Optimum Discrimination of Non-orthogonal Quantum States: An Optical Realization
✍ Scribed by János A. Bergou; Mark Hillery; Yuqing Sun
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2001
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 172 KB
- Volume
- 49
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0015-8208
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Since the state of a quantum system is not an observable, it cannot be determined completely, in principle, if no a priori information is available. In this case, one needs to resort to various estimation strategies. The situation is completely different if a priori knowledge is available. Even unambigous discrimination is possible if the system is always prepared in a state that is selected from a known set of quantum states that are not orthogonal but linearly independent. This type of discrimination strategy has a higher probability of success by using generalised measurements than by using standard von Neumann measurements. We discuss here possible optical realizations, via generalized interferometers and single photon states, for the implementation of strategies that maximize the success rate. The implementations are based on exact analytical results. We also discuss possible applications for entanglement enhancement and quantum communication protocols.