2 research outputs found
Optimal full estimation of qubit mixed states
We obtain the optimal scheme for estimating unknown qubit mixed states when
an arbitrary number N of identically prepared copies is available. We discuss
the case of states in the whole Bloch sphere as well as the restricted
situation where these states are known to lie on the equatorial plane. For the
former case we obtain that the optimal measurement does not depend on the prior
probability distribution provided it is isotropic. Although the
equatorial-plane case does not have this property for arbitrary N, we give a
prior-independent scheme which becomes optimal in the asymptotic limit of large
N. We compute the maximum mean fidelity in this asymptotic regime for the two
cases. We show that within the pointwise estimation approach these limits can
be obtained in a rather easy and rapid way. This derivation is based on
heuristic arguments that are made rigorous by using van Trees inequalities. The
interrelation between the estimation of the purity and the direction of the
state is also discussed. In the general case we show that they correspond to
independent estimations whereas for the equatorial-plane states this is only
true asymptotically.Comment: 19 pages, no figure
Estimation of pure qubits on circles
Gisin and Popescu [PRL, 83, 432 (1999)] have shown that more information
about their direction can be obtained from a pair of anti-parallel spins
compared to a pair of parallel spins, where the first member of the pair (which
we call the pointer member) can point equally along any direction in the Bloch
sphere. They argued that this was due to the difference in dimensionality
spanned by these two alphabets of states. Here we consider similar alphabets,
but with the first spin restricted to a fixed small circle of the Bloch sphere.
In this case, the dimensionality spanned by the anti-parallel versus parallel
alphabet is now equal. However, the anti-parallel alphabet is found to still
contain more information in general. We generalize this to having N parallel
spins and M anti-parallel spins. When the pointer member is restricted to a
small circle these alphabets again span spaces of equal dimension, yet in
general, more directional information can be found for sets with smaller |N-M|
for any fixed total number of spins. We find that the optimal POVMs for
extracting directional information in these cases can always be expressed in
terms of the Fourier basis. Our results show that dimensionality alone cannot
explain the greater information content in anti-parallel combinations of spins
compared to parallel combinations. In addition, we describe an LOCC protocol
which extract optimal directional information when the pointer member is
restricted to a small circle and a pair of parallel spins are supplied.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure