Local distinguishability of orthogonal 2\otimes3 pure states

We present a complete characterization for the local distinguishability of orthogonal $2\otimes 3$ pure states except for some special cases of three states. Interestingly, we find there is a large class of four or three states that are indistinguishable by local projective measurements and classical communication (LPCC) can be perfectly distinguishable by LOCC. That indicates the ability of LOCC for discriminating $2\otimes 3$ states is strictly more powerful than that of LPCC, which is strikingly different from the case of multi-qubit states. We also show that classical communication plays a crucial role for local distinguishability by constructing a class of $m\otimes n$ states which require at least $2\min\{m,n\}-2$ rounds of classical communication in order to achieve a perfect local discrimination.Comment: 10 pages (revtex4), no figures. This is only a draft. It will be replaced with a revised version soon. Comments are welcom

When is there a multipartite maximum entangled state?

For a multipartite quantum system of the dimension $d_1\otimes d_2\otimes... d_n$, $d_1\ge d_2\ge...\ge d_n$, is there an entangled state {\em maximum} in the sense that all other states in the system can be obtained from the state through local quantum operations and classical communications (LOCC)? When $d_1\ge\Pi_{i=2}^n d_i$, such state exists. We show that this condition is also necessary. Our proof, somewhat surprisingly, uses results from algebraic complexity theory.Comment: 10 pages, no figure. We know the answer is quite simple, but the proof is somewhat involved. Comments are welcom

Any 2⊗n2\otimes n subspace is locally distinguishable

A subspace of a multipartite Hilbert space is called \textit{locally indistinguishable} if any orthogonal basis of this subspace cannot be perfectly distinguished by local operations and classical communication. Previously it was shown that any $m\otimes n$ bipartite system such that $m>2$ and $n>2$ has a locally indistinguishable subspace. However, it has been an open problem since 2005 whether there is a locally indistinguishable bipartite subspace with a qubit subsystem. We settle this problem by showing that any $2\otimes n$ bipartite subspace is locally distinguishable in the sense it contains a basis perfectly distinguishable by LOCC. As an interesting application, we show that any quantum channel with two Kraus operations has optimal environment-assisted classical capacity.Comment: 3 pages (Revtex 4).Comments are welcome

Unambiguous discrimination between quantum mixed states

We prove that the states secretly chosen from a mixed state set can be perfectly discriminated if and only if these states are orthogonal. The sufficient and necessary condition when nonorthogonal quantum mixed states can be unambiguously discriminated is also presented. Furthermore, we derive a series of lower bounds on the inconclusive probability of unambiguous discrimination of states from a mixed state set with \textit{a prior} probabilities.Comment: 4 pages, journal versio