Cloning a real d-dimensional quantum state on the edge of the no-signaling condition

We investigate a new class of quantum cloning machines that equally duplicate all real states in a Hilbert space of arbitrary dimension. By using the no-signaling condition, namely that cloning cannot make superluminal communication possible, we derive an upper bound on the fidelity of this class of quantum cloning machines. Then, for each dimension d, we construct an optimal symmetric cloner whose fidelity saturates this bound. Similar calculations can also be performed in order to recover the fidelity of the optimal universal cloner in d dimensions.Comment: 6 pages RevTex, 1 encapuslated Postscript figur

Quantum Cloning of Mixed States in Symmetric Subspace

Quantum cloning machine for arbitrary mixed states in symmetric subspace is proposed. This quantum cloning machine can be used to copy part of the output state of another quantum cloning machine and is useful in quantum computation and quantum information. The shrinking factor of this quantum cloning achieves the well-known upper bound. When the input is identical pure states, two different fidelities of this cloning machine are optimal.Comment: Revtex, 4 page

Quantum key distribution for d-level systems with generalized Bell states

Using the generalized Bell states and controlled not gates, we introduce an enatanglement-based quantum key distribution (QKD) of d-level states (qudits). In case of eavesdropping, Eve's information gain is zero and a quantum error rate of (d-1)/d is introduced in Bob's received qudits, so that for large d, comparison of only a tiny fraction of received qudits with the sent ones can detect the presence of Eve.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, REVTEX, references added, extensive revision, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Reversibility of continuous-variable quantum cloning

We analyze a reversibility of optimal Gaussian $1\to 2$ quantum cloning of a coherent state using only local operations on the clones and classical communication between them and propose a feasible experimental test of this feature. Performing Bell-type homodyne measurement on one clone and anti-clone, an arbitrary unknown input state (not only a coherent state) can be restored in the other clone by applying appropriate local unitary displacement operation. We generalize this concept to a partial LOCC reversal of the cloning and we show that this procedure converts the symmetric cloner to an asymmetric cloner. Further, we discuss a distributed LOCC reversal in optimal $1\to M$ Gaussian cloning of coherent states which transforms it to optimal $1\to M'$ cloning for $M'<M$. Assuming the quantum cloning as a possible eavesdropping attack on quantum communication link, the reversibility can be utilized to improve the security of the link even after the attack.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

What information theory can tell us about quantum reality

An investigation of Einstein's ``physical'' reality and the concept of quantum reality in terms of information theory suggests a solution to quantum paradoxes such as the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) and the Schroedinger-cat paradoxes. Quantum reality, the picture based on unitarily evolving wavefunctions, is complete, but appears incomplete from the observer's point of view for fundamental reasons arising from the quantum information theory of measurement. Physical reality, the picture based on classically accessible observables is, in the worst case of EPR experiments, unrelated to the quantum reality it purports to reflect. Thus, quantum information theory implies that only correlations, not the correlata, are physically accessible: the mantra of the Ithaca interpretation of quantum mechanics.Comment: LaTeX with llncs.cls, 11 pages, 6 postscript figures, Proc. of 1st NASA Workshop on Quantum Computation and Quantum Communication (QCQC 98

Multipartite Classical and Quantum Secrecy Monotones

In order to study multipartite quantum cryptography, we introduce quantities which vanish on product probability distributions, and which can only decrease if the parties carry out local operations or carry out public classical communication. These ``secrecy monotones'' therefore measure how much secret correlations are shared by the parties. In the bipartite case we show that the mutual information is a secrecy monotone. In the multipartite case we describe two different generalisations of the mutual information, both of which are secrecy monotones. The existence of two distinct secrecy monotones allows us to show that in multipartite quantum cryptography the parties must make irreversible choices about which multipartite correlations they want to obtain. Secrecy monotones can be extended to the quantum domain and are then defined on density matrices. We illustrate this generalisation by considering tri-partite quantum cryptography based on the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state. We show that before carrying out measurements on the state, the parties must make an irreversible decision about what probability distribution they want to obtain

Information-theoretic interpretation of quantum error-correcting codes

Quantum error-correcting codes are analyzed from an information-theoretic perspective centered on quantum conditional and mutual entropies. This approach parallels the description of classical error correction in Shannon theory, while clarifying the differences between classical and quantum codes. More specifically, it is shown how quantum information theory accounts for the fact that "redundant" information can be distributed over quantum bits even though this does not violate the quantum "no-cloning" theorem. Such a remarkable feature, which has no counterpart for classical codes, is related to the property that the ternary mutual entropy vanishes for a tripartite system in a pure state. This information-theoretic description of quantum coding is used to derive the quantum analogue of the Singleton bound on the number of logical bits that can be preserved by a code of fixed length which can recover a given number of errors.Comment: 14 pages RevTeX, 8 Postscript figures. Added appendix. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Optimal estimation of multiple phases

We study the issue of simultaneous estimation of several phase shifts induced by commuting operators on a quantum state. We derive the optimal positive operator-valued measure corresponding to the multiple-phase estimation. In particular, we discuss the explicit case of the optimal detection of double phase for a system of identical qutrits and generalise these results to optimal multiple phase detection for d-dimensional quantum states.Comment: 6 page

Cloning of spin-coherent states

We consider optimal cloning of the spin coherent states in Hilbert spaces of different dimensionality d. We give explicit form of optimal cloning transformation for spin coherent states in the three-dimensional space, analytical results for the fidelity of the optimal cloning in d=3 and d=4 as well as numerical results for higher dimensions. In the low-dimensional case we construct the corresponding completely positive maps and exhibit their structure with the help of Jamiolkowski isomorphism. This allows us to formulate some conjectures about the form of optimal coherent cloning CP maps in arbitrary dimension.Comment: LateX, 9 pages, 1 figur

Asymmetric quantum telecloning of d-level systems and broadcasting of entanglement to different locations using the "many-to-many" communication protocol

We propose a generalization of quantum teleportation: the so-called many-to-many quantum communication of the information of a d-level system from N spatially separated senders to M>N receivers situated at different locations. We extend the concept of asymmetric telecloning from qubits to d-dimensional systems. We investigate the broadcasting of entanglement by using local 1->2 optimal universal asymmetric Pauli machines and show that the maximal fidelities of the two final entangled states are obtained when symmetric machines are applied. Cloning of entanglement is studied using a nonlocal optimal universal asymmetric cloning machine and we show that the symmetric machine optimally copies the entanglement. The "many-to-many" teleportation scheme is applied in order to distribute entanglement shared between two observers to two pairs of spatially separated observers.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figur