We address the problem of unambiguous comparison of a pair of unknown qudit unitary channels. Using the framework of process positive operator valued measures (PPOVM) we characterize all solutions and identify the optimal ones. We prove that the entanglement is the key ingredient in designing the optimal experiment for comparison of unitary channels. Without entanglement the optimality can not be achieved. The proposed scheme is also experimentally feasible.
Unambiguous unitary maps and unambiguous unitary quantum channels are introduced and some of their properties are derived. These properties ensure certain simple form for the measurements involved in realizing an unambiguous unitary quantum channel. Error correction and unambiguous error correction with nonzero probability are discussed in terms of unambiguous unitary quantum channels. We not only re-derive the well-known condition for a set of errors to be correctable with certainty, but also obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for the errors caused by a noisy channel to be correctabl…
We address the problem of unambiguous discrimination among oracle operators. The general theory of unambiguous discrimination among unitary operators is extended with this application in mind. We prove that entanglement with an ancilla cannot assist any discrimination strategy for commuting unitary operators. We also obtain a simple, practical test for the unambiguous distinguishability of an arbitrary set of unitary operators on a given system. Using this result, we prove that the unambiguous distinguishability criterion is the same for both standard and minimal oracle operators. We then show…
We formulate minimum-error and unambiguous discrimination problems for quantum processes in the language of process positive operator valued measures (PPOVM). In this framework we present the known solution for minimum-error discrimination of unitary channels. We derive a "fidelity-like" lower bound on the failure probability of the unambiguous discrimination of arbitrary quantum processes. This bound is saturated (in a certain range of apriori probabilities) in the case of unambiguous discrimination of unitary channels. Surprisingly, the optimal solution for both tasks is based on the optimiz…
We investigate a discrimination scheme between unitary processes. By introducing a margin for the probability of erroneous guess, this scheme interpolates the two standard discrimination schemes: minimum-error and unambiguous discrimination. We present solutions for two cases. One is the case of two unitary processes with general prior probabilities. The other is the case with a group symmetry: the processes comprise a projective representation of a finite group. In the latter case, we found that unambiguous discrimination is a kind of "all or nothing": the maximum success probability is eithe…
We consider N quantum systems initially prepared in pure states and address the problem of unambiguously comparing them. One may ask whether or not all $N$ systems are in the same state. Alternatively, one may ask whether or not the states of all N systems are different. We investigate the possibility of unambiguously obtaining this kind of information. It is found that some unambiguous comparison tasks are possible only when certain linear independence conditions are satisfied. We also obtain measurement strategies for certain comparison tasks which are optimal under a broad range of circumst…
We present a solution of the problem of the optimal unambiguous comparison of two ensembles of unknown quantum states (psi_1)^k and (psi_2)^l. We consider two cases: 1) The two unknown states psi_1 and psi_2 are arbitrary states of qudits. 2) Alternatively, they are coherent states of a harmonic oscillator. For the case of coherent states we propose a simple experimental realization of the optimal "comparison" machine composed of a finite number of beam-splitters and a single photodetector.
We propose a scheme for unambiguous state comparison (USC) of two unknown squeezed vacuum states of an electromagnetic field. Our setup is based on linear optical elements and photon-number detectors, and achieves optimal USC in an ideal case of unit quantum efficiency. In realistic conditions, i.e., for non-unit quantum efficiency of photodetectors, we evaluate the probability of getting an ambiguous result as well as the reliability of the scheme, thus showing its robustness in comparison to previous proposals.
The goal of comparison is to reveal the difference of compared objects as fast and reliably as possible. In this paper we formulate and investigate the unambiguous comparison of unknown quantum measurements represented by non-degenerate sharp POVMs. We distinguish between measurement devices with apriori labeled and unlabeled outcomes. In both cases we can unambiguously conclude only that the measurements are different. For the labeled case it is sufficient to use each unknown measurement only once and the average conditional success probability decreases with the Hilbert space dimension as 1/…
In this article, we study the problem of comparing mixed quantum states: given $n$ unknown mixed quantum states, can one determine whether they are identical or not with an unambiguous quantum measurement? We first study universal comparison of mixed quantum states, and prove that this task is generally impossible to accomplish. Then, we focus on unambiguous comparison of $n$ mixed quantum states arbitrarily chosen from a set of $k$ mixed quantum states. The condition for the existence of an unambiguous measurement operator which can produce a conclusive result when the unknown states are actu…
In this article, we study an opposite problem of universal quantum state comparison, that is unambiguous determining whether multiple unknown quantum states from a Hilbert space are orthogonal or not. We show that no unambiguous quantum measurement can accomplish this task with a non-zero probability. Moreover, we extend the problem to a more general case, that is to compare how orthogonal multiple unknown quantum states are with a threshold, and it turns out that given any threshold this extended task is also impossible by any unambiguous quantum measurement except for a trivial case. It will…
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…
We show that two qubits, initially in a fully classical state, can develop significant quantum correlations as measured by the quantum discord (QD) under the action of a local memoryless noise (specifically we consider the case of a Markovian amplitude-damping channel). This is analytically proven after deriving in a compact form the QD for the class of separable states involved in such a process. We provide a picture in the Bloch sphere that unambiguously highlights the physical mechanism behind the effect regardless of the specific measure of QCs adopted.
In the present paper I formulate a framework that accommodates many unambiguous discrimination problems. I show that the prior information about any type of constituent (state, channel, or observable) allows us to reformulate the discrimination among finite number of alternatives as the discrimination among finite number of average constituents. Using this framework I solve several unambiguous tasks. I present a solution to optimal unambiguous comparison of two ensembles of unknown quantum states. I consider two cases: 1) The two unknown states are arbitrary pure states of qudits. 2) Alternati…
A bipartite state which is secretly chosen from a finite set of known entangled pure states cannot be immediately useful in standard quantum information processing tasks. To effectively make use of the entanglement contained in this unknown state, we introduce a new way to locally manipulate the original quantum system: either identify the state successfully or distill some pure entanglement. Remarkably, if many copies are available, we show that any finite set of entangled pure states, whatever orthogonal or not, can be locally distinguished in this way, which further implies that pure entang…
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 analyze the problem of comparing unitary transformations. The task is to decide, with minimal resources and maximal reliability, whether two given unitary transformations are identical or different. It is possible to make such comparisons without obtaining any information about the individual transformations. Different comparison strategies are presented and compared with respect to their efficiency. With an interferometric setup, it is possible to compare two unitary transforms using only one test particle. Another strategy makes use of a two-particle singlet state. This strategy is more e…
We present the conditions under which probabilistic error-free discrimination of mixed states is possible, and provide upper and lower bounds on the maximum probability of success for the case of two mixed states. We solve certain special cases exactly, and demonstrate how the problems of state filtering and state comparison can be recast as problems of mixed state unambiguous discrimination.
We investigate the unambiguous comparison of quantum states in a scenario that is more general than the one that was originally suggested by Barnett et al. First, we find the optimal solution for the comparison of two states taken from a set of two pure states with arbitrary a priori probabilities. We show that the optimal coherent measurement is always superior to the optimal incoherent measurement. Second, we develop a strategy for the comparison of two states from a set of N pure states, and find an optimal solution for some parameter range when N=3. In both cases we use the reduction metho…
It is always possible to decide, with one-sided error, whether two quantum states are the same under a specific unitary transformation. However we show here that it is {\em impossible} to do so if the transformation is anti-linear and non-singular. This result implies that unitary and anti-unitary operations exist on an unequal footing in quantum information theory.
We examine how to distinguish between unitary operators, when the exact form of the possible operators is not known. Instead we are supplied with "programs" in the form of unitary transforms, which can be used as references for identifying the unknown unitary transform. All unitary transforms should be used as few times as possible. This situation is analoguous to programmable state discrimination. One difference, however, is that the quantum state to which we apply the unitary transforms may be entangled, leading to a richer variety of possible strategies. By suitable selection of an input st…
A universal programmable discriminator can perform the discrimination between two unknown states, and the optimal solution can be approached via the discrimination between the two averages over the uniformly distributed unknown input pure states, which has been widely discussed in previous works. In this paper, we consider the success probabilities of the optimal universal programmable unambiguous discriminators when applied to the pure input states. More precisely, the analytic results of the success probabilities are derived with the expressions of the optimal measurement operators for the u…
Optimal dense coding using a partially-entangled pure state of Schmidt rank $\bar D$ and a noiseless quantum channel of dimension $D$ is studied both in the deterministic case where at most $L_d$ messages can be transmitted with perfect fidelity, and in the unambiguous case where when the protocol succeeds (probability $τ_x$) Bob knows for sure that Alice sent message $x$, and when it fails (probability $1-τ_x$) he knows it has failed. Alice is allowed any single-shot (one use) encoding procedure, and Bob any single-shot measurement. For $\bar D\leq D$ a bound is obtained for $L_d$ in terms of…
We investigate the extent to which we can establish whether or not two quantum systems have been prepared in the same state. We investigate the possibility of universal unambiguous state comparison. We show that it is impossible to conclusively identify two pure unknown states as being identical, and construct the optimal measurement for conclusively identifying them as being different. We then derive optimal strategies for state comparison when the state of each system is one of two known states.
In this thesis we study the problem of unambiguously discriminating two mixed quantum states. We first present reduction theorems for optimal unambiguous discrimination of two generic density matrices. We show that this problem can be reduced to that of two density matrices that have the same rank $r$ in a 2$r$-dimensional Hilbert space. These reduction theorems also allow us to reduce USD problems to simpler ones for which the solution might be known. As an application, we consider the unambiguous comparison of $n$ linearly independent pure states with a simple symmetry. Moreover, lower bound…
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…
The problem of optimally estimating an unknown unitary quantum operation with the aid of entanglement is addressed. The idea is to prepare an entangled pair, apply the unknown unitary to one of the two parts and then measure the joint output state. This measurement could be an entangled one or it could be separable (e.g., LOCC). A comparison is made between these possibilities and it is shown that by using non-separable measurements one can improve the accuracy of the estimation by a factor of $2(d+1)/d$ where $d$ is the dimension of the Hilbert space on which $U$ acts.
The dynamics of a qubit under the decoherence of a two level fluctuator (TLF) in addition to its coupling to a bosonic bath is investigated theoretically. Two different methods are applied and compared for this problem. One is a perturbation method based on a unitary transformation. With the merit of our unitary transformation, non-adiabatic effect can be taken into account efficiently. And the other one is the numerically exact method, namely the quasi-adiabatic path-integral (QUAPI) propagator technique. We find that the analytical method works well for a wide parameter range and show good a…
We investigate the performance of discrimination strategy in the comparison task of known quantum states. In the discrimination strategy, one infers whether or not two quantum systems are in the same state on the basis of the outcomes of separate discrimination measurements on each system. In some cases with more than two possible states, the optimal strategy in minimum-error comparison is that one should infer the two systems are in different states without any measurement, implying that the discrimination strategy performs worse than the trivial "no-measurement" strategy. We present a suffic…
We analytically determine the minimal time and the optimal control laws required for the realization, up to an assigned fidelity and with a fixed energy available, of entangling quantum gates ($\mathrm{CNOT}$) between indirectly coupled qubits of a trilinear Ising chain. The control is coherent and open loop, and it is represented by a local and continuous magnetic field acting on the intermediate qubit. The time cost of this local quantum operation is not restricted to be zero. When the matching with the target gate is perfect (fidelity equal to one) we provide exact solutions for the case of…
We investigate quantum state tomography (QST) for pure states and quantum process tomography (QPT) for unitary channels via $adaptive$ measurements. For a quantum system with a $d$-dimensional Hilbert space, we first propose an adaptive protocol where only $2d-1$ measurement outcomes are used to accomplish the QST for $all$ pure states. This idea is then extended to study QPT for unitary channels, where an adaptive unitary process tomography (AUPT) protocol of $d^2+d-1$ measurement outcomes is constructed for any unitary channel. We experimentally implement the AUPT protocol in a 2-qubit nucle…
We study nonequilibrium quantum phase transitions in XY spin 1/2 chain using the $C^*$ algebra. We show that the well-known quantum phase transition at magnetic field $h = 1$ persists also in the nonequilibrium setting as long as one of the reservoirs is set to absolute zero temperature. In addition, we find nonequilibrium phase transitions associated to imaginary part of the correlation matrix for any two different temperatures of the reservoirs at $h = 1$ and $h = h_{\rm c} \equiv|1-γ^2|$, where $γ$ is the anisotropy and $h$ the magnetic field strength. In particular, two nonequilibrium quan…
We study the growth of genuine multipartite entanglement in random quantum circuit models, which include random unitary circuit models and the random Clifford circuit. We find that for the random Clifford circuit, the growth of multipartite entanglement remains slower in comparison to the random unitary case. However, the final saturation value of multipartite entanglement is almost the same in both cases. The behavior is then compared to the genuine multipartite entanglement obtained in random matrix product states with a moderately high bond dimension. We then relate the behavior of multipar…
To obtain estimates of electronic energies, the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) technique performs separate measurements for multiple parts of the system Hamiltonian. Current quantum hardware is restricted to projective single-qubit measurements, and thus, only parts of the Hamiltonian which form mutually qubit-wise commuting groups can be measured simultaneously. The number of such groups in the electronic structure Hamiltonians grows as $N^4$, where $N$ is the number of qubits, and thus puts serious restrictions on the size of the systems that can be studied. Using a partitioning of th…
A ternary ring of operators (TRO) in finite dimensions is a diagonal sum of spaces of rectangular matrices. TRO as operator space corresponds to quantum channels that are diagonal sums of partial traces, which we call TRO channels. TRO channels admits simple, single-letter capacity formula. Using operator space and complex interpolation techniques, we give perturbative capacities estimates for a wider class of quantum channels by comparison to TRO channels. Our estimates applies mainly for quantum and private capacity and also strong converse rates. The examples includes random unitary from gr…
Local unitary operations allow for a unifying approach to the quantification of quantum correlations among the constituents of a bipartite quantum system. For pure states, the distance between a given state and its image under least-perturbing local unitary operations is a bona fide measure of quantum entanglement, the so-called entanglement of response, which can be extended to mixed states via the convex roof construction. On the other hand, when defined directly on mixed states perturbed by local unitary operations, such a distance turns out to be a bona fide measure of quantum correlations…
