No Arabic abstract
A fundamental problem in quantum information is to explore what kind of quantum correlations is responsible for successful completion of a quantum information procedure. Here we study the roles of entanglement, discord, and dissonance needed for optimal quantum state discrimination when the latter is assisted with an auxiliary system. In such process, we present a more general joint unitary transformation than the existing results. The quantum entanglement between a principal qubit and an ancilla is found to be completely unnecessary, as it can be set to zero in the arbitrary case by adjusting the parameters in the general unitary without affecting the success probability. This result also shows that it is quantum dissonance that plays as a key role in assisted optimal state discrimination and not quantum entanglement. A necessary criterion for the necessity of quantum dissonance based on the linear entropy is also presented.
We study the procedure for sequential unambiguous state discrimination. A qubit is prepared in one of two possible states, and measured by two observers Bob and Charlie sequentially. A necessary condition for the state to be unambiguously discriminated by Charlie is the absence of entanglement between the principal qubit, prepared by Alice, and Bobs auxiliary system. In general, the procedure for both Bob and Charlie to recognize between two nonorthogonal states conclusively relies on the availability of quantum discord which is precisely the quantum dissonance when the entanglement is absent. In Bobs measurement, the left discord is positively correlated with the information extracted by Bob, and the right discord enhances the information left to Charlie. When their product achieves its maximum the probability for both Bob and Charlie to identify the state achieves its optimal value.
A fundamental problem in quantum information is to explore the roles of different quantum correlations in a quantum information procedure. Recent work [Phys. Rev. Lett., 107 (2011) 080401] shows that the protocol for assisted optimal state discrimination (AOSD) may be implemented successfully without entanglement, but with another correlation, quantum dissonance. However, both the original work and the extension to discrimination of $d$ states [Phys. Rev. A, 85 (2012) 022328] have only proved that entanglement can be absent in the case with equal a emph{priori} probabilities. By improving the protocol in [Sci. Rep., 3 (2013) 2134], we investigate this topic in a simple case to discriminate three nonorthogonal states of a qutrit, with positive real overlaps. In our procedure, the entanglement between the qutrit and an auxiliary qubit is found to be completely unnecessary. This result shows that the quantum dissonance may play as a key role in optimal state discrimination assisted by a qubit for more general cases.
We study intrinsic coherence in the tripartite process to unambiguously discriminate two nonorthogonal states of a qubit, entangled with another one, and assisted by an auxiliary system. The optimal success probability is found to be benefited by initial intrinsic coherence, but no extra one is required. The transformations among different contributions of intrinsic coherence are necessary in this procedure, which increase with the overlap between the states to recognize. Such state discrimination is a key step of the probabilistic teleportation protocol. Entanglement of the quantum channel decreases the coherence characterizing the reliance on an ancilla.
We present theory and experiment for the task of discriminating two nonorthogonal states, given multiple copies. We implement several local measurement schemes, on both pure states and states mixed by depolarizing noise. We find that schemes which are optimal (or have optimal scaling) without noise perform worse with noise than simply repeating the optimal single-copy measurement. Applying optimal control theory, we derive the globally optimal local measurement strategy, which outperforms all other local schemes, and experimentally implement it for various levels of noise.
Nonlinear variants of quantum mechanics can solve tasks that are impossible in standard quantum theory, such as perfectly distinguishing nonorthogonal states. Here we derive the optimal protocol for distinguishing two states of a qubit using the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, a model of nonlinear quantum mechanics that arises as an effective description of Bose-Einstein condensates. Using this protocol, we present an algorithm for unstructured search in the Gross-Pitaevskii model, obtaining an exponential improvement over a previous algorithm of Meyer and Wong. This result establishes a limitation on the effectiveness of the Gross-Pitaevskii approximation. More generally, we demonstrate similar behavior under a family of related nonlinearities, giving evidence that the ability to quickly discriminate nonorthogonal states and thereby solve unstructured search is a generic feature of nonlinear quantum mechanics.