Transformations from pure to mixed states are usually associated with information loss and irreversibility. Here, a protocol is demonstrated allowing one to make these transformations reversible. The pure states are diluted with a random noise source. Using this protocol one can study optimal transformations between states, and from this derive the unique measure of information. This is compared to irreversible transformations where one does not have access to noise. The ideas presented here shed some light on attempts to understand entanglement manipulations and the inevitable irreversibility encountered there where one finds that mixed states can contain "bound entanglement".
Starting from the observation that reversible processes cannot increase the purity of any input state, we study deterministic physical processes, which map a set of states to a set of pure states. Such a process must map any state to the same pure output, if purity is demanded for the input set of all states. But otherwise, when the input set is restricted, it is possible to find non-trivial purifying processes. For the most restricted case of only two input states, we completely characterize the output of any such map. We furthermore consider maps, which combine the property of purity and rev…
We study the conditions when mixtures of entangled pure states with maximally mixed one-qudit reduced density matrices remain entangled. We found that the resulting mixed state remains entangled when the number of entangled pure states to be mixed is less than or equal to the dimension of the pure states. For the latter case of mixing a number of pure states equal to their dimension, we found that the mixed state is entangled provided that the entangled pure states to be mixed are not equally weighted. We also found that one can restrict the set of pure states that one can mix from in order to…
After more than a century since its birth, Quantum Theory still eludes our understanding. If asked to describe it, we have to resort to abstract and ad hoc principles about complex Hilbert spaces. How is it possible that a fundamental physical theory cannot be described using the ordinary language of Physics? Here we offer a contribution to the problem from the angle of Quantum Information, providing a short non-technical presentation of a recent derivation of Quantum Theory from information-theoretic principles. The broad picture emerging from the principles is that Quantum Theory is the only…
Summary. A simple derivation of finite Schmidt decomposition of pure states describing finite dimensional systems interacting with the infinite dimensional ones is presented. In particular, maximally entangled pure states in such systems are being characterized. The concept of mixed-pure states has been introduced and some criterions for checking separability and entanglement of them are presented .The notion of LOCC equivalence and LOCC semi-order on the space of pure states of systems analyzed has been adopted suitably. In particular a Nielsen -like theorem has been extended to the pure (d, …
We investigate the discrimination of pure-mixed (quantum filtering) and mixed-mixed states and compare their optimal success probability with the one for discriminating other pairs of pure states superposed by the vectors included in the mixed states. We prove that under the equal-fidelity condition, the pure-pure state discrimination scheme is superior to the pure-mixed (mixed-mixed) one. With respect to quantum filtering, the coherence exists only in one pure state and is detrimental to the state discrimination for lower dimensional systems; while it is the opposite for the mixed-mixed case …
In this paper, we discuss the problem of determining whether a quantum system is in a pure state, or in a mixed state. We apply two strategies to settle this problem: the unambiguous discrimination and the maximum confidence discrimination. We also proved that the optimal versions of both strategies are equivalent. The efficiency of the discrimination is also analyzed. This scheme also provides a method to estimate purity of quantum states, and Schmidt numbers of composed systems.
It is commonly assumed that Shor's quantum algorithm for the efficient factorization of a large number $N$ requires a pure initial state. Here we demonstrate that a single pure qubit together with a collection of $log_2 N$ qubits in an arbitrary mixed state is sufficient to implement Shor's factorization algorithm efficiently.
We introduce a simple measure of "classicality" of pure and mixed quantum states as a maximum value of the Hilbert-Schmidt "scalar products" between the renormalized statistical operators of the state concerned and all displaced thermal states. Choosing Fock states as the reference set, we introduce the measure of "anticlassicality". Both measures are illustrated for the Fock, coherent phase, and generic mixed Gaussian states. Gaussian states are shown to be the closest to thermal states possessing the same degree of quantum purity. On the contrary, Fock states appear to be more close to mixed…
We examine how initial coherences in open chiral systems affect distinguishability of pure versus mixed states and purity decay. Interaction between a system and an environment is modeled by a continuous position measurement and a two-level approximation is taken for the system. The resultant analytical solution is explored for various parameters, with emphasis on the interplay of initial coherences of the system and dephasing rate in determining the purity decay and differences in the time evolution of pure vs. mixed initial states. %the distinguishability and the decoherence process. Implica…
Purifying noisy entanglement is a protocol which can increase the entanglement of a mixed state (as a source)at expense of the entanglement of others(as an ancilla)by collective measurement. A protocol with which one can get a pure entangled state from a mixed state is defined as purifying mixed states. We address a basic question: can one get a pure entangled state from a mixed state? We give a necessary and sufficient condition of purifying a mixed state by fit local operations and classical communication and show that for a class of source states and ancilla states in arbitrary bipartite sy…
We calculate the effect of polarization-dependent scattering by disorder on the degree of polarization-entanglement of two beams of radiation. Multi-mode detection converts an initially pure state into a mixed state with respect to the polarization degrees of freedom. The degree of entanglement decays exponentially with the number of detected modes if the scattering mixes the polarization directions and algebraically if it does not.
Entangled pure-states, Werner-states and generalized mixed-states of any structure, spanning a 2x2 Hilbert space are created by a novel high-brilliance universal source of polarization-entangled photon pairs. The violation of a Bell inequality has been tested for the first time with a pure-state, indeed a conceptually relevant ideal condition, and with Werner-states. The generalized ''maximally entangled mixed states'' (MEMS) were also synthetized for the first time and their exotic properties investigated by means of a quantum tomographic technique.
Teleportation for pure states, mixed states with standard and optimal protocols are introduced and investigated systematically. An explicit equation governing the teleportation of finite dimensional quantum pure states by a generally given non-local entangled state is presented. For the teleportation of a mixed state with an arbitrary mixed state resource, an explicit expression is obtained for the quantum channel associated with the standard teleportation protocol. The corresponding transmission fidelity is calculated. It is shown that the standard teleportation protocol is not optimal. The o…
Features of biphoton polarization-frequency ququarts are considered. Their wave functions are defined as functions of both polarization and frequency variables of photons with the symmetry obligatory for two-boson states taken into account. In experiments, biphoton ququarts can display different features in dependence on whether experiments involve purely polarization or (alternatively) polarization-frequency measurements. If in experiments one uses only polarization measurements, the originally pure states of ququarts can be seen as mixed biphoton polarization states. Features of such states …
Masking of quantum information means that information is hidden from a subsystem and spread over a composite system. Modi et al. proved in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 230501 (2018)] that this is true for some restricted sets of nonorthogonal quantum states and it is not possible for arbitrary quantum states. In this paper, we discuss the problem of masking quantum information encoded in pure and mixed states, respectively. Based on an established necessary and sufficient condition for a set of pure states to be masked by an operator, we find that there exists a set of four states that can not be ma…
This paper will address the question of the distillation of entanglement from a finite number of multi-partite mixed states. It is shown that if one can distill a pure entangled state from n copies of a mixed state $σ_{ABC...}$ there must be at least a subspace in whole Hilbert space of the all copies such that the projection of $σ_{ABC...}^{\otimes n}$ onto the subspace is a pure entangled state. We also show that the purification of entanglement or distillation of entanglement can be carried out by local joint projective measurements with the help of classical communication and local general…
Quantum mechanics forbids deterministic discrimination among non-orthogonal states. Nonetheless, the capability to distinguish nonorthogonal states unambiguously is an important primitive in quantum information processing. In this work, we experimentally implement generalized measurements in an optical system and demonstrate the first optimal unambiguous discrimination between three nonorthogonal states, with a success rate of 55%, to be compared with the 25% maximum achievable using projective measurements. Furthermore we present the first realization of unambiguous discrimination between a p…
The problem of discriminating with minimum error between two mixed quantum states is reviewed, with emphasize on the detection operators necessary for performing the measurement. An analytical result is derived for the minimum probability of errors in deciding whether the state of a quantum system is either a given pure state or a uniform statistical mixture of any number of mutually orthogonal states. The result is applied to two-qubit states, and the minimum error probabilities achievable by collective and local measurements on the qubits are compared.
This work addresses a fundamental problem of controllability of open quantum systems, meaning the ability to steer arbitrary initial system density matrix into any final density matrix. We show that under certain general conditions open quantum systems are completely controllable and propose the first, to the best of our knowledge, deterministic method for a laboratory realization of such controllability which allows for a practical engineering of arbitrary pure and mixed quantum states. The method exploits manipulation by the system with a laser field and a tailored nonequilibrium and time-de…
Interaction with environment may lead to the transition of quantum system from pure state to the mixed one. In this case, the problem of definition of entanglement may arise. In particular, quantitative measure of entanglement concurrence is introduced differently for pure and mixed states. To solve this problem, alternative definition of concurrence of mixed states is introduced in present work. In particular, concurrence of mixed states is determined as an average of pure states concurrences. Averaging is carried out over the quantum ensemble, corresponding to all possible realization of ran…
We describe a purely algebraic method for finding the best separable approximation to a mixed state of a composite 2x2 quantum system, consisting of a decomposition of the state into a linear combination of a mixed separable part and a pure entangled one. We prove that, in a generic case, the weight of the pure part in the decomposition equals the concurrence of the state.
Exact and approximate formulas for the upper bound of the relative energy difference of two Gaussian states with the fixed fidelity between them are derived. The reciprocal formulas for the upper bound of the fidelity for the fixed value of the relative energy difference are obtained as well. The bounds appear higher for pure states than for mixed ones, and their maximal values correspond to squeezed vacuum states. In particular, to guarantee the relative energy difference less than 10%, for quite arbitrary Gaussian states, the fidelity between them must exceed the level 0.998866.
The universal quantum homogeniser can transform a qubit from any state to any other state with arbitrary accuracy, using only unitary transformations to perform this task. Here we present an implementation of a finite quantum homogeniser using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), with a four-qubit system. We compare the homogenisation of a mixed state to a pure state, and the reverse process. After accounting for the effects of decoherence in the system, we find the experimental results to be consistent with the theoretical symmetry in how the qubit states evolve in the two cases. We analyse the …
We investigate the irreversibility of entanglement distillation for a symmetric d-1 parameter family of mixed bipartite quantum states acting on Hilbert spaces of arbitrary dimension d x d. We prove that in this family the entanglement cost is generically strictly larger than the distillable entanglement, such that the set of states for which the distillation process is asymptotically reversible is of measure zero. This remains true even if the distillation process is catalytically assisted by pure state entanglement and every operation is allowed, which preserves the positivity of the partial…
We report an approach to quantum open system dynamics that leads to novel nonlinear constant relations governing information flow among the participants. Our treatment is for mixed state systems entangled in a pure state fashion with an unspecified party that was involved in preparing the system for an experimental test, but no longer interacts after $t=0$. Evolution due to subsequent interaction with another party is treated as an amplitude flow channel and uses Schmidt-type bipartite decomposition of the evolving state. We illustrate this with three examples, including both reversible and ir…
Majorana Representation (MR) of symmetric $ N $-qubit pure states has been used successfully in entanglement classification. Generalization of this has been a long standing open problem due to the difficulties faced in the construction of a Majorana like geometric representation for symmetric mixed state. We have overcome this problem by developing a method of classifying local unitary (LU) equivalent classes of symmetric $N$-qubit mixed states based on the geometrical Multiaxial Representation (MAR) of the density matrix. In addition to the two parameters defined for the entanglement classifi…
It is known that mixed quantum states are highly entropic states of imperfect knowledge (i.e., incomplete information) about a quantum system, while pure quantum states are states of perfect knowledge (i.e., complete information) with vanishing von Neumann entropy. In this paper, we propose an information geometric theoretical construct to describe and, to a certain extent, understand the complex behavior of evolutions of quantum systems in pure and mixed states. The comparative analysis is probabilistic in nature, it uses a complexity measure that relies on a temporal averaging procedure alon…
An algebraic analysis of Grover's quantum search algorithm is presented for the case in which the initial state is an arbitrary pure quantum state of n qubits. This approach reveals the geometrical structure of the quantum search process, which turns out to be confined to a four-dimensional subspace of the Hilbert space. This work unifies and generalizes earlier results on the time evolution of the amplitudes during the quantum search, the optimal number of iterations and the success probability. Furthermore, it enables a direct generalization to the case in which the initial state is a mixed …
Non-classical joint measurements can hugely improve the efficiency with which certain figures of merit of quantum systems are measured. We use such a measurement to determine a particular figure of merit, the purity, for a polarization qubit. In the process we highlight some of subtleties involved in common methods for generating decoherence in quantum optics.
We quantify the geometric measure of entanglement in terms of mean values of observables of entangled system. For pure states we find the relation of geometric measure of entanglement with the mean value of spin one-half for the system composed of spin and arbitrary quantum system. The geometric measure of entanglement for mixed states of rank-2 is studied as well. We find the explicit expression for geometric entanglement and the relation of entanglement in this case with the values of spin correlations. These results allow to find experimentally the value of entanglement by measuring a value…
Quantum information processing exploits non-local functionality that has led to significant breakthroughs in the successful deployment of quantum mechanical protocols. In this regard, we address the dynamics of entanglement and coherence for three non-interacting qubits initially prepared as maximally entangled GHZ-like state coupled with independent classical environments. Two different Gaussian noises in pure and mixed noisy situations, namely, pure power-law noise, pure fractional Gaussian noise, power-law noise maximized and fractional Gaussian noise maximized cases are assumed to characte…
Amplitude damping changes entangled pure states into usually less-entangled mixed states. We show, however, that even local amplitude damping of one or two qubits can result in mixed states more entangled than pure states if one compares the relative entropy of entanglement (REE) for a given degree of the Bell-Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality violation (referred to as nonlocality). By applying Monte-Carlo simulations, we find the maximally entangled mixed states and show that they are likely to be optimal by checking the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions, which generalize the method of Lagran…
In this paper we extend our recent results for quantum teleportation of single qubit pure information state using non-maximally entangled pure state resource [Quantum Inf Process, 11 (2012) 1251] to the case of a general mixed information state and mixed Werner states resource. Fidelity is found dependent on information state in general. We minimize it over all possible information states and maximize it over possible unitary transformations which can be done by the receiver to obtain a value dependent on purity of information state and mixing parameter of Werner states. For pure information s…
We study faithful teleportation systematically with arbitrary entangled states as resources. The necessary conditions of mixed states to complete perfect teleportation are proved. Based on these results, the necessary and sufficient conditions of faithful teleportation of an unknown state |ϕ> in C^d with an entangled resource ρ in C^m \otimes C^d and C^d \otimes C^n are derived. It is shown that for ρ in C^m\otimesC^d, ρ must be a maximally entangled state, while for ρ in C^d \otimes C^n, ρ must be a puremaximally entangled state. Moreover, we show that the sender's measurements must be all pr…
The geometric measure of entanglement of a pure state, defined by its distance to the set of pure separable states, is extended to multipartite mixed states. We characterize the nearest disentangled mixed state to a given mixed state with respect to this measure by a system of equations. The entanglement eigenvalue for a mixed state is introduced. For a given mixed state, we show that its nearest disentangled mixed state is associated with its entanglement eigenvalue.
We demonstrate an optical receiver that achieves the quantum Chernoff bound for discriminating coherent states from thermal states in the multi-copy scenario. In contrast, we find that repeated use of the receiver approaching the Helstrom bound for single-copy measurement is sub-optimal in this multi-copy case. Furthermore, for a large class of multi-copy discrimination tasks between a pure and a mixed state, we prove that any Helstrom-bound achieving single-copy receiver is suboptimal by a factor of at least two in error-probability exponent compared to the multi-copy quantum Chernoff bound. …
The N to M (M>N) universal quantum broadcasting of mixed states are proposed for qubits system. The broadcasting of mixed states is universal and optimal in the sense that the shrinking factor is independent of input state and achieves the upper bound. The quantum broadcasting of mixed qubits is a generalization of the universal quantum cloning machine for identical pure input states. A new pure state decompositions of the identical mixed qubits are obtained.
General semiclassical expression for quantum fidelity (Loschmidt echo) of arbitrary pure and mixed states is derived. It expresses fidelity as an interference sum of dephasing trajectories weighed by the Wigner function of the initial state, and does not require that the initial state be localized in position or momentum. This general dephasing representation is special in that, counterintuitively, all of fidelity decay is due to dephasing and none due to the decay of classical overlaps. Surprising accuracy of the approximation is justified by invoking the shadowing theorem: twice--both for ph…
We ask what type of mixed quantum states can arise when a number of separated parties start by sharing a pure quantum state and then this pure state becomes contaminated by noise. We show that not all mixed states arise in this way. This is even the case if the separated parties actively try to degrade their initial pure state by arbitrary local actions and classical communication.
We introduce a new class of multipartite entangled mixed states with pure state decompositions of generalized W states, similar to Schmidt-correlated states having generalized GHZ states in the pure state decomposition. The entanglement and separability properties are studied according to PPT operations. Monogamy relations linked to these states are also investigated.
We consider to treat the usual probabilistic cloning, state separation, unambiguous state discrimination, \emph{etc} in a uniform framework. All these transformations can be regarded as special examples of generalized completely positive trace non-increasing maps on a finite number of input states. From the system-ancilla model we construct the corresponding unitary implementation of pure $\to$ pure, pure $\to$ mixed, mixed $\to$ pure, and mixed $\to$ mixed states transformations in the whole system and obtain the necessary and sufficient conditions on the existence of the desired maps. We exp…
The Groverian entanglement measure introduced earlier for pure quantum states [O. Biham, M.A. Nielsen and T. Osborne, Phys. Rev. A 65, 062312 (2002)] is generalized to the case of mixed states, in a way that maintains its operational interpretation. The Groverian measure of a mixed state of n qubits is obtained by a purification procedure into a pure state of 2n qubits, followed by an optimization process based on Uhlmann's theorem, before the resulting state is fed into Grover's search algorithm. The Groverian measure, expressed in terms of the maximal success probability of the algorithm, pr…
Spin chains have been proposed as quantum wires in many quantum information processing architectures. Coherent transmission of quantum information over short distances is enabled by their internal dynamics, which drives the transport of single-spin excitations in perfectly polarized chains. Given the practical challenge of preparing the chain in a pure state, we propose to use a chain that is initially in the maximally mixed state. We compare the transport properties of pure and mixed-state chains, finding similarities that enable the experimental study of pure-state transfer by its simulation…
We investigate multipartite entanglement for composite quantum systems in a pure state. Using the generalized Bloch representation for n-qubit states, we express the condition that all k-qubit reductions of the whole system are maximally mixed, reflecting maximum bipartite entanglement across all k vs. n-k bipartitions. As a special case, we examine the class of balanced pure states, which are constructed from a subset of the Pauli group P_n that is isomorphic to Z_2^n. This makes a connection with the theory of quantum error-correcting codes and provides bounds on the largest allowed k for fi…
Quantum states transformation under free operations plays a central role in the resource theory of coherence. In this paper, we investigate the transformation from a mixed coherent state into a pure one by using both incoherent operations and stochastic incoherent operations. We show that contrary to the strictly incoherent operations and the stochastic strictly incoherent operations, both the incoherent operations and the stochastic incoherent operations can increase the dimension of the maximal pure coherent subspace of a state. This means that the incoherent operations are generally stronge…
In this note we consider the problem of preparing a {\em single} copy of an arbitrary two-qubit mixed state $ρ$ starting from an entangled pure state $ψ$ and using only local operations assisted with classical communication. We present an analytical expression for the minimal amount of pure state entanglement required, and describe the corresponding local strategy. We also examine optimal probabilistic generalizations of the previous process.
It is shown that a finite number of conditions are {\em not} sufficient to determine the locality of transformations between two probability distributions of pure states as well as the locality of transformations between two $d\times d$ mixed states with $d\geq 4$. As an example, an infinite, but minimal, set of necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a local procedure that converts one probability distribution of two pure pair of qubits into another one is found.
A new definition and interpretation of geometric phase for mixed state cyclic unitary evolution in quantum mechanics are presented. The pure state case is formulated in a framework involving three selected Principal Fibre Bundles, and the well known Kostant-Kirillov-Souriau symplectic structure on (co) adjoint orbits associated with Lie groups. It is shown that this framework generalises in a natural and simple manner to the mixed state case. For simplicity, only the case of rank two mixed state density matrices is considered in detail. The extensions of the ideas of Null Phase Curves and Panc…
Consider a source E of pure quantum states with von Neumann entropy S. By the quantum source coding theorem, arbitrarily long strings of signals may be encoded asymptotically into S qubits/signal (the Schumacher limit) in such a way that entire strings may be recovered with arbitrarily high fidelity. Suppose that classical storage is free while quantum storage is expensive and suppose that the states of E do not fall into two or more orthogonal subspaces. We show that if E can be compressed with arbitrarily high fidelity into A qubits/signal plus any amount of auxiliary classical storage then …
We propose an extended quantum mechanical formalism that is based on a wave operator $\vr$, which is related to the ordinary density matrix via $ρ=\vr\vr^\dagger$. This formalism allows a (generalized) unitary evolution between pure and mixed states. It also preserves much of the connection between symmetries and conservation laws. The new formalism is illustrated for the case of a two level system.
A simplified expression of concurrence for two-qubit mixed state having no more than three non-vanishing eigenvalues is obtained. Basing on SU(2) coherent states, the amount of entanglement of two-qubit pure states is studied and conditions for entanglement are calculated by formulating the measure in terms of some new parameters (amplitudes of coherent states). This formalism is generalized to the case of two-qubit mixed states using the simplified expression of concurrence.
