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.
We show how one can solve the problem of discriminating between qubit states. We use the quantum state discrimination duality theorem and the Bloch sphere representation of qubits which allows for an easy geometric and analytical representation of the optimal guessing strategies.
We consider the problem of minimum-error quantum state discrimination for single-qubit mixed states. We present a method which uses the Helstrom conditions constructively and analytically; this algebraic approach is complementary to existing geometric methods, and solves the problem for any number of arbitrary signal states with arbitrary prior probabilities.
In this work, we provide a complete analysis to minimum-error discrimination of mixed four qubit states with arbitrary prior probabilities. For the complete anaysis, the most important work to do is to find the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of null measurement operator. From the geometric structure of qubit states, we obtain the analytic condition for deciding the existence of a null operator in minimum-error measurement for mixed four qubit states, which also gives the necessary and sufficient conditions for every optimal POVM to have non-zero elements. Using the condi…
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 consider a state discrimination problem which deals with settings of minimum-error and unambiguous discrimination systematically by introducing a margin for the probability of an incorrect guess. We analyze discrimination of three symmetric pure states of a qubit. The measurements are classified into three types, and one of the three types is optimal depending on the value of the error margin. The problem is formulated as one of semidefinite programming. Starting with the dual problem derived from the primal one, we analytically obtain the optimal success probability and the optimal measure…
We consider the optimal discrimination of nonorthogonal qubit states with post-measurement information and provide an analytic structure of the optimal measurements. We also show that there is always a null optimal measurement when post-measurement information is given. Further, in discriminating four states using post-measurement information, we analytically provide the optimal probability of correct guessing and show that the uniqueness of optimal measurement is equivalent to the non-existence of non-null optimal measurement with post-measurement information.
We investigate the performance of a Kennedy receiver, which is known as a beneficial tool in optical coherent communications, to the quantum state discrimination of the two superpositions of vacuum and single photon states corresponding to the $\hatσ_x$ eigenstates in the single-rail encoding of photonic qubits. We experimentally characterize the Kennedy receiver in vacuum-single photon two-dimensional space using quantum detector tomography and evaluate the achievable discrimination error probability from the reconstructed measurement operators. We furthermore derive the minimum error rate ob…
We show how to optimally discriminate between K distinct quantum states, of which N copies are available, using one-at-a-time interactions with each of the N copies. While this task (famously) requires joint measurements on all N copies, we show that it can be solved with one-at-a-time "coherent measurements" performed by an apparatus with log(K) qubits of quantum memory. We apply the same technique to optimal discrimination between K distinct N-particle matrix product states of bond dimension D, using a coherent measurement apparatus with log(K) + log(D) qubits of memory.
The necessary and sufficient conditions for minimization of the generalized rate error for discriminating among $N$ pure qubit states are reformulated in terms of Bloch vectors representing the states. For the direct optimization problem an algorithmic solution to these conditions is indicated. A solution to the inverse optimization problem is given. General results are widely illustrated by particular cases of equiprobable states and $N=2,3,4$ pure qubit states given with different prior probabilities.
We address the problem of unambiguous discrimination and identification among quantum observables. We set a general framework and investigate in details the case of qubit observables. In particular, we show that perfect discrimination with two shots is possible only for sharp qubit observables (e.g. Stern-Gerlach apparatuses) associated with mutually orthogonal directions. We also show that for sharp qubit observables associated to nonorthogonal directions unambiguous discrimination with an inconclusive result is always possible.
Fast and accurate measurement is a highly desirable, if not vital, feature of quantum computing architectures. In this work we investigate the usefulness of adaptive measurements in improving the speed and accuracy of qubit measurement. We examine a particular class of quantum computing architectures, ones based on qubits coupled to well controlled harmonic oscillator modes (reminiscent of cavity-QED), where adaptive schemes for measurement are particularly appropriate. In such architectures, qubit measurement is equivalent to phase discrimination for a mode of the electromagnetic field, and w…
A photon detector combining the two avalanche photon diodes (APD) has been demonstrated for qubit discrimination in 1550 nm. Spikes accompanied with the signals in gated-mode were canceled by balanced output from the two APDs. The spike cancellation enabled one to reduce the threshold in the discriminators, and thus the gate pulse voltage. The dark count probability and afterpulse probability were reduced to 7x10^-7 and 10^-4, respectively, without affecting the detection efficiency (11 %) at 178 K.
We show a geometric formulation for minimum-error discrimination of qubit states, that can be applied to arbitrary sets of qubit states given with arbitrary a priori probabilities. In particular, when qubit states are given with equal \emph{a priori} probabilities, we provide a systematic way of finding optimal discrimination and the complete solution in a closed form. This generally gives a bound to cases when prior probabilities are unequal. Then, it is shown that the guessing probability does not depend on detailed relations among given states, such as angles between them, but on a property…
It is well known that the number of entanglement classes in SLOCC (stochastic local operations and classical communication) classifications increases with the number of qubits and is already infinite for four qubits. Bearing in mind the rapid evolution of experimental technology, criteria for explicitly discriminating and classifying pure states of four and more qubits are highly desirable and therefore in the focus of intense theoretical research. In this article we develop a general criterion for the discrimination of pure N-partite entangled states in terms of polynomial SL(d,C) invariants.…
The discrimination of quantum measurements is an important subject of quantum information processes. In this paper we present a novel protocol for local quantum measurement discrimination with multi-qubit entanglement systems. It is shown that, in the case of Bob did not know Alice's result of measurement, if both two observers (Alice and Bob) agreed in advance that Alice should measure her qubits before an appointed time t, the local discrimination of two different kinds of measurement can be completed via numerous eight-qubit GHZ entangled states and selective projective measurement.
Measurement for qubits plays a key role in quantum computation. Current methods for classifying states of single qubit in a superconducting multi-qubit system produce fidelities lower than expected due to the existence of crosstalk, especially in case of frequency crowding. Here, We make the digital signal processing (DSP) system used in measurement into a shallow neural network and train it to be an optimal classifier to reduce the impact of crosstalk. The experiment result shows the crosstalk-induced readout error deceased by 100% after a 3-second optimization applied on the 6-qubit supercon…
Quantum state discrimination is a fundamental primitive in quantum statistics where one has to correctly identify the state of a system that is in one of two possible known states. A programmable discrimination machine performs this task when the pair of possible states is not a priori known, but instead the two possible states are provided through two respective program ports. We study optimal programmable discrimination machines for general qubit states when several copies of states are available in the data or program ports. Two scenarios are considered: one in which the purity of the possi…
We study discrimination of m quantum measurements in the scenario when the unknown measurement with n outcomes can be used only once. We show that ancilla-assisted discrimination procedures provide a nontrivial advantage over simple (ancilla-free) schemes for perfect distinguishability and we prove that inevitably m <= n. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions of perfect distinguishability of general binary measurements. We show that the optimization of the discrimination of projective qubit measurements and their mixtures with white noise is equivalent to the discrimination of specific…
We study the discrimination of N mixed quantum states in an optimal measurement that maximizes the probability of correct results while the probability of inconclusive results is fixed at a given value. After considering the discrimination of N states in a d-dimensional Hilbert space, we focus on the discrimination of qubit states. We develop a method to determine an optimal measurement for discriminating arbitrary qubit states, taking into account that often the optimal measurement is not unique and the maximum probability of correct results can be achieved by several different measurements. …
We discuss sequential unambiguous state-discrimination measurements performed on the same qubit. Alice prepares a qubit in one of two possible states. The qubit is first sent to Bob, who measures it, and then on to Charlie, who also measures it. The object in both cases is to determine which state Alice sent. In an unambiguous state discrimination measurement, we never make a mistake, i.e. misidentify the state, but the measurement may fail, in which case we gain no information about which state was sent. We find that there is a nonzero probability for both Bob and Charlie to identify the stat…
Ensembles of composite quantum states can exhibit nonlocal behaviour in the sense that their optimal discrimination may require global operations. Such an ensemble containing N pairwise orthogonal pure states, however, can always be perfectly distinguished under adaptive local scheme if (N-1) copies of the state are available. In this letter, we provide examples of orthonormal bases in two-qubit Hilbert space whose adaptive discrimination require 3 copies of the state. For this composite system we analyze multi-copy adaptive local distinguishability of orthogonal ensembles in full generality w…
Distinguishability is a fundamental and operational task generally connected to information applications. In quantum information theory, from the postulates of quantum mechanics it often has an intrinsic limitation, which then dictates and also characterises capabilities of related information tasks. In this work, we consider discrimination between bipartite two-qubit unitary transformations by local operations and classical communication (LOCC) and its relations to entangling capabilities of given unitaries. We show that a pair of entangling unitaries which do not contain local parts, if they…
Multiple-copy state discrimination is a fundamental task in quantum information processing. If there are two, pure, non-orthogonal states then both local and collective schemes are known to reach the Helstrom bound, the maximum probability of successful discrimination allowed by quantum theory. For mixed states, it is known that only collective schemes can perform optimally, so it might be expected that these schemes are more resilient to preparation noise. We calculate the probability of success for two schemes, one local and one collective, in the regime of imperfect preparation fidelity. We…
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.
The quantum state discrimination problem is to distinguish between non-orthogonal quantum states. This problem has many applications in quantum information theory, quantum communication and quantum cryptography. In this paper a quantum algorithm using weak measurement and partial negation will be proposed to solve the quantum state discrimination problem using a single copy of an unknown qubit. The usage of weak measurement makes it possible to reconstruct the qubit after measurement since the superposition will not be destroyed due to measurement. The proposed algorithm will be able to determ…
Quantum coherence and entanglement orignate from the superposition principle. We derive a rigorous relation between the ${l_1}$-norm of coherence and concurrence, in that we show that the former is always greater than the latter. This result highlights the hierarchical relationship between coherence and concurrence, and proves coherence to be a fundamental and ubiquitous resource. We derive an analogous form of monogamy inequality which is based on the partial coherence of the reduced two-qubit and reduced single qubit of the particular class of three-qubit state. Moreover, we provide coherenc…
In this paper, the following scenario is considered: there are two qubits possessed by two parties at different locations. Qubits have been prepared in one of a maximum of four, mutually-orthogonal, entangled states and the parties wish to distinguish between the states by using local operations and classical communication. Although in general it is not possible to distinguish between four arbitrary states, the parties can spend some pre-shared entanglement to achieve perfect discrimination between four qubit states and can also preserve the entanglement of the states after discrimination. Thi…
A protocol for non-destructive descrimination of arbitrary set of orthogonal quantum states was proposed by V. S. Manu et al., using an algorithm based on quantum phase estimation. IBM Corporation has released a superconductivity based 5-qubit (5-qubit transmon bowtie chip 3 and IBM 5-qubit real processor) quantum computer named Quantum Experience and placed it on cloud. In this paper we take advantage of the online availability of those real quantum processors(ibmqx2 amd ibmqx4) and carry out the above protocol that has experimentally demonstrated earlier using NMR quantum processor. Here, we…
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…
In quantum state discrimination, one aims to identify unknown states from a given ensemble by performing measurements. Different strategies such as minimum-error discrimination or unambiguous state identification find different optimal measurements. Maximum-confidence measurements (MCMs) maximise the confidence with which inputs can be identified given the measurement outcomes. This unifies a range of discrimination strategies including minimum-error and unambiguous state identification, which can be understood as limiting cases of MCM. In this work, we investigate MCMs for general ensembles o…
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 …
Discriminating between orthogonal quantum systems without destroying their entanglement is of interest to quantum computation and communication. In this paper, we explicate the schemes for the non-destructive discrimination (NDD) of 16 orthogonal four qubit cluster states and 32 orthogonal five qubit cluster states respectively. This technique will find its applications in various branches of quantum information theory.
Complete solutions are given in a closed analytic form for unambiguous discrimination of three general pure states with real mutual inner products. For this purpose, we first establish some general results on unambiguous discrimination of n linearly independent pure states. The uniqueness of solution is proved. The condition under which the problem is reduced to an (n-1)-state problem is clarified. After giving the solution for three pure states with real mutual inner products, we examine some difficulties in extending our method to the case of complex inner products. There is a class of set o…
Paper withdrawn. Results are similar to V. P. Belavkin, "Optimum distinction of non-orthogonal quantum signals," Radio Engineering and Electronic Physics, vol. 20, June 1975, p. 39-47.
In this paper we consider the optimal discrimination of two mixed qubit states for a measurement that allows a fixed rate of inconclusive results(FRIR). Our strategy for the problem is to transform the FRIR of two qubit states into a minimum error discrimination for three qubit states by adding a specific quantum state $ρ_{0}$ and a prior probability $q_{0}$(which we will call an inconclusive degree), which we name the modified FRIR problem. First, we investigate special inconclusive degrees $q_{0}^{(0)}$ and $q_{0}^{(1)}$, which appear naturally in the modified FRIR problem and are the beginn…
We consider one copy of a quantum system prepared in one of two non-orthogonal pure product states of multipartite distributed among separated parties. We show that there exist protocols which obtain optimal probability in the sense of conclusive discrimination by means of local operations and classical communications(LOCC) as good as by global operations. Also, we show a protocol which minimezes the average number of local operations. Our result implies that two product pure multipartite states might not have the non-local property though more than two can have.
Demonstrating a quantum computational advantage will require high-fidelity control and readout of multi-qubit systems. As system size increases, multiplexed qubit readout becomes a practical necessity to limit the growth of resource overhead. Many contemporary qubit-state discriminators presume single-qubit operating conditions or require considerable computational effort, limiting their potential extensibility. Here, we present multi-qubit readout using neural networks as state discriminators. We compare our approach to contemporary methods employed on a quantum device with five superconducti…
In a recent paper, Walgate et. al. demonstrated that any two orthogonal multipartite pure states can be optimally distinguished using only local operations. We utilise their result to show that this is true for any two multiparty pure states, in the sense of inconclusive discrimination. There are also certain regimes of conclusive discrimination for which the same also applies, although we can only conjecture that the result is true for all conclusive regimes. We also discuss a class of states that can be distinguished locally according to any discrimination measure, as they can be locally rec…
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…
A scheme for distributed quantum measurement that allows nondestructive or indirect Bell measurement was proposed by Gupta et al., (Int. J. Quant. Infor. \textbf{5} (2007) 627) and subsequently realized experimentally using an NMR-based three-qubit quantum computer by Samal et al., (J. Phys. B, \textbf{43} (2010) 095508). In the present work, a similar experiment is performed using the five-qubit super-conductivity-based quantum computer, which has been recently placed in cloud by IBM Corporation. The experiment confirmed that the Bell state can be constructed and measured in a nondestructive …
We consider the problem of unambiguous (error-free) discrimination of N linearly independent pure quantum states with prior probabilities, where the goal is to find a measurement that maximizes the average probability of success. We derive an upper bound on the optimal average probability of success using a result on optimal local conversion between two bipartite pure states. We prove that an optimal measurement in general saturates our bound. In the exceptional cases we show that the bound is tight, but not always optimal.
In this paper a programmable quantum state discriminator is implemented by using nuclear magnetic resonance. We use a two qubit spin-1/2 system, one for the data qubit and one for the ancilla (programme) qubit. This device does the unambiguous (error free) discrimination of pair of states of the data qubit that are symmetrically located about a fixed state. The device is used to discriminate both, linearly polarized states and elliptically polarized states. The maximum probability of the successful discrimination is achieved by suitably preparing the ancilla qubit. It is also shown that, the p…
Given $n$ linearly independent pure states and their prior probabilities, we study the problem of optimum unambiguous discrimination of these states. We derive the properties of the optimum solution and the equations that must be satisfied by the optimum measurement strategy which achieves the maximum average success probability, and also give the detailed steps to obtain the optimum solution and the optimum measurement strategy. The general method and results we obtain are also illustrated both numerically and geometrically. We derive a simple analytical formula of the maximum average success…
Dynamics of many-qubit systems, that may correspond to computational processing with quantum systems, can be efficiently and generally approximated by a sequence of two- and single-qubit gates. In practical applications, however, a quantum gate prepared as a unitary transformation may appear as a noisy channel and consequently may inhibit quantum advantages. In this work, we apply the scheme of channel discrimination to detect if a quantum gate that is actually realized is unitary or noisy. We show that a two-qubit unitary transformation and its noisy counterpart can be optimally discriminated…
We investigate optimal discrimination between two projective single-qubit measurements in a scenario where the measurement can be performed only once. We consider general setting involving a tunable fraction of inconclusive outcomes and we prove that the optimal discrimination strategy requires an entangled probe state for any nonzero rate of inconclusive outcomes. We experimentally implement this optimal discrimination strategy for projective measurements on polarization states of single photons. Our setup involves a real-time electrooptical feed-forward loop which allows us to fully harness …
In this paper we consider the conditions under which a given ensemble of two-qubit states can be optimally distinguished by local operations and classical communication (LOCC). We begin by completing the \emph{perfect} distinguishability problem of two-qubit ensembles - both for separable operations and LOCC - by providing necessary and sufficient conditions for the perfect discrimination of one pure and one mixed state. Then for the well-known task of minimum error discrimination, it is shown that \textit{almost all} two-qubit ensembles consisting of three pure states cannot be optimally disc…
Using the necessary and sufficient conditions, minimum error discrimination among two sets of similarity transformed equiprobable quantum qudit states is investigated. In the case that the unitary operators are generating sets of two irreducible representations, the optimal set of measurements and the corresponding maximum success probability of discrimination are determined in closed form. In the case of reducible representations, there exists no closed-form formula in general, but the procedure can be applied in each case accordingly. Finally, we give the maximum success probability of optim…
We initially consider a quantum system consisting of two qubits, which can be in one of two nonorthogonal states, Ψ_0 or Ψ_1. We distribute the qubits to two parties, Alice and Bob. They each measure their qubit and then compare their measurement results to determine which state they were sent. This procedure is error-free, which implies that it must sometimes fail. In addition, no quantum memory is required; it is not necessary to store one of the qubits until the result of the measurement on the other is known. We consider the cases in which, should failure occur, both parties receive a fail…
We address the discrimination of structured baths at different temperatures by dephasing quantum probes. We derive the exact reduced dynamics and evaluate the minimum error probability achievable by three different kinds of quantum probes, namely a qubit, a qutrit and a quantum register made of two qubits. Our results indicate that dephasing quantum probes are useful in discriminating low values of temperature, and that lower probabilities of error are achieved for intermediate values of the interaction time. A qutrit probe outperforms a qubit one in the discrimination task, whereas a register…
In this paper, we address the problem of discriminating two given quantum operations. Firstly, based on the Bloch representation of single qubit systems, we give the exact minimum error probability of discriminating two single qubit quantum operations by unentangled input states. In particular, for the Pauli channels discussed in [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 71}, 062340 (2005)], we use a more intuitional and visual method to deal with their discrimination problem. Secondly, we consider the condition for perfect discrimination of two quantum operations. Specially, we get that two generalized Pauli channe…
We address perfect discrimination of two separable states. When available states are restricted to separable states, we can theoretically consider a larger class of measurements than the class of measurements allowed in quantum theory. The framework composed of the class of separable states and the above extended class of measurements is a typical example of general probabilistic theories. In this framework, we give a necessary and sufficient condition to discriminate two separable pure states perfectly. In particular, we derive measurements explicitly to discriminate two separable pure states…
Within context of quantum logic, it is possible to assign dispersion-free probabilities to experimental propositions pertaining to qubits. This makes qubits distinct from the rest of quantum systems since the latter do not admit probabilities having only values 0 and 1. The present paper shows that erasing qubit discrimination leads to a model of computation which permits execution of many primitive operations in a massive parallel way. In the paper, it is demonstrated that such a model (that can be called a quantum parallel random-access machine, QPRAM) is quantum mechanically plausible.
We present an instance of a task of minimum-error discrimination of two qubit-qubit quantum channels for which a sequential strategy outperforms any parallel strategy. We then establish two new classes of strategies for channel discrimination that involve indefinite causal order and show that there exists a strict hierarchy among the performance of all four strategies. Our proof technique employs a general method of computer-assisted proofs. We also provide a systematic method for finding pairs of channels that showcase this phenomenon, demonstrating that the hierarchy between the strategies i…
We consider a protocol to perform the optimal quantum state discrimination of $N$ linearly independent non-orthogonal pure quantum states and present a computational code. Through the extension of the original Hilbert space, it is possible to perform an unitary operation yielding a final configuration, which gives the best discrimination without ambiguity by means of von Neumann measurements. Our goal is to introduce a detailed general mathematical procedure to realize this task by means of semidefinite programming and norm minimization. The former is used to fix which is the best detection pr…
