Copying information is an elementary operation in classical information processing. However, copying seems rather different in the quantum regime. Since the discovery of the universal quantum cloning machine, much has been found from the fundamental point of view about quantum copying. But a basic question as to the utility of universal quantum cloning remains. We have considered its application in quantum state restoration by using cloning circuit for state estimation. It might be expected that classical information from the state estimation might help restore the quantum state that was disturbed during transmission. We find that the fidelity of the final state is, interestingly, independent of error probabilities inside the channel. However, this also turns out to impose a severe constraint on our original aims.
A joint measurement of two observables is a {\it simultaneous} measurement of both quantities upon the {\it same} quantum system. When two quantum-mechanical observables do not commute, then a joint measurement of these observables cannot be accomplished by projective measurements alone. In this paper we shall discuss the use of quantum cloning to perform a joint measurement of two components of spin associated with a qubit system. We introduce a cloning scheme which is optimal with respect to this task. This cloning scheme may be thought to work by cloning two components of spin onto its outp…
We analyze quantum algorithms for cloning of a quantum measurement. Our aim is to mimic two uses of a device performing an unknown von Neumann measurement with a single use of the device. When the unknown device has to be used before the bipartite state to be measured is available we talk about 1 -> 2 learning of the measurement, otherwise the task is called 1 -> 2 cloning of a measurement. We perform the optimization for both learning and cloning for arbitrary dimension of the Hilbert space. For 1 -> 2 cloning we also propose a simple quantum network that realizes the optimal strategy.
Cloning of observables, unlike standard cloning of states, aims at copying the information encoded in the statistics of a class of observables rather then on quantum states themselves. In such a process the emphasis is on the quantum operation (evolution plus measurement) necessary to retrieve the original information. We analyze, for qubit systems, the cloning of a class generated by two noncommuting observables, elucidating the relationship between such a process and joint measurements. This helps in establishing an optimality criterion for cloning of observables. We see that, even if the cl…
We show that universally covariant cloning is not optimal for achieving joint measurements of noncommuting observables with minimum added noise. For such a purpose a cloning transformation that is covariant with respect to a restricted transformation group is needed.
We explore the possibility of achieving optimal joint measurements of noncommuting observables on a single quantum system by performing conventional measurements of commuting self adjoint operators on optimal clones of the original quantum system. We consider the case of both finite dimensional and infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces. In the former we study the joint measurement of three orthogonal components of a spin 1/2, in the latter we consider the case of the joint measurements of any pair of noncommuting quadratures of one mode of the electromagnetic field. We show that universally cova…
We consider the problem of phase-covariant cloning for coherent states. We show that an experimental scheme based on ideal phase measurement and feedforward outperforms the semiclassical procedure of ideal phase measurement and preparation in terms of fidelity. A realistic scheme where the ideal phase measurement is replaced with double-homodyne detection is shown to be unable to overcome the semiclassical cloning strategy. On the other hand, such a realistic scheme is better than semiclassical cloning based on double-homodyne phase measurement and preparation.
We introduce the concept of cloning for classes of observables and classify cloning machines for qubit systems according to the number of parameters needed to describe the class under investigation. A no-cloning theorem for observables is derived and the connections between cloning of observables and joint measurements of noncommuting observables are elucidated. Relationships with cloning of states and non-demolition measurements are also analyzed.
We propose a scheme to enhance the fidelity of symmetric quantum cloning machine using a weak measurement. By adjusting the intensity of weak measurement parameter $p$, we obtain the copies with different optimal fidelity. Choosing proper value of $p$, we can obtain the perfect copies for initial qubits. In this paper, we focus on $1-2$ quantum cloning for two nonorthogonal states. Sets containing more than two linear independent states are also discussed briefly. Due to weak measurements being probabilistic, we obtain high fidelity at risk of probability. If the weak measurement successes, we…
We study measurements on various subsystems of the output of a universal 1 to 2 cloning machine, and establish a correspondence between these measurements at the output and effective measurements on the original input. We show that one can implement sharp effective measurement elements by measuring only two out of the three output systems. Additionally, certain complete sets of sharp measurements on the input can be realised by measurements on the two clones. Furthermore, we introduce a scheme that allows to restore the original input in one of the output bits, by using measurements and classi…
We investigate the security of continuous-variable (CV) quantum key distribution (QKD) using coherent states and reverse reconciliation against Gaussian individual attacks based on an optimal Gaussian $1 \to 2$ cloning machine. We provide an implementation of the optimal Gaussian individual attack. we also find a Bell-measurement attack which works without delayed choice of measurements and has better performance than the cloning attack.
One of the characteristic features of quantum mechanics is that every measurement that extracts information about a general quantum system necessarily causes an unavoidable disturbance to the state of this system. A plethora of different approaches has been developed to characterize and optimize this tradeoff. Here, we apply the framework of quantum instruments to investigate the optimal tradeoff and to derive a class of procedures that is optimal with respect to most meaningful measures. We focus our analysis on binary measurements on qubits as commonly used in communication and computation p…
We show that in the case of unknown {\em harmonic oscillator coherent states} it is possible to achieve what we call {\it perfect information cloning}. By this we mean that it is still possible to make arbitrary number of copies of a state which has {\it exactly} the same information content as the original unknown coherent state. By making use of this {\it perfect information cloning} it would be possible to estimate the original state through measurements and make arbitrary number of copies of the estimator. We define the notion of a {\em Measurement Fidelity}. We show that this information …
We propose two feasible experimental implementations of an optimal asymmetric 1->2 quantum cloning of a polarization state of photon. Both implementations are based on a partial and optimal reverse of recent conditional symmetrical quantum cloning experiments. The reversion procedure is performed only by a local measurement of one from the clones and ancilla followed by a local operation on the other clone. The local measurement consists only of a single unbalanced beam splitter followed in one output by a single photon detector and the asymmetry of fidelities in the cloning is controlled by a…
An application of quantum cloning to optimally interface a quantum system with a classical observer is presented, in particular we describe a procedure to perform a minimal disturbance measurement on a single qubit by adopting a 1->2 cloning machine followed by a generalized measurement on a single clone and the anti-clone or on the two clones. Such scheme has been applied to enhance the transmission fidelity over a lossy quantum channel.
We present Quantum Cloning Machines (QCM) that transform N identical qubits into $M>N$ identical copies and we prove that the fidelity (quality) of these copies is optimal. The connection between cloning and measurement is discussed in detail. When the number of clones M tends towards infinity, the fidelity of each clone tends towards the optimal fidelity that can be obtained by a measurement on the input qubits. More generally, the QCM are universal devices to translate quantum information into classical information.
We construct a probabilistic quantum cloning machine by a general unitary-reduction operation. With a postselection of the measurement results, the machine yields faithful copies of the input states. It is shown that the states secretly chosen from a certain set $\$=\left\{\left| Ψ_1\right> ,\left| Ψ_2\right> ,... ,\left| Ψ_n\right> \right\} $ can be probabilistically cloned if and only if $% \left| Ψ_1\right>$, $\left| Ψ_2\right>$, $... ,$ and $\left| Ψ_n\right>$ are linearly-independent. We derive the best possible cloning efficiencies. Probabilistic cloning has close connection with the pro…
Here we show that, in principle it is possible to clone (measure) a single arbitrary unknown quantum state of a spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ particle (an electron) with arbitrary precision and with success probability tending to one, using protective measurement. We first transfer the information from spin to spatial degree of freedom (d.o.f) of system electron, then trap it in a double well potential, and finally measure it protectively using a probe electron (which donot get entangled with system electron, but still extracts expectation value of an observable from a single quantum system (system elect…
Given a single copy of an n qubit quantum state |psi>, the no-cloning theorem greatly limits the amount of information which can be extracted from it. Moreover, given only a procedure which verifies the state, for example a procedure which measures the operator |psi><psi|, we cannot prepare |psi> in time polynomial in n . In this paper, we consider the scenario in which we are given both a single copy of |psi> and the ability to verify it. We show that in this setting, we can do several novel things efficiently. We present a new algorithm that we call quantum state restoration which allows us …
We propose a probabilistic quantum cloning scheme using Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states, Bell basis measurements, single-qubit unitary operations and generalized measurements, all of which are within the reach of current technology. Compared to another possible scheme via Tele-CNOT gate [D. Gottesman and I. L. Chuang, Nature 402, 390 (1999)], the present scheme may be used in experiment to clone the states of one particle to those of two different particles with higher probability and less GHZ resources.
Cloning of statistics of general quantum measurement is discussed. The presented approach is connected with the known concept of observable cloning, but differs in some essential respects. The reasons are illustrated within some variety of B92 protocol. As it is shown, there exist pairs of states such that the perfect cloning of given POVM is not possible. We discuss some properties of these intolerant sets. An example allowing the perfect cloning is presented as well.
The impossibility to clone an unknown quantum state is a powerful principle to understand the nature of quantum mechanics, especially within the context of quantum computing and quantum information. This principle has been generalized to quantitative statements as to what extent imperfect cloning is possible. We delineate an aspect of the border between the possible and the impossible concerning quantum cloning, by putting forward an entanglement-assisted scheme for simulating perfect cloning in the context of weak measurements. This phenomenon we call weak cloning of an unknown quantum state.
The trade-offs among various output fidelities of asymmetric universal cloning machines are investigated. First we find out all the attainable optimal output fidelities for the 1 to 3 asymmetric universal cloning machine and it turns out that there are two kinds of extremal asymmetric cloning machines which have to cooperate in order to achieve some of the optimal output fidelities. Second we construct a family of extremal cloning machines that includes the universal symmetric cloning machine as well as an asymmetric 1 to $1+N$ cloning machine for qudits with two different output fidelities su…
We discuss the criteria presently used for evaluating the efficiency of quantum teleportation schemes for continuous variables. Using an argument based upon the difference between 1-to-2 quantum cloning (quantum duplication) and 1-to-infinity cloning (classical measurement), we show that a fidelity value larger than 2/3 is required for successful quantum teleportation of coherent states. This value has not been reached experimentally so far.
We apply a general method for the estimation of completely positive maps to the 1-to-2 universal covariant cloning machine. The method is based on the maximum-likelihood principle, and makes use of random input states, along with random projective measurements on the output clones. The downhill simplex algorithm is applied for the maximisation of the likelihood functional.
We consider quantum devices for turning a finite number N of d-level quantum systems in the same unknown pure state σinto M>N systems of the same kind, in an approximation of the M-fold tensor product of the state σ. In a previous paper it was shown that this problem has a unique optimal solution, when the quality of the output is judged by arbitrary measurements, involving also the correlations between the clones. We show in this paper, that if the quality judgement is based solely on measurements of single output clones, there is again a unique optimal cloning device, which coincides with th…
We show that, there are physical means for cloning two non-orthogonal pure states which are secretly chosen from a certain set $% \$={ | Ψ_0 > , | Ψ_1 > }$. The states are cloned through a unitary evolution together with a measurement. The cloning efficiency can not attain 100%. With some negative measurement results, the cloning fails.
We analyze to what extent it is possible to copy arbitrary states of a two-level quantum system. We show that there exists a "universal quantum copying machine", which approximately copies quantum mechanical states in such a way that the quality of its output does not depend on the input. We also examine a machine which combines a unitary transformation with a selective measurement to produce good copies of states in a neighborhood of a particular state. We discuss the problem of measurement of the output states.
A quantum cloning machine is introduced that yields $M$ identical optimal clones from $N$ replicas of a coherent state and $N'$ replicas of its phase conjugate. It also optimally produces $M'=M+N'-N$ phase-conjugated clones at no cost. For well chosen input asymmetries $N'/(N+N')$, this machine is shown to provide better cloning fidelities than the standard $(N+N') \to M$ cloner. The special cases of the optimal balanced cloner ($N=N'$) and the optimal measurement ($M=\infty$) are investigated.
We propose a feasible scheme of conditional quantum partial teleportation of a qubit as optimal asymmetric cloning at a distance. In this scheme, Alice preserves one imperfect clone whereas other clone is teleported to Bob. Fidelities of the clones can be simply controlled by an asymmetry in Bell-state measurement. The optimality means that tightest inequality for the fidelities in the asymmetric cloning is saturated. Further we design a conditional teleportation as symmetric optimal N-> N+1 cloning from N Alice's replicas on single distant clone. We shortly discussed two feasible experimental…
The problem of quantum state reduction in the process of measurement has attracted attention of almost everyone who created, developed or explained quantum physics to the students. Absence of a solution is the basis for the statement that the physical laws alone are not enough to describe the reduction of state of the measured particle. In the presented study, it is taken into account that the measurement of all properties of quantum particles can not be carried out in one physical process (the no-cloning theorem). For such a measurement several series of incompatible observations are needed, …
The quantum cloner machine maps an unknown arbitrary input qubit into two optimal clones and one optimal flipped qubit. By combining linear and non-linear optical methods we experimentally implement a scheme that, after the cloning transformation, restores the original input qubit in one of the output channels, by using local measurements, classical communication and feedforward. This significant teleportation-like method demonstrates how the information is preserved during the cloning process. The realization of the reversion process is expected to find useful applications in the field of mod…
We derive the transformation for the optimal universal quantum anti-cloner which produces two anti-parallel outputs for a single input state. The fidelity is shown to be 2/3 which is same as the measurement fidelity. We consider a probabilistic quantum anti-cloner and show quantum states can be anti-cloned exactly with non-zero probability and its efficiency is higher than the efficiency of distinguishing between the two states.
Multiphoton state in quantum cryptography decreases its security. Key disclosing with universal quantum cloning machine (UQCM) is considered in explicit manner. Although UQCM cannot make perfect clones, there is some invariant quantity between the original photon and the imperfect clones. The invariant quantity, the direction of Stokes parameters, tells us the auxiliary information leading into key information. The attack, then, corresponds to some kind of quantum non-demolition measurement. Its application to recent high-performance quantum cryptography, Y-00 protocol, is also studied.
After a brief introduction to the quantum no-cloning theorem and its link with the linearity and causality of quantum mechanics, the concept of quantum cloning machines is sketched, following, whenever possible, the chronology of the main results. The important classes of quantum cloning machines are reviewed, in particular state-independent and state-dependent cloning machines. The 1-to-2 cloning problem is then studied from a formal point of view, using the isomorphism between completely positive maps and operators, which leads to the so-called double-Bell ansatz. This also yields an efficie…
We analyze a reversibility of optimal Gaussian $1\to 2$ quantum cloning of a coherent state using only local operations on the clones and classical communication between them and propose a feasible experimental test of this feature. Performing Bell-type homodyne measurement on one clone and anti-clone, an arbitrary unknown input state (not only a coherent state) can be restored in the other clone by applying appropriate local unitary displacement operation. We generalize this concept to a partial LOCC reversal of the cloning and we show that this procedure converts the symmetric cloner to an a…
The no-cloning theorem states that an unknown quantum state cannot be cloned exactly and deterministically due to the linearity of quantum mechanics. Associated with this theorem is the quantitative no-cloning limit that sets an upper bound to the quality of the generated clones. However, this limit can be circumvented by abandoning determinism and using probabilistic methods. Here, we report an experimental demonstration of probabilistic cloning of arbitrary coherent states that clearly surpasses the no-cloning limit. Our scheme is based on a hybrid linear amplifier that combines an ideal det…
A scheme for the optimal Gaussian cloning of coherent light states at the light-atoms interface is proposed. The distinct feature of this proposal is that the clones are stored in an atomic quantum memory, which is important for applications in quantum communication. The atomic quantum cloning machine requires only a single passage of the light pulse through the atomic ensembles followed by the measurement of a light quadrature and an appropriate feedback, which renders the protocol experimentally feasible. An alternative protocol, where one of the clones is carried by the outgoing light pulse…
We report on experimental implementation of the optimal universal asymmetric 1->2 quantum cloning machine for qubits encoded into polarization states of single photons. Our linear optical machine performs asymmetric cloning by partially symmetrizing the input polarization state of signal photon and a blank copy idler photon prepared in a maximally mixed state. We show that the employed method of measurement of mean clone fidelities exhibits strong resilience to imperfect calibration of the relative efficiencies of single-photon detectors used in the experiment. Reliable characterization of the…
State-dependent cloning machines that have so far been considered either deterministically copy a set of states approximately, or probablistically copy them exactly. In considering the case of two equiprobable pure states, we derive the maximum global fidelity of $N$ approximate clones given $M$ initial exact copies, where $N>M$. We also consider strategies which interpolate between approximate and exact cloning. A tight inequality is obtained which expresses a trade-off between the global fidelity and success probability. This inequality is found to tend, in the limit as $N{\to}{\infty}$, to …
Quantum steering in a global state allows an observer to remotely steer a subsystem into different ensembles by performing different local measurements on the other part. We show that, in general, this property cannot be perfectly cloned by any joint operation between a steered subsystem and a third system. Perfect cloning is viable if and only if the initial state is of zero discord. We also investigate the process of cloning the steered qubit of a Bell state using a universal cloning machine. Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering, which is a type of quantum correlation existing in the state…
We prove generic versions of the no-cloning and no-broadcasting theorems, applicable to essentially {\em any} non-classical finite-dimensional probabilistic model that satisfies a no-signaling criterion. This includes quantum theory as well as models supporting ``super-quantum'' correlations that violate the Bell inequalities to a larger extent than quantum theory. The proof of our no-broadcasting theorem is significantly more natural and more self-contained than others we have seen: we show that a set of states is broadcastable if, and only if, it is contained in a simplex whose vertices are …
We propose an experiment where a photon is first cloned by stimulated parametric down-conversion, making many (imperfect) copies, and then the cloning transformation is inverted, regenerating the original photon while destroying the copies. Focusing on the case where the initial photon is entangled with another photon, we study the conditions under which entanglement can be proven in the final state. The proposed experiment would provide a clear demonstration that quantum information is preserved in quantum cloning. It would furthermore allow a definitive experimental proof for micro-macro ent…
We discuss the recently introduced concept of non-deterministic noiseless linear amplification, demonstrating that such an operation can only be performed perfectly with vanishing probability of success. We show that a weak measurement, which imprints the weak value of an observable of a pre-selected and post-selected system onto a probe system, can be used to approximate probabilistic noiseless amplification. This result may be applied to various tasks in continuous variable quantum information, including entanglement concentration, probabilistic cloning, and in quantum repeaters. We discuss …
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering allows two parties to verify their entanglement, even if one party's measurements are untrusted. This concept has not only provided new insights into the nature of non-local spatial correlations in quantum mechanics, but also serves as a resource for one-sided device-independent quantum information tasks. Here, we investigate how EPR steering behaves when one-half of a maximally-entangled pair of qudits (multidimensional quantum systems) is cloned by a universal cloning machine. We find that EPR steering, as verified by a criterion based on the mutual inf…
In port-based teleportation, Alice teleports an unknown quantum state to one of N ports at Bob's site. Alice applies a measurement and sends Bob the outcome k. Bob only needs to select the kth port in order to obtain the state. We present a theorem in the spirit of the no-cloning theorem, which says that it is impossible to extract any information from an unknown quantum state if only a single copy of it is provided and if the state remains unchanged. We use this theorem and the no-signaling principle to prove an upper bound on the success probability of port-based teleportation.
In this paper, a new quantum state restoration scheme is proposed based on the environment-assisted error correction (EAEC) scheme. By introducing a weak measurement reversal (WMR) operation, we shall show how to recover an initial state of a quantum open system without invoking random unitary decompositions which are known to be absent in many important physical systems. We illustrate our new scheme and compare it with a scheme purely based on the WMR operation in the case of dissipative channel. In the proposed new scheme, the successful probability of recovering an unknown initial state can…
We propose a protocol where one can exploit dual quantum and classical channels to achieve perfect ``cloning'' and ``orthogonal-complementing'' of an unknown state with a minimal assistance from a state preparer (without revealing what the input state is). The first stage of the protocol requires usual teleportation and in the second stage, the preparer disentangles the left-over entangled states by a single particle measurement process and communicates a number of classical bits (1-cbit per copy) to different parties so that perfect copies and complement copies are produced. We discuss our pr…
We introduce the notions of algorithmic mutual information and rarity of quantum states. These definitions enjoy conservation inequalities over unitary transformations and partial traces. We show that a large majority of pure states have minute self algorithmic information. We provide an algorithmic variant to the no-cloning theorem, by showing that only a small minority of quantum pure states can clone a non negligible amount of algorithmic information. We also provide a chain rule inequality for quantum algorithmic entropy. We show that rarity does not increase under POVM measurements.
A statistical analysis of optimal universal cloning shows that it is possible to identify an ideal (but non-positive) copying process that faithfully maps all properties of the original Hilbert space onto two separate quantum systems. The joint probabilities for non-commuting measurements on separate clones then correspond to the real parts of the complex joint probabilities observed in weak measurements on a single system, where the measurements on the two clones replace the corresponding sequence of weak measurement and post-selection. The imaginary parts of weak measurement statics can be o…
We propose a scheme which can effectively restore fixed points in the quantum dynamics of repeated Jaynes-Cummings interactions followed by atomic state measurements, when the interaction times fluctuate randomly. It is based on selection of superposed atomic states whose phase correlations tend to suppress the phase fluctuations of each separate state. One suggested realization involves the convergence of the cavity field distribution to a single Fock state by conditional measurements performed on two-level atoms with fluctuating velocities after they cross the cavity. Another realization inv…
We argue that symmetrization of an incoming microstate with similar states in a sea of microstates contained in a macroscopic detector can produce an effective image, which does not contradict the no-cloning theorem, and such a combinatorial set can then be used with first passage random walk interactions suggested in an earlier work to give the right quantum mechanical weight for measured eigenvalues.
Any physical transformation that equally distributes quantum information over a large number M of users can be approximated by a classical broadcasting of measurement outcomes. The accuracy of the approximation is at least of the order 1/M. In particular, quantum cloning of pure and mixed states can be approximated via quantum state estimation. As an example, for optimal qubit cloning with 10 output copies, a single user has error probability p > 0.45 in distinguishing classical from quantum output--a value close to the error probability of the random guess.
We propose the scheme implementing partial deterministic non-demolition Bell measurement. When it is used in quantum teleportation the information about an unknown input state is optimally distributed among three outgoing qubits. The optimality means that the output fidelities saturate the asymmetric cloning inequality. The flow of information among the qubits is controlled by the preparation of a pair of ancillary qubits used in the Bell measurement. It is also demonstrated that the measurement is optimal two-qubit operation in the sense of the trade-off between the state disturbance and the …
We show that it is possible to clone quantum states to arbitrary accuracy in the presence of a Deutschian closed timelike curve (D-CTC), with a fidelity converging to one in the limit as the dimension of the CTC system becomes large---thus resolving an open conjecture from [Brun et al., Physical Review Letters 102, 210402 (2009)]. This result follows from a D-CTC-assisted scheme for producing perfect clones of a quantum state prepared in a known eigenbasis, and the fact that one can reconstruct an approximation of a quantum state from empirical estimates of the probabilities of an informationa…
Quantum control theory is profitably reexamined from the perspective of quantum information, two results on the role of quantum information technology in quantum feedback control are presented and two quantum feedback control schemes, teleportation-based distant quantum feedback control and quantum feedback control with quantum cloning, are proposed. In the first feedback scheme, the output from the quantum system to be controlled is fed back into the distant actuator via teleportation to alter the dynamics of system. The result theoretically shows that it can accomplish some tasks such as dis…
