterized by Helstrom, Holevo and Yuen since 1970's. On the other hand, closed--form solutions are available only for particular situations enjoying high degrees of symmetry. As a suboptimal solution to the problem, measurement operators, directly determined from states and probabilities and known as square root measurements…
We propose a numerical algorithm for finding optimal measurements for quantum-state discrimination. The theory of the semidefinite programming provides a simple check of the optimality of the numerically obtained results.
We analyze the optimal unambiguous discrimination of two arbitrary mixed quantum states. We show that the optimal measurement is unique and we present this optimal measurement for the case where the rank of the density operator of one of the states is at most 2 ("solution in 4 dimensions"). The solution is illustrated by some examples. The optimality conditions proved by Eldar et al. [Phys. Rev. A 69, 062318 (2004)] are simplified to an operational form. As an application we present optimality conditions for the measurement, when only one of the two states is detected. The current status of op…
We find optimality conditions for testers in discrimination of quantum channels. These conditions are obtained using semidefinite programming and are similar to optimality conditions for POVMs obtained by Holevo for ensembles of quantum states. We get a simple condition for existence of an optimal tester with any given input state with maximal Schmidt rank, in particular with a maximally entangled input state and we show the pitfalls of using input states with not maximal Schmidt rank. In case when maximally entangled state is not the optimal input state an error estimate is obtained. The resu…
This paper constructs a LOCC protocol that achieves the global optimality in conclusive discrimination of any two states with arbitrary a priori probability. This can be interpreted that there is no ``non-locality'' in the conclusive discrimination of two multipartite states.
We study the discrimination of multipartite quantum states by local operations and classical communication. We derive that any optimal discrimination of quantum states spanning a two-dimensional Hilbert space in which each party's space is finite dimensional is possible by local operations and one-way classical communication, regardless of the optimality criterion used and how entangled the states are.
We propose a generalized discrimination scheme for mixed quantum states. In the present scenario we allow for certain fixed fraction of inconclusive results and we maximize the success rate of the quantum-state discrimination. This protocol interpolates between the Ivanovic-Dieks-Peres scheme and the Helstrom one. We formulate the extremal equations for the optimal positive operator valued measure describing the discrimination device and establish a criterion for its optimality. We also devise a numerical method for efficient solving of these extremal equations.
We present a generic study of unambiguous discrimination between two mixed quantum states. We derive operational optimality conditions and show that the optimal measurements can be classified according to their rank. In Hilbert space dimensions smaller or equal to five this leads to the complete optimal solution. We demonstrate our method with a physical example, namely the unambiguous comparison of n quantum states, and find the optimal success probability.
We provide a general framework of utilizing the no-signaling principle in derivation of the guessing probability in the minimum-error quantum state discrimination. We show that, remarkably, the guessing probability can be determined by the no-signaling principle. This is shown by proving that in the semidefinite programming for the discrimination, the optimality condition corresponds to the constraint that quantum theory cannot be used for a superluminal communication. Finally, a general bound to the guessing probability is presented in a closed form.
We introduce and study norms in the space of hermitian operators, obtained from base norms in positively generated subspaces. These norms are closely related to discrimination of so-called generalized quantum channels, including quantum states, channels and networks. We further introduce generalized quantum decision problems and show that the maximal average payoff of decision procedures is again given by these norms. We also study optimality of decision procedures, in particular, we obtain a necessary and sufficient condition under which an optimal 1-tester for discrimination of quantum chann…
We analyze a discrimination problem of a single-qubit unitary gate with two candidates, where the candidates are not provided with their classical description, but their quantum sample is. More precisely, there are three unitary quantum gates -- one target and one sample for each of the two candidates -- whose classical description is unknown except for their dimension. The target gate is chosen equally among the candidates. We obtain the optimal protocol that maximizes the expected success probability, assuming the Haar distribution for the candidates. This problem is originally introduced in…
We study an optimized measurement which discriminates N mixed quantum states occurring with given prior robabilities. The measurement yields the maximum achievable confidence for each of the N conclusive outcomes, thereby keeping the overall probability of inconclusive outcomes as small as possible. It corresponds to optimum unambiguous discrimination when for each outcome the confidence is equal to unity. Necessary and sufficient optimality conditions are derived and general properties of the optimum measurement are obtained. The results are applied to the optimized maximum-confidence discrim…
In this article, by treating minimum error state discrimination as a complementarity problem, we obtain the geometric optimality conditions. These can be used as the necessary and sufficient conditions to determine whether every optimal measurement operator can be nonzero. Using these conditions and an inductive approach, we demonstrate a geometric method and the intrinsic polytope for N-qubit mixed-state discrimination. When the intrinsic polytope becomes a point, a line segment, or a triangle, the guessing probability, the necessary and sufficient condition for the exact solution, and the op…
We study an optimum measurement for quantum state discrimination, which maximizes the probability of correct results when the probability of inconclusive results is fixed at a given value. The measurement describes minimum-error discrimination if this value is zero, while under certain conditions it corresponds to optimized maximum-confidence discrimination, or to optimum unambiguous discrimination, respectively, when the fixed value reaches a definite minimum. Using operator conditions that determine the optimum measurement, we derive analytical solutions for the discrimination of two mixed q…
Introducing the simplest of all No-Signalling Games: the RGB Game where two verifiers interrogate two provers, Alice and Bob, far enough from each other that communication between them is too slow to be possible. Each prover may be independently queried one of three possible colours: Red, Green or Blue. Let $a$ be the colour announced to Alice and $b$ be announced to Bob. To win the game they must reply colours $x$ (resp. $y$) such that $a \neq x \neq y \neq b$. This work focuses on this new game mainly as a pedagogical tool for its simplicity but also because it triggered us to introduce a ne…
In this paper we study the Minimum Error Discrimination problem (MED) for ensembles of linearly independent (LI) states. We define a bijective map from the set of those ensembles to itself and we show that the Pretty Good Measurement (PGM) and the optimal measurement for the MED are related by the map. In particular, the fixed points of the map are those ensembles for which the PGM is the optimal measurement. Also, we simplify the optimality conditions for the measurement of an ensemble of LI states.
We compare several instances of pure-state Belavkin weighted square-root measurements from the standpoint of minimum-error discrimination of quantum states. The quadratically weighted measurement is proven superior to the so-called "pretty good measurement" (PGM) in a number of respects: (1) Holevo's quadratic weighting unconditionally outperforms the PGM in the case of two-state ensembles, with equality only in trivial cases. (2) A converse of a theorem of Holevo is proven, showing that a weighted measurement is asymptotically optimal only if it is quadratically weighted. Counterexamples for …
We consider a special form of state discrimination in which after the measurement we are given additional information that may help us identify the state. This task plays a central role in the analysis of quantum cryptographic protocols in the noisy-storage model, where the identity of the state corresponds to a certain bit string, and the additional information is typically a choice of encoding that is initially unknown to the cheating party. We first provide simple optimality conditions for measurements for any such problem, and show upper and lower bounds on the success probability. For a c…
Quantum channel discrimination is a fundamental problem in quantum information science. In this study, we consider general quantum channel discrimination problems, and derive the lower bounds of the error probability. Our lower bounds are based on the triangle inequalities of the Bures angle and the trace distance. As a consequence of the lower bound based on the Bures angle, we prove the optimality of Grover's search if the number of marked elements is fixed to some integer $\ell$. This result generalizes Zalka's result for $\ell=1$. We also present several numerical results in which our lowe…
In this paper we consider the problem of unambiguous discrimination between a set of linearly independent pure quantum states. We show that the design of the optimal measurement that minimizes the probability of an inconclusive result can be formulated as a semidefinite programming problem. Based on this formulation, we develop a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for an optimal quantum measurement. We show that the optimal measurement can be computed very efficiently in polynomial time by exploiting the many well-known algorithms for solving semidefinite programs, which are guaranteed…
The minimum error discrimination problem for ensembles of linearly independent pure states are known to have an interesting structure; for such a given ensemble the optimal POVM is given by the pretty good measurment of another ensemble which can be related to the former ensemble by a bijective mapping $\mathscr{R}$ on the "space of ensembles". In this paper we generalize this result to ensembles of general linearly independent states (not necessarily pure) and also give an analytic expression for the inverse of the map, i.e., for $\mathscr{R}^{-1}$. In the process of proving this we also simp…
Quantum detectors provide information about quantum systems by establishing correlations between certain properties of those systems and a set of macroscopically distinct states of the corresponding measurement devices. A natural question of fundamental significance is how much information a quantum detector can extract from the quantum system it is applied to. In the present paper we address this question within a precise framework: given a quantum detector implementing a specific generalized quantum measurement, what is the optimal performance achievable with it for a concrete information re…
Perfect cloning of a known set of states with arbitrary prior probabilities is possible if we allow the cloner to sometimes fail completely. In the optimal case the probability of failure is at its minimum allowed by the laws of quantum mechanics. Here we show that it is possible to lower the failure rate below that of the perfect probabilistic cloner but the price to pay is that the clones are not perfect; the global fidelity is less than one. We determine the optimal fidelity of a cloner with a Fixed Failure Rate (FFR cloner) in the case of a pair of known states. Optimality is shown to be a…
This paper studies the difficulty of discriminating between an arbitrary quantum channel and a "replacer" channel that discards its input and replaces it with a fixed state. We show that, in this particular setting, the most general adaptive discrimination strategies provide no asymptotic advantage over non-adaptive tensor-power strategies. This conclusion follows by proving a quantum Stein's lemma for this channel discrimination setting, showing that a constant bound on the Type I error leads to the Type II error decreasing to zero exponentially quickly at a rate determined by the maximum rel…
In the task of quantum state exclusion we consider a quantum system, prepared in a state chosen from a known set. The aim is to perform a measurement on the system which can conclusively rule that a subset of the possible preparation procedures can not have taken place. We ask what conditions the set of states must obey in order for this to be possible and how well we can complete the task when it is not. The task of quantum state discrimination forms a subclass of this set of problems. Within this paper we formulate the general problem as a Semidefinite Program (SDP), enabling us to derive su…
Error bounds for composite quantum hypothesis testing and a new characterization of the weighted Kubo-Ando geometric means
Eötvös Loránd University(罗兰大学);HUN-REN Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics(匈牙利研究与创新科学院阿尔弗雷德·雷尼数学研究所);National University of Singapore(新加坡国立大学);Budapest University of Technology and Economics(布达佩斯技术与经济大学)