Unambiguous discrimination of special sets of multipartite states using local measurements and classical communication

Abstract

We initially consider a quantum system consisting of two qubits, which can be in one of two nonorthogonal states $\ensuremath{\mid}{\ensuremath{\Psi}}_{0}⟩$ and $\ensuremath{\mid}{\ensuremath{\Psi}}_{1}⟩$. We distribute the qubits to two parties, Alice and Bob. They each measure their qubits and then compare their measurement results to determine which state they were sent. This procedure is error-free, which implies that it must sometimes fail. In addition, no quantum memory is required; it is not necessary for one of the qubits to be stored until the result of the measurement on the other is known. We consider the cases in which, should failure occur, both parties receive a failure signal or only one does. In the latter case, if the two states share the same Schmidt basis, the states can be discriminated with the same failure probability that would be obtained if the qubits were measured together. This scheme is sufficiently simple that it can be generalized to multipartite qubit, and qudit, states. Applications to quantum secret sharing are discussed. Finally, we present an optical scheme to experimentally realize the protocol in the case of two qubits.