We argue from the point of view of statistical inference that the quantum relative entropy is a good measure for distinguishing between two quantum states (or two classes of quantum states) described by density matrices. We extend this notion to describe the amount of entanglement between two quantum systems from a statistical point of view. Our measure is independent of the number of entangled systems and their dimensionality.
We show the rather counterintuitive result that entangled input states can strictly enhance the distinguishability of two entanglement-breaking channels.
Distinguishability and predictability are part of complementarity relations which apply to two different kinds of interference experiments, with and without a path-detector, respectively. In [Opt. Comm. 179, 337 (2000)], Englert and Bergou pointed out the possible connection between distinguishability, predictability, and entanglement. They even conjectured that an entanglement measure was hidden between the measures of distinguishability and predictability. Here, we push forward this conjecture. We start defining a new entropic distinguishability measure and suggesting an entanglement measure…
This paper tries to probe the relation between the local distinguishability of orthogonal quantum states and the distillation of entanglement. An new interpretation for the distillation of entanglement and the distinguishability of orthogonal quantum states in terms of information is given, respectively. By constraining our discussion on a special protocol we give a necessary and sufficient condition for the local distinguishability of the orthogonal pure states, and gain the maximal yield of the distillable entanglement. It is shown that the information entropy, the locally distinguishability…
Originated from the superposition principle in quantum mechanics, coherence has been extensively studied as a kind important resource in quantum information processing. We investigate the distinguishability of coherence-breaking channels with the help of quantum entanglement. By explicitly computing the minimal error probability of channel discrimination, it is shown that entanglement can enhance the capacity of coherence-breaking channel distinguishability with same types for some cases while cannot enhanced for some other cases. For coherence-breaking channels with different types, the chann…
Recent times have seen a spurt of research activity focused on "completing" certain wave-particle duality relations using entanglement or polarization. These studies use a duality relation involving path-predictability, and not path-distinguishability. Quantum origins of these results are explored here, in the more general framework of multipath quantum interference. Multipath interference with a path-detector is theoretically analyzed to find the connection between predictability and distinguishability. It is shown that entanglement is what quantitatively connects distinguishability with pred…
We investigate the classical nature of the spin coherent states. In addition to being minimum uncertainty states, as the size of the spin, S, increases, the classical nature is seen to increase in two respects: in their resistance to entanglement generation (when passed through a beam splitter) and in the distinguishability of the states. In the infinite S limit the spin coherent state is a subclass of the optical coherent states (namely the subclass of orthogonal optical coherent states). These states generate no entanglement and are obviously completely distinguishable. The decline of the ge…
We investigate the properties of three entanglement measures that quantify the statistical distinguishability of a given state with the closest disentangled state that has the same reductions as the primary state. In particular, we concentrate on the relative entropy of entanglement with reversed entries. We show that this quantity is an entanglement monotone which is strongly additive, thereby demonstrating that monotonicity under local quantum operations and strong additivity are compatible in principle. In accordance with the presented statistical interpretation which is provided, this enta…
A scheme for generating an entangled state in a two spin-1/2 system by means of a spin-dependent potential scattering of another qubit is presented and analyzed in three dimensions. The entanglement is evaluated in terms of the concurrence both at the lowest and in full order in perturbation with an appropriate renormalization for the latter, and its characteristics are discussed in the context of (in)distinguishability of alternative paths for a quantum particle.
In this paper we present a necessary and sufficient condition of distinguishability of bipartite quantum states. It is shown that the operators to reliably distinguish states need only rounds of projective measurements and classical comunication. We also present a necessary condition of distinguishability of bipartite quantum states which is simple and general. With this condition one can get many cases of indistinguishability. The conclusions may be useful in understanding the essence of nonlocality and calculating the distillable entanglement and the bound of distillable entanglement.
High-dimensional quantum entanglement is currently one of the most prolific fields in quantum information processing due to its high information capacity and error resilience. A versatile method for harnessing high-dimensional entanglement has long been hailed as an absolute necessity in the exploration of quantum science and technologies. Here we exploit Hong-Ou-Mandel interference to manipulate discrete frequency entanglement in arbitrary-dimensional Hilbert space. The generation and characterization of two-, four- and six-dimensional frequency entangled qudits are theoretically and experime…
We completely characterize the condition when a tile structure provides an unextendible product basis (UPB), and construct UPBs of different large sizes in $\mathbb{C}^m\otimes\mathbb{C}^n$ for any $n\geq m\geq 3$. This solves an open problem in [S. Halder et al., Phys. Rev. A 99, 062329 (2019)]. As an application, we show that our UPBs of size $(mn-4\lfloor\frac{m-1}{2}\rfloor)$ in $\mathbb{C}^m\otimes\mathbb{C}^n$ can be perfectly distinguished by local operations and classical communications assisted with a $\lceil\frac{m}{2}\rceil\otimes\lceil\frac{m}{2}\rceil$ maximally entangled state.
More than two multipartite orthogonal states cannot always be discriminated (with certainty) if only local operations and classical communication (LOCC) are allowed. Using an existing inequality among the measures of entanglement, we show that any three Bell states cannot be discriminated by LOCC. Exploiting the inequality, we calculate the distillable entanglement of a certain class of (4\otimes 4) mixed states.
Recently, Halder \emph{et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{122}, 040403 (2019)] proposed the concept strong nonlocality without entanglement: an orthogonal set of fully product states in multipartite quantum systems that is locally irreducible for every bipartition of the subsystems. As the difficulty of the problem, most of the results are restricted to tripartite systems. Here we consider a weaker form of nonlocality called local distinguishability based genuine nonlocality. A set of orthogonal multipartite quantum states is said to be genuinely nonlocal if it is locally indistinguishable for …
Suppose a set of $m$-partite, $m\geq3$, pure orthogonal fully separable states is given. We consider the task of distinguishing these states perfectly by local operations and classical communication (LOCC) in different $k$-partitions, $1<k<m$. Based on this task, it is possible to classify the sets of product states into different classes. For tripartite systems, a classification of the sets with explicit examples is presented. Few important cases related to the aforesaid task are also studied when the number of parties, $m\geq4$. These cases never appear for a tripartite system. However, to d…
The aim of this paper is to revisit the implications of complementarity when we inject into a Mach Zehnder interferometer particles with internal structure, prepared in special translational-internal entangled (TIE) states. This correlation causes the path distinguishability to be phase dependent in contrast to the standard case. We show that such a TIE state permits us to detect small phase shifts along with almost perfect path distinguishability, beyond the constraints imposed by complementarity on simultaneous which-way and which-phase measurements for standard cases (when distinguishabilit…
I consider deterministic distinguishability of a set of orthogonal, bipartite states when only a single copy is available and the parties are restricted to local operations and classical communication, but with the additional requirement that entanglement must be preserved in the process. Several general theorems aimed at characterizing sets of states with which the parties can succeed in such a task are proven. These include (1) a maximum for the number of states when the Schmidt rank of every outcome must be at least a given minimum; (2) an upper bound (equal to the dimension of Hilbert spac…
We study optimal perfect distinguishability between a unitary and a general quantum operation. In 2-dimensional case we provide a simple sufficient and necessary condition for sequential perfect distinguishability and an analytical formula of optimal query time. We extend the sequential condition to general d-dimensional case. Meanwhile, we provide an upper bound and a lower bound for optimal sequential query time. In the process a new iterative method is given, the most notable innovation of which is its independence to auxiliary systems or entanglement. Following the idea, we further obtain …
The problem of distinguishing two unitary transformations, or quantum gates, is analyzed and a function reflecting their statistical distinguishability is found. Given two unitary operations, $U_1$ and $U_2$, it is proved that there always exists a finite number $N$ such that $U_1^{\otimes N}$ and $U_2^{\otimes N}$ are perfectly distinguishable, although they were not in the single-copy case. This result can be extended to any finite set of unitary transformations. Finally, a fidelity for one-qubit gates, which satisfies many useful properties from the point of view of quantum information theo…
We experimentally demonstrate that paired photons generated in different sections of a down-conversion cone, when some of the interacting waves show Poynting vector walk-off, carry different spatial correlations, and therefore a different degree of spatial entanglement. This is shown to be in agreement with theoretical results. We also discuss how this azimuthal distinguishing information of the down-conversion cone is relevant for the implementation of quantum sources aimed at the generation of entanglement in other degrees of freedom, such as polarization.
It is shown that local distinguishability of orthogonal mixed states can be completely characterized by local distinguishability of their supports irrespective of entanglement and mixedness of the states. This leads to two kinds of upper bounds on the number of perfect LOCC distinguishable orthogonal mixed states. The first one depends only on pure-state entanglement within the supports of the states, and therefore may be easy to compute in many instances. The second bound is optimal in the sense that it optimizes the bounding quantities, not necessarily function of entanglement alone, over al…
Measuring an entangled state of two particles is crucial to many quantum communication protocols. Yet Bell state distinguishability using a finite apparatus obeying linear evolution and local measurement is theoretically limited. We extend known bounds for Bell-state distinguishability in one and two variables to the general case of entanglement in $n$ two-state variables. We show that at most $2^{n+1}-1$ classes out of $4^n$ hyper-Bell states can be distinguished with one copy of the input state. With two copies, complete distinguishability is possible. We present optimal schemes in each case…
We prove that any three linearly independent pure quantum states can always be locally distinguished with nonzero probability regardless of their dimension, entanglement, or multipartite structure. Almost always, all three states can be unambiguously identified. The only exceptional case, where one state is locally knowable but the other two are not, is found among multi-qubit states.
In a number of previous studies, we have investigated the use of the volume element of the Bures (minimal monotone) metric -- identically, one-fourth of the statistical distinguishability (SD) metric -- as a natural measure over the (n^2-1)-dimensional convex set of n x n density matrices. This has led us for the cases n = 4 and 6 to estimates of the prior (Bures/SD) probabilities that qubit-qubit and qubit-qutrit pairs are separable. Here, we extend this work from such bipartite systems to the tripartite "laboratory'' quantum systems possessing U x U x U symmetry recently constructed by Eggel…
We provide a feasible necessary and sufficient condition for when an unknown quantum operation (quantum device) secretely selected from a set of known quantum operations can be identified perfectly within a finite number of queries, and thus complete the characterization of the perfect distinguishability of quantum operations. We further design an optimal protocol which can achieve the perfect discrimination between two quantum operations by a minimal number of queries. Interestingly, employing the techniques from the theory of $q$-numerical range we find that an optimal perfect discrimination…
Generation of polarization-entangled photon pairs with a precise timing through down-conversion of femtosecond pulses is often faced with a degraded polarization entanglement quality. In a previous experiment we have shown that this degradation is induced by spectral distinguishability between the two decay paths, in accordance with theoretical predictions. Here, we present an experimental study of the spectral compensation scheme proposed and first implemented by Kim et al. in 2002. By measuring the joint spectral properties of the polarization correlations of the photon pairs, we show that t…
We show that any two different unitary operations acting on an arbitrary multipartite quantum system can be perfectly distinguishable by local operations and classical communication when a finite number of runs is allowed. We then directly extend this result into the case when the number of unitary operations to be discriminated is more than two. Intuitively, our result means that the lost identity of a nonlocal (entangled) unitary operation can be recovered locally, without any use of entanglement or joint quantum operations.
Correlated photons inspire abundance of metrology-related platforms, which benefit from quantum (anti-) correlations and outperform their classical-light counterparts. While such demonstrations mainly focus on entanglement, the role of photon exchange-phase and degree of distinguishability have not been widely utilized in quantum-enhanced applications. Using an interferometric setup we show that even at low degree entanglement, when a two-photon wave-function is coupled to matter, it is encoded with a reliable "which pathway?" information. An interferometric exchange-phase-cycling protocol is …
When Classical Correlations Certify Entanglement Recovery
The University of Tokyo（东京大学）；Nagoya University（名古屋大学）；Institute of Science Tokyo（东京科学大学）；Kyoto University（京都大学）；RIKEN Center for Quantum Computing (RQC)（理化学研究所量子计算中心）
A statistical distinguishability based on relative entropy characterises the fitness of quantum states for phase estimation. This criterion is employed in the context of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and used to interpolate between two regimes, of local and global phase distinguishability. The scaling of distinguishability in these regimes with photon number is explored for various quantum states. It emerges that local distinguishability is dependent on a discrepancy between quantum and classical rotational energy. Our analysis demonstrates that the Heisenberg limit is the true upper limit for…
We introduce a new aspect of nonlocality which arises when the task of quantum states distinguishability is considered under local operations and shared entanglement in the absence of classical communication. We find the optimal amount of entanglement required to accomplish the task perfectly for sets of orthogonal states and argue that it quantifies information nonlocality.
Divisibility of dynamical maps turns out to be a fundamental notion in characterising Markovianity of quantum evolution, although the decision problem for divisibility itself is computationally intractable. In this work, we propose the operational characterisation of divisibility of dynamical maps by exploiting distinguishability of quantum channels. We prove that distinguishability for any pair of quantum channels does not increase under divisible maps, and then, in terms of channel distinguishability with entanglement between system and $k$-dimensional ancillas, provide the operational chara…
Multi-photon interference is at the heart of the recently proposed linear optical quantum computing scheme and plays an essential role in many protocols in quantum information. Indistinguishability is what leads to the effect of quantum interference. Optical interferometers such as Michaelson interferometer provide a measure for second-order coherence at one-photon level and Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer was widely employed to describe two-photon entanglement and indistinguishability. However, there is not an effective way for a system of more than two photons. Recently, a new interferometric …
We prove that the entangling capacity of a two-qubit unitary operator without local ancillas, both with and without the restriction to initial product states, as quantified by the maximum attainable concurrence, is directly related to the distinguishability of a closely related pair of two-qubit unitary operators. These operators are the original operator transformed into its canonical form and the adjoint of this canonical form. The distinguishability of these operators is quantified by the minimum overlap of the output states over all possible input probe states. The entangling capacity of t…
Bell nonlocality can be formulated in terms of a resource theory with local-hidden variable models as resourceless objects. Two such theories are known, one built upon local operations assisted by shared randomness (LOSRs) and the other one allowing, in addition, for prior-to-input classical communication. We show that prior communication, although unable to create nonlocality, leads to wirings not only beyond LOSRs but also not contained in a much broader class of (nonlocality-generating) global wirings. Technically, this is shown by proving that it can improve the statistical distinguishabil…
We study the distinguishability of bipartite quantum states by Positive Operator-Valued Measures with positive partial transpose (PPT POVMs). The contributions of this paper include: (1). We give a negative answer to an open problem of [M. Horodecki $et. al$, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 047902(2003)] showing a limitation of their method for detecting nondistinguishability. (2). We show that a maximally entangled state and its orthogonal complement, no matter how many copies are supplied, can not be distinguished by PPT POVMs, even unambiguously. This result is much stronger than the previous known on…
This paper, mostly expository in nature, surveys four measures of distinguishability for quantum-mechanical states. This is done from the point of view of the cryptographer with a particular eye on applications in quantum cryptography. Each of the measures considered is rooted in an analogous classical measure of distinguishability for probability distributions: namely, the probability of an identification error, the Kolmogorov distance, the Bhattacharyya coefficient, and the Shannon distinguishability (as defined through mutual information). These measures have a long history of use in statis…
A general and an arbitrarily efficient scheme for entangling the spins (or any spin-like degree of freedom) of two independent uncorrelated identical particles by a combination of two particle interferometry and which way detection is formulated. It is shown that the same setup could be used to identify the quantum statistics of the incident particles from either the sign or the magnitude of measured spin correlations. Our setup also exhibits a curious complementarity between particle distinguishability and the amount of generated entanglement.
We discuss two qualities of quantum systems: various correlations existing between their subsystems and the distingushability of different quantum states. This is then applied to analysing quantum information processing. While quantum correlations, or entanglement, are clearly of paramount importance for efficient pure state manipulations, mixed states present a much richer arena and reveal a more subtle interplay between correlations and distinguishability. The current work explores a number of issues related with identifying the important ingredients needed for quantum information processing…
Ideal dense coding protocols allow one to use prior maximal entanglement to send two bits of classical information by the physical transfer of a single encoded qubit. We investigate the case when the prior entanglement is not maximal and the initial state of the entangled pair of qubits being used for the dense coding is a mixed state. We find upper and lower bounds on the capability to do dense coding in terms of the various measures of entanglement and in terms of the average mutual distinguishability of the signal states.
Measurements provide a novel mechanism for generating the entanglement resource necessary for performing scalable quantum computation. Recently, we proposed a method for performing parity measurements in a coupled quantum dot system. In this paper we generalise this scheme and perform a comprehensive analytic and numerical study of environmental factors. We calculate the effects of possible error sources including non-ideal photon detectors, ineffective spin-selective excitation and dot distinguishability (both spatial and spectral). Furthermore, we present an experimental approach for verifyi…
We propose a new family of coherence monotones, named the \emph{generalized coherence concurrence} (or coherence $k$-concurrence), which is an analogous concept to the generalized entanglement concurrence. The coherence $k$-concurrence of a state is nonzero if and only if the coherence number (a recently introduced discrete coherence monotone) of the state is not smaller than $k$, and a state can be converted to a state with nonzero entanglement $k$-concurrence via incoherent operations if and only if the state has nonzero coherence $k$-concurrence. We apply the coherence concurrence family to…
It was shown recently that entanglement of identical particles has a feature called dualism [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 140404 (2013)], which is fundamentally connected with quantum indistinguishability. Here we report an experiment that observes the entanglement duality for the first time with two identical photons, which manifest polarization entanglement when labeled by different paths or path entanglement when labeled by polarization states. By adjusting the mismatch in frequency or arrival time of the entangled photons, we tune the photon indistinguishability from quantum to classical limit an…
We present a new method of deriving shapes of entanglement wedges directly from CFT calculations. We point out that a reduced density matrix in holographic CFTs possesses a sharp wedge structure such that inside the wedge we can distinguish two local excitations, while outside we cannot. We can determine this wedge, which we call a CFT wedge, by computing a distinguishability measure. We find that CFT wedges defined by the fidelity or Bures distance as a distinguishability measure, coincide perfectly with shadows of entanglement wedges in AdS/CFT. We confirm this agreement between CFT wedges a…
Hypothesis testing is a fundamental issue in statistical inference and has been a crucial element in the development of information sciences. The Chernoff bound gives the minimal Bayesian error probability when discriminating two hypotheses given a large number of observations. Recently the combined work of Audenaert et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 160501] and Nussbaum and Szkola [quant-ph/0607216] has proved the quantum analog of this bound, which applies when the hypotheses correspond to two quantum states. Based on the quantum Chernoff bound, we define a physically meaningful distinguishabilit…
We present an efficient quantum entanglement distribution over an arbitrary collective-noise channel. The basic idea in the present scheme is that two parties in quantum communication first transmit the entangled states in the frequency degree of freedom which suffers little from the noise in an optical fiber. After the two parties share the photon pairs, they add some operations and equipments to transfer the frequency entanglement of pairs into the polarization entanglement with the success probability of 100\%. Finally, they can get maximally entangled polarization states with polarization …
Limits of Classical correlations and Quantum advantages under (Anti-)Distinguishability constraints in Multipartite Communication
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram（印度科学教育研究所特里凡得琅分校）；Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar（布巴内斯瓦尔印度理工学院）；International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad（海得拉巴国际信息技术学院）；Gdańsk University of Technology（格但斯克理工大学）；University of Gdańsk（格但斯克大学）
A survey of various concepts in quantum information is given, with a main emphasis on the distinguishability of quantum states and quantum correlations. Covered topics include generalized and least square measurements, state discrimination, quantum relative entropies, the Bures distance on the set of quantum states, the quantum Fisher information, the quantum Chernoff bound, bipartite entanglement, the quantum discord, and geometrical measures of quantum correlations. The article is intended both for physicists interested not only by collections of results but also by the mathematical methods …
One of the many interesting features of quantum nonlocality is that the states of a multipartite quantum system cannot always be distinguished as well by local measurements as they can when all quantum measurements are allowed. In this work, we characterize the distinguishability of sets of multipartite quantum states when restricted to separable measurements -- those which contain the class of local measurements but nevertheless are free of entanglement between the component systems. We consider two quantities: The separable fidelity -- a truly quantum quantity -- which measures how well we c…
We show how coherences between identical constituents of a many-body quantum state can be interrogated by suitable correlation functions, and identify sufficient conditions under which low-order correlators fully characterize many-body coherences, as controlled by the constituents' mutual distinguishability. Comparison of correlators of different order detects many-body entanglement.
The suggestion that particles of the same kind may be indistinguishable in a fundamental sense, even so that challenges to traditional notions of individuality and identity may arise, has first come up in the context of classical statistical mechanics. In particular, the Gibbs paradox has sometimes been interpreted as a sign of the untenability of the classical concept of a particle and as a premonition that quantum theory is needed. This idea of a quantum connection stubbornly persists in the literature, even though it has also been criticized frequently. Here we shall argue that although thi…
We demonstrate controlled entanglement routing between bunching and antibunching path-entangled two-photon states in an unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer (UMZI), in which the routing process is controlled by the relative phase difference in the UMZI. Regarding bunching and antibunching path-entangled two-photon states as two virtual ports, we can consider the UMZI as a controlled entanglement router, which bases on the coherent manipulation of entanglement. Half of the entanglement within the input two-photon state is coherently routed between the two virtual ports, while the other is los…
We point out an earlier unnoticed implication of quantum indistinguishability, namely, a property which we call `dualism' that characterizes the entanglement of two identical particles (say, two ions of the same species) -- a feature which is absent in the entanglement of two non-identical particles (say, two ions of different species). A crucial application of this property is that it can be used to test quantum indistinguishability without bringing the relevant particles together, thereby avoiding the effects of mutual interaction. This is in contrast to the existing tests of quantum indisti…
This document focuses on translating various information-theoretic measures of distinguishability for probability distributions into measures of distin- guishability for quantum states. These measures should have important appli- cations in quantum cryptography and quantum computation theory. The results reported include the following. An exact expression for the quantum fidelity between two mixed states is derived. The optimal measurement that gives rise to it is studied in detail. Several upper and lower bounds on the quantum mutual information are derived via similar techniques and compared…
