116 research outputs found
Strongly Incompatible Quantum Devices
The fact that there are quantum observables without a simultaneous
measurement is one of the fundamental characteristics of quantum mechanics. In
this work we expand the concept of joint measurability to all kinds of possible
measurement devices, and we call this relation compatibility. Two devices are
incompatible if they cannot be implemented as parts of a single measurement
setup. We introduce also a more stringent notion of incompatibility, strong
incompatibility. Both incompatibility and strong incompatibility are rigorously
characterized and their difference is demonstrated by examples.Comment: 27 pages (AMSart), 6 figure
Probability-based comparison of quantum states
We address the following state comparison problem: is it possible to design
an experiment enabling us to unambiguously decide (based on the observed
outcome statistics) on the sameness or difference of two unknown state
preparations without revealing complete information about the states? We find
that the claim "the same" can never be concluded without any doubts unless the
information is complete. Moreover, we prove that a universal comparison (that
perfectly distinguishes all states) also requires complete information about
the states. Nevertheless, for some measurements, the probability distribution
of outcomes still allows one to make an unambiguous conclusion regarding the
difference between the states even in the case of incomplete information. We
analyze an efficiency of such a comparison of qudit states when it is based on
the SWAP-measurement. For qubit states, we consider in detail the performance
of special families of two-valued measurements enabling us to successfully
compare at most half of the pairs of states. Finally, we introduce almost
universal comparison measurements which can distinguish almost all
non-identical states (up to a set of measure zero). The explicit form of such
measurements with two and more outcomes is found in any dimension.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, some results are extende
Complete measurements of quantum observables
We define a complete measurement of a quantum observable (POVM) as a
measurement of the maximally refined version of the POVM. Complete measurements
give information from the multiplicities of the measurement outcomes and can be
viewed as state preparation procedures. We show that any POVM can be measured
completely by using sequential measurements or maximally refinable instruments.
Moreover, the ancillary space of a complete measurement can be chosen to be
minimal.Comment: Based on talk given in CEQIP 2012 conferenc
When do pieces determine the whole? Extreme marginals of a completely positive map
We will consider completely positive maps defined on tensor products of von Neumann algebras and taking values in the algebra of bounded operators on a Hilbert space and particularly certain convex subsets of the set of such maps. We show that when one of the marginal maps of such a map is an extreme point, then the marginals uniquely determine the map. We will further prove that when both of the marginals are extreme, then the whole map is extreme. We show that this general result is the common source of several well-known results dealing with, e.g., jointly measurable observables. We also obtain new insight especially in the realm of quantum instruments and their marginal observables and channels. © 2014 World Scientific Publishing Company.</p
Generalized coherent states and extremal positive operator valued measures
We present a correspondence between positive operator valued measures (POVMs) and sets of generalized coherent states. POVMs describe quantum observables and, similar to quantum states, quantum observables can also be mixed. We show how the formalism of generalized coherent states leads to a useful characterization of extremal POVMs. We prove that covariant phase-space observables related to squeezed states are extremal, while those related to number states are not extremal
Witnessing incompatibility of quantum channels
We introduce the notion of incompatibility witness for quantum channels, defined as an affine functional that is non-negative on all pairs of compatible channels and strictly negative on some incompatible pair. This notion extends the recent definition of incompatibility witnesses for quantum measurements. We utilize the general framework of channels acting on arbitrary finite-dimensional von Neumann algebras, thus allowing us to investigate incompatibility witnesses on measurement-measurement, measurement-channel, and channel-channel pairs. We prove that any incompatibility witness can be implemented as a state discrimination task in which some intermediate classical information is obtained before completing the task. This implies that any incompatible pair of channels gives an advantage over compatible pairs in some such state discrimination task
Completely positive maps on modules, instruments, extremality problems, and applications to physics
Convex sets of completely positive maps and positive semidefinite kernels are
considered in the most general context of modules over -algebras and a
complete charaterization of their extreme points is obtained. As a byproduct,
we determine extreme quantum instruments, preparations, channels, and extreme
autocorrelation functions. Various applications to quantum information and
measurement theories are given. The structure of quantum instruments is
analyzed thoroughly.Comment: 32 page
Quantum measurements on finite dimensional systems: relabeling and mixing
Quantum measurements are mathematically described by positive operator valued measures (POVMs). Concentrating on finite dimensional systems, we show that one can limit to extremal rank-1 POVMs if two simple procedures of mixing and relabeling are permitted. We demonstrate that any finite outcome POVM can be obtained from extremal rank-1 POVMs with these two procedures. In particular, extremal POVMs with higher rank are just relabelings of extremal rank-1 POVMs and their structure is therefore clarified
Quantum Incompatibility Witnesses
We demonstrate that quantum incompatibility can always be detected by means of a state discrimination task with partial intermediate information. This is done by showing that only incompatible measurements allow for an efficient use of premeasurement information in order to improve the probability of guessing the correct state. Thus, the gap between the guessing probabilities with pre- and postmeasurement information is a witness of the incompatibility of a given collection of measurements. We prove that all linear incompatibility witnesses can be implemented as some state discrimination protocol according to this scheme. As an application, we characterize the joint measurability region of two noisy mutually unbiased bases
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