Paper 1, Section I, 10D10 D

Quantum Information and Computation
Part II, 2021

Alice wishes to communicate to Bob a 1-bit message m=0m=0 or m=1m=1 chosen by her with equal prior probabilities 1/21 / 2. For m=0m=0 (respectively m=1m=1 ) she sends Bob the quantum state a0\left|a_{0}\right\rangle (respectively a1\left|a_{1}\right\rangle ). On receiving the state, Bob applies quantum operations to it, to try to determine Alice's message. The Helstrom-Holevo theorem asserts that the probability PSP_{S} for Bob to correctly determine Alice's message is bounded by PS12(1+sinθ)P_{S} \leqslant \frac{1}{2}(1+\sin \theta), where θ=cos1a0a1\theta=\cos ^{-1}\left|\left\langle a_{0} \mid a_{1}\right\rangle\right|, and that this bound is achievable.

(a) Suppose that a0=0\left|a_{0}\right\rangle=|0\rangle and a1=12(0+1)\left|a_{1}\right\rangle=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|0\rangle+|1\rangle), and that Bob measures the received state in the basis {b0,b1}\left\{\left|b_{0}\right\rangle,\left|b_{1}\right\rangle\right\}, where b0=cosβ0+sinβ1\left|b_{0}\right\rangle=\cos \beta|0\rangle+\sin \beta|1\rangle and b1=\left|b_{1}\right\rangle= sinβ0+cosβ1-\sin \beta|0\rangle+\cos \beta|1\rangle, to produce his output 0 or 1 , respectively. Calculate the probability PSP_{S} that Bob correctly determines Alice's message, and show that the maximum value of PSP_{S} over choices of β(π2,π2]\beta \in\left(-\frac{\pi}{2}, \frac{\pi}{2}\right] achieves the Helstrom-Holevo bound.

(b) State the no-cloning theorem as it applies to unitary processes and a set of two non-orthogonal states {c0,c1}\left\{\left|c_{0}\right\rangle,\left|c_{1}\right\rangle\right\}. Show that the Helstrom-Holevo theorem implies the validity of the no-cloning theorem in this situation.