Real quantum operations and state transformations

Abstract

Resource theory of imaginarity provides a useful framework to understand the role of complex numbers, which are essential in the formulation of quantum mechanics, in a mathematically rigorous way. In the first part of this article, we study the properties of ‘real’ (quantum) operations both in single-party and bipartite settings. As a consequence, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for state transformations under real operations and show the existence of ‘real entanglement’ monotones. In the second part of this article, we focus on the problem of single copy state transformation via real quantum operations. When starting from pure initial states, we completely solve this problem by finding an analytical expression for the optimal fidelity of transformation, for a given probability of transformation and vice versa. Moreover, for state transformations involving arbitrary initial states and pure final states, we provide a semidefinite program to compute the optimal achievable fidelity, for a given probability of transformation.