Entanglement Distillation
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Entanglement distillation (also called entanglement purification) is the transformation of ''N'' copies of an arbitrary
entangled state Quantum entanglement is the phenomenon where the quantum state of each particle in a group cannot be described independently of the state of the others, even when the particles are separated by a large distance. The topic of quantum entangleme ...
\rho into some number of approximately pure Bell pairs, using only
local operations and classical communication LOCC, or local operations and classical communication, is a method in quantum information theory where a local (product) operation is performed on part of the system, and where the result of that operation is "communicated" classically to another ...
. Entanglement distillation can overcome the degenerative influence of noisy
quantum channel In quantum information theory, a quantum channel is a communication channel that can transmit quantum information, as well as classical information. An example of quantum information is the general dynamics of a qubit. An example of classical in ...
s by transforming previously shared, less-entangled pairs into a smaller number of maximally-entangled pairs.


History

The limits for entanglement dilution and distillation are due to C. H. Bennett, H. Bernstein, S. Popescu, and B. Schumacher, who presented the first distillation protocols for
pure state In quantum physics, a quantum state is a mathematical entity that embodies the knowledge of a quantum system. Quantum mechanics specifies the construction, evolution, and measurement of a quantum state. The result is a prediction for the system re ...
s in 1996; entanglement distillation protocols for mixed states were introduced by Bennett,
Gilles Brassard Gilles Brassard is a faculty member of the Université de Montréal, where he has been a Full Professor since 1988 and Canada Research Chair since 2001. Education and early life Brassard received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell Univers ...
, Popescu, Schumacher, John A. Smolin and
William Wootters William "Bill" Kent Wootters is an American theoretical physicist, and one of the founders of the field of quantum information theory. In a 1982 joint paper with Wojciech H. Zurek, Wootters proved the no-cloning theorem, at the same time as De ...
the same year. Bennett,
David DiVincenzo David P. DiVincenzo (born 1959) is an American theoretical physicist. He is the director of the Institute of Theoretical Nanoelectronics at the Peter Grünberg Institute at the Forschungszentrum Jülich and professor at the Institute for Quantum ...
, Smolin and Wootters established the connection to quantum error-correction in a ground-breaking paper published in August 1996, also in the journal of ''
Physical Review ''Physical Review'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The journal was established in 1893 by Edward Nichols. It publishes original research as well as scientific and literature reviews on all aspects of physics. It is published by the Ame ...
'', which has stimulated a lot of subsequent research.


Motivation

Suppose that two parties,
Alice and Bob Alice and Bob are fictional characters commonly used as placeholders in discussions about cryptography, cryptographic systems and Cryptographic protocol, protocols, and in other science and engineering literature where there are several partici ...
, would like to communicate classical information over a noisy quantum channel. Either classical or quantum information can be transmitted over a quantum channel by encoding the information in a quantum state. With this knowledge, Alice encodes the classical information that she intends to send to Bob in a (quantum) product state, as a
tensor product In mathematics, the tensor product V \otimes W of two vector spaces V and W (over the same field) is a vector space to which is associated a bilinear map V\times W \rightarrow V\otimes W that maps a pair (v,w),\ v\in V, w\in W to an element of ...
of reduced
density matrices In quantum mechanics, a density matrix (or density operator) is a matrix used in calculating the probabilities of the outcomes of measurements performed on physical systems. It is a generalization of the state vectors or wavefunctions: while th ...
p_ \otimes p_ \otimes \cdots where each p is diagonal and can only be used as a one time input for a particular channel \epsilon. The fidelity of the noisy quantum channel is a measure of how closely the output of a quantum channel resembles the input, and is therefore a measure of how well a quantum channel preserves information. If a pure state \psi is sent into a quantum channel emerges as the state represented by density matrix p, the fidelity of transmission is defined as F = \langle\psi, p, \psi\rangle. The problem that Alice and Bob now face is that quantum communication over large distances depends upon successful distribution of highly entangled
quantum states In quantum physics, a quantum state is a mathematical entity that embodies the knowledge of a quantum system. Quantum mechanics specifies the construction, evolution, and measurement of a quantum state. The result is a prediction for the system re ...
, and due to unavoidable noise in quantum communication channels, the quality of entangled states generally decreases exponentially with channel length as a function of the fidelity of the channel. Entanglement distillation addresses this problem of maintaining a high degree of entanglement between distributed quantum states by transforming N copies of an arbitrary entangled state \rho into approximately S(\rho)N Bell pairs, using only local operations and classical communication. The objective is to share strongly correlated qubits between distant parties (Alice and Bob) in order to allow reliable
quantum teleportation Quantum teleportation is a technique for transferring quantum information from a sender at one location to a receiver some distance away. While teleportation is commonly portrayed in science fiction as a means to transfer physical objects from on ...
or
quantum cryptography Quantum cryptography is the science of exploiting quantum mechanical properties to perform cryptographic tasks. The best known example of quantum cryptography is quantum key distribution, which offers an information-theoretically secure soluti ...
.


Entanglement entropy

Entanglement entropy quantifies entanglement. Several different definitions have been proposed.


Von Neumann entropy

The von Neumann entropy is a measure of the "quantum uncertainty" or "quantum randomness" associated with a quantum state, analogous to the concept of
Shannon entropy Shannon may refer to: People * Shannon (given name) * Shannon (surname) * Shannon (American singer), stage name of singer Brenda Shannon Greene (born 1958) * Shannon (South Korean singer), British-South Korean singer and actress Shannon Arrum ...
in classical information theory. Von Neumann entropy measures how "mixed" or "pure" a quantum state is. Pure states (e.g., states that are entirely definite like , \psi\rangle \langle \psi, ) have a von Neumann entropy of 0. In pure states, there is no uncertainty about the system’s state. Mixed states (e.g., probabilistic mixtures of pure states) have a positive entropy value, reflecting an inherent uncertainty in the system's state. For a given quantum system, the von Neumann entropy S is defined as: S(\rho)=-\textrm~(\rho~log~\rho), where \rho is the density matrix representing the state of the quantum system and \textrm denotes the trace operation, summing over the diagonal elements of a matrix. For a maximally mixed state (where all states are equally probable), von Neumann entropy is maximal. Von Neumann entropy is invariant under unitary transformations, meaning that if \rho is transformed by a unitary matrix U, S(U \rho~U^)=S(\rho). It is widely used in quantum information theory to study entanglement, quantum thermodynamics, and the coherence of quantum systems.


Rényi entanglement entropy

Rényi entropy In information theory, the Rényi entropy is a quantity that generalizes various notions of Entropy (information theory), entropy, including Hartley entropy, Shannon entropy, collision entropy, and min-entropy. The Rényi entropy is named after Alf ...
is a generalization of the various concepts of entropy, depending on a parameter \alpha, which adjusts the sensitivity of the entropy measure to different probabilities. For a quantum state represented by a density matrix \rho, the Rényi entropy of order \alpha is defined as: S_(\rho)=\fraclog~Tr ~(\rho^) where Tr~(\rho^) is the trace of \rho raised to the power \alpha. Rényi entropy H_(P) is a non-increasing function of \alpha, meaning that higher values of \alpha emphasize the more probable outcomes more heavily, leading to a lower entropy value. Different values of \alpha allow Rényi entropy to highlight different aspects of the probability distribution (or quantum state), with higher \alpha emphasizing high-probability events. Rényi entropy is often used in contexts such as fractal dimensions, signal processing, and statistical mechanics, where a flexible measure of uncertainty or diversity is useful. As an example of Renyi entropy, a two
qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...
system can be written as a superposition of possible computational basis qubit states: , 00\rangle, , 01\rangle, , 10\rangle, , 11\rangle, each with an associated complex coefficient \alpha\,\!: , \psi\rangle = \alpha_, 00\rangle + \alpha_, 01\rangle + \alpha_, 10\rangle + \alpha_, 11\rangle As in the case of a single qubit, the probability of measuring a particular computational basis state , x\rangle is the square of the modulus of its amplitude, or associated coefficient, , \alpha_, ^\,\!, subject to the normalization condition \sum_ , \alpha_, ^ = 1. The normalization condition guarantees that the sum of the probabilities add up to 1, meaning that upon measurement, one of the states will be observed. The Bell state is a particularly important example of a two qubit state: \frac(, 00\rangle+, 11\rangle) Bell states possess the property that measurement outcomes on the two qubits are correlated. As can be seen from the expression above, the two possible measurement outcomes are zero and one, both with probability of 50%. As a result, a measurement of the second qubit always gives the same result as the measurement of the first qubit. Bell states can be used to quantify entanglement. Let ''m'' be the number of high-fidelity copies of a Bell state that can be produced using local operations and classical communication (
LOCC LOCC, or local operations and classical communication, is a method in quantum information theory where a local (product) operation is performed on part of the system, and where the result of that operation is "communicated" classically to another ...
). Given a large number of Bell states the amount of entanglement present in a pure state , \psi\rangle can then be defined as the ratio of n/m, where n is the number of states transform to Bell state, called the distillable entanglement of a particular state , \phi\rangle, which gives a quantified measure of the amount of entanglement present in a given system. The process of entanglement distillation aims to saturate this limiting ratio. The number of copies of a pure state that may be converted into a maximally entangled state is equal to the von Neumann entropy S(p) of the state, which is an extension of the concept of classical entropy for quantum systems. Mathematically, for a given density matrix p, the von Neumann entropy S(p) is S(p) = -\mathrm(p \ln p). Entanglement can then be quantified as the entropy of entanglement, which is the von Neumann entropy of either p_ or p_ as: E = -\mathrm(p_ \ln p_) = -\mathrm(p_ \ln p_), Which ranges from 0 for a product state to \ln 2 for a maximally entangled state (if the \ln is replaced by \log_2 then maximally entangled has a value of 1).


Entanglement concentration


Pure states

Given n particles in the
singlet state In quantum mechanics, a singlet state usually refers to a system in which all electrons are paired. The term 'singlet' originally meant a linked set of particles whose net angular momentum is zero, that is, whose overall spin quantum number s=0. A ...
shared between Alice and Bob, local actions and classical communication will suffice to prepare m arbitrarily good copies of \phi with a yield Let an entangled state , \psi\rangle have a
Schmidt decomposition In linear algebra, the Schmidt decomposition (named after its originator Erhard Schmidt) refers to a particular way of expressing a vector in the tensor product of two inner product spaces. It has numerous applications in quantum information ...
: , \psi\rangle = \sum_\sqrt, x_\rangle, x_\rangle where coefficients p(x) form a
probability distribution In probability theory and statistics, a probability distribution is a Function (mathematics), function that gives the probabilities of occurrence of possible events for an Experiment (probability theory), experiment. It is a mathematical descri ...
, and thus are positive valued and sum to
unity Unity is the state of being as one (either literally or figuratively). It may also refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpoo ...
. The tensor product of this state is then, , \psi\rangle^ = \sum_\sqrt, x_ x_ \dots x_\rangle , x_ x_ \dots x_\rangle Now, omitting all terms x_, \dots, x_ which are not part of any sequence which is likely to occur with high probability, known as the
typical set In information theory, the typical set is a set of sequences whose probability is close to two raised to the negative power of the entropy of their source distribution. That this set has total probability close to one is a consequence of the asympt ...
: A_^ the new state is , \phi_\rangle = \sum_ \sqrt , x_ x_ \dots x_ \rangle , x_ x_ \dots x_ \rangle And renormalizing, , \phi_'\rangle = \frac Then the
fidelity Fidelity is the quality of faithfulness or loyalty. Its original meaning regarded duty in a broader sense than the related concept of '' fealty''. Both derive from the Latin word , meaning "faithful or loyal". In the City of London financial m ...
Suppose that Alice and Bob are in possession of m copies of , \psi\rangle. Alice can perform a measurement onto the typical set A_^ subset of p_\,\!, converting the state , \psi\rangle^ \rightarrow , \phi_\rangle with high fidelity. The theorem of typical sequences then shows us that 1 - \delta is the probability that the given sequence is part of the typical set, and may be made arbitrarily close to 1 for sufficiently large m, and therefore the Schmidt coefficients of the renormalized Bell state , \phi_'\rangle will be at most a factor / larger. Alice and Bob can now obtain a smaller set of n Bell states by performing LOCC on the state , \phi_'\rangle with which they can overcome the noise of a quantum channel to communicate successfully.


Mixed states

Many techniques have been developed for doing entanglement distillation for mixed states, giving a lower bounds on the value of the distillable entanglement D(p) for specific classes of states p. One common method involves Alice not using the noisy channel to transmit source states directly but instead preparing a large number of Bell states, sending half of each Bell pair to Bob. The result from transmission through the noisy channel is to create the mixed entangled state p, so that Alice and Bob end up sharing m copies of p. Alice and Bob then perform entanglement distillation, producing m \cdot D(p) almost perfectly entangled states from the mixed entangled states p by performing local unitary operations and measurements on the shared entangled pairs, coordinating their actions through classical messages, and sacrificing some of the entangled pairs to increase the purity of the remaining ones. Alice can now prepare an m \cdot D(p) qubit state and teleport it to Bob using the m \cdot D(p) Bell pairs which they share with high fidelity. What Alice and Bob have then effectively accomplished is having simulated a noiseless quantum channel using a noisy one, with the aid of local actions and classical communication. Let M be a general mixed state of two
spin-1/2 In quantum mechanics, spin is an intrinsic property of all elementary particles. All known fermions, the particles that constitute ordinary matter, have a spin of . The spin number describes how many symmetrical facets a particle has in one f ...
particles which could have resulted from the transmission of an initially pure singlet state \psi^ = (\uparrow\downarrow-\downarrow\uparrow)/\sqrt through a noisy channel between Alice and Bob, which will be used to distill some pure entanglement. The fidelity of F = \langle\psi^, M, \psi^\rangle is a convenient expression of its purity relative to a perfect singlet. Suppose that M is already a pure state of two particles M = , \phi\rangle\langle\phi, for some \phi. The entanglement for \phi, as already established, is the von Neumann entropy E(\phi) = S(p_) = S(p_) where p_ = \operatorname^_(, \phi\rangle\langle\phi, ), and likewise for p_, represent the reduced density matrices for either particle. The following protocol is then used: #Performing a random bilateral rotation on each shared pair, choosing a random
SU(2) In mathematics, the special unitary group of degree , denoted , is the Lie group of unitary matrices with determinant 1. The matrices of the more general unitary group may have complex determinants with absolute value 1, rather than real 1 ...
rotation independently for each pair and applying it locally to both members of the pair transforms the initial general two-spin mixed state M into a rotationally symmetric mixture of the singlet state \psi^ and the three triplet states \psi^ and \phi^: W_ = F \cdot , \psi^\rangle\langle\psi^, + \frac, \phi^\rangle\langle\phi^, + \frac, \psi^\rangle\langle\psi^, + \frac, \phi^\rangle\langle\phi^, The
Werner state A Werner state is a -dimensional bipartite quantum state density matrix that is invariant under all unitary operators of the form U \otimes U. That is, it is a bipartite quantum state \rho_ that satisfies :\rho_ = (U \otimes U) \rho_ (U^\dagger \ot ...
W_ has the same purity F as the initial mixed state M from which it was derived due to the singlet's invariance under bilateral rotations. #Each of the two pairs is then acted on by a unilateral rotation, which we can call \sigma_, which has the effect of converting them from mainly \psi^ Werner states to mainly \phi^ states with a large component F > \frac of \phi^ while the components of the other three Bell states are equal. #The two impure \phi^ states are then acted on by a bilateral
XOR Exclusive or, exclusive disjunction, exclusive alternation, logical non-equivalence, or logical inequality is a logical operator whose negation is the logical biconditional. With two inputs, XOR is true if and only if the inputs differ (one ...
, and afterwards the target pair is locally measured along the z axis. The unmeasured source pair is kept if the target pair's spins come out parallel as in the case of both inputs being true \phi^ states; and it is discarded otherwise. #If the source pair has not been discarded it is converted back to a predominantly \psi^ state by a unilateral \sigma_ rotation, and made rotationally symmetric by a random bilateral rotation. Repeating the outlined protocol above will distill Werner states whose purity may be chosen to be arbitrarily high F_\text < 1 from a collection ''M'' of input mixed states of purity F_\text > \frac but with a yield tending to zero in the limit F_\text \to 1. By performing another bilateral XOR operation, this time on a variable number k(F) \approx \frac of source pairs, as opposed to 1, into each target pair prior to measuring it, the yield can be made to approach a positive limit as F_\text \to 1. This method can then be combined with others to obtain an even higher yield.


Distillation protocols


BBPSSW protocol

The Bennet-Brassard–Popescu–Schumacher–Smolin–Wooters (BBPSSW) protocol is one of the simplest protocols that uses CNOT (Controlled-NOT) gates and measurements to probabilistically increase the entanglement of Bell states (standard maximally entangled two-qubit states). Here’s a step-by-step example: Setup:
#Suppose Alice and Bob share many copies of a noisy Bell state, represented by the density matrix: \rho_ = p \, , \Phi^\rangle \langle \Phi^, + \frac \sum_ , \Phi_ \rangle \langle \Phi_, where , \Phi^\rangle = \frac (, 00\rangle + , 11\rangle), and , \Phi_\rangle are the other Bell states: , \Phi^\rangle = \frac (, 00\rangle - , 11\rangle), , \Psi^\rangle = \frac (, 01\rangle + , 10\rangle), , \Psi^\rangle = \frac (, 01\rangle - , 10\rangle). #The parameter p represents the fidelity of \rho_ with respect to , \Phi^\rangle, and the goal is to increase p closer to 1 through distillation. Protocol steps: #CNOT operation: Alice and Bob each take two qubits, say \rho_^ and \rho_^, and apply a CNOT gate between the pairs, with one qubit of each state as the control and the other as the target:U_ , x\rangle , y\rangle = , x\rangle , x \oplus y\rangle, where \oplus is addition modulo 2. This step correlates the two copies. #Measurement and postselection: Alice and Bob each measure the target qubits in the Z-basis (measuring 0 or 1). If both measure same output (i.e., 0 or 1), they keep the control qubits and discard the targets; otherwise, they discard both pairs. This postselection step has a probability of success but increases the fidelity of the remaining entangled pair. Example calculation: * After one round, if the initial fidelity p of , \Phi^\rangle was 0.6, the protocol can increase it to around 0.8 with some probability. * If multiple rounds are performed on the surviving pairs, p can approach 1, producing a near-perfect , \Phi^\rangle state.


DEJMPS protocol

The Deutsch–Ekert–Josza–Macchiavello–Popescu–Sanpera (DEJMPS) protocol is an optimized version of BBPSSW and works especially well for Bell diagonal states. Setup:
Assume the initial state is in the form: \rho_ = p_1 , \Phi^\rangle \langle \Phi^, + p_2 , \Psi^\rangle \langle \Psi^, + p_3 , \Phi^\rangle \langle \Phi^, + (1 - p_1 - p_2 - p_3) , \Psi^\rangle \langle \Psi^, where p_1 + p_2 + p_3 + p_4 = 1, and we assume p_1 is the largest coefficient. Protocol steps: #Apply local unitaries: Alice and Bob apply unitary operations on their qubits to transform the state into a form where p_1 can be maximized. This involves bit and phase flips to swap the Bell states without affecting the target state, , \Phi^\rangle. #CNOT operations: Similar to the BBPSSW protocol, Alice and Bob each apply a CNOT operation between their pairs. #Basis measurement: After the CNOT, Alice and Bob measure the target qubits in the Bell basis, postselecting on successful outcomes. Example calculation:
*If the initial fidelity of , \Phi^\rangle is 0.6, a single round of DEJMPS can increase it more effectively than BBPSSW, pushing fidelity closer to 0.9, depending on the values of p_2, p_3, and p_4.


Filtering protocol

Filtering protocols apply local filtering operations to probabilistically enhance entanglement without requiring multiple pairs. This approach is useful when operations are limited, such as in photon-based quantum communication. Protocol steps: #Consider a noisy entangled state: \rho_ = p , \Phi^\rangle \langle \Phi^, + (1 - p) , 00\rangle \langle 00, where p < 1. #Local filtering operators: Alice and Bob apply filtering operators F_A and F_B: F_A = \begin p & 0 \\ 0 & 1 \end, \quad F_B = \begin p & 0 \\ 0 & 1 \end. #Normalization and success probability: After applying the filters, the resulting state is re-normalized: \rho_ = \frac.
The probability of successful filtering (success probability) is: P_ = \text((F_A \otimes F_B) \rho_ (F_A \otimes F_B)^). #Resulting fidelity: If p = 0.6 initially, filtering can increase the fidelity to 0.8 or higher, but it reduces the probability of obtaining this result due to the probabilistic nature of the filter.


Procrustean method

The Procrustean method of entanglement concentration can be used for as little as one partly entangled pair, being more efficient than the Schmidt projection method for entangling less than 5 pairs, and requires Alice and Bob to know the bias (\theta) of the n pairs in advance. The method derives its name from
Procrustes In Greek mythology, Procrustes (; Greek: Προκρούστης ''Prokroustes'', "the stretcher ho hammers out the metal), also known as Prokoptas, Damastes (Δαμαστής, "subduer") or Polypemon, was a rogue smith and bandit from Attica ...
because it produces a perfectly entangled state by chopping off the extra probability associated with the larger term in the partial entanglement of the pure states: \cos\theta \left, \uparrow_\right\rangle \otimes \left, \downarrow_\right\rangle - \sin\theta \left, \downarrow_\right\rangle \otimes \left, \uparrow_\right\rangle Assuming a collection of particles for which \theta is known as being either less than or greater than \pi / 4 the Procrustean method may be carried out by keeping all particles which, when passed through a polarization-dependent absorber, or a polarization-dependent-reflector, which absorb or reflect a fraction \tan^\theta of the more likely outcome, are not absorbed or deflected. Therefore, if Alice possesses particles for which \theta \neq \pi/4, she can separate out particles which are more likely to be measured in the up/down basis, and left with particles in maximally mixed state of spin up and spin down. This treatment corresponds to a
POVM In functional analysis and quantum information science, a positive operator-valued measure (POVM) is a measure whose values are positive semi-definite operators on a Hilbert space. POVMs are a generalization of projection-valued measures (PVM) an ...
(positive-operator-valued measurement). To obtain a perfectly entangled state of two particles, Alice informs Bob of the result of her generalized measurement while Bob doesn't measure his particle at all but instead discards his if Alice discards hers.


Stabilizer protocol

The purpose of an \left n,k\right/math> entanglement distillation protocol is to distill k pure
ebit EBIT, Ebit or ebit may refer to: *EBIT, or Earnings before interest and taxes, in finance *EBIT, or Electron beam ion trap, in physics *An ebit (quantum state), a two-party quantum state with quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the ...
s from n noisy
ebit EBIT, Ebit or ebit may refer to: *EBIT, or Earnings before interest and taxes, in finance *EBIT, or Electron beam ion trap, in physics *An ebit (quantum state), a two-party quantum state with quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the ...
s where 0\leq k\leq n. The yield of such a protocol is k/n. Two parties can then use the noiseless
ebit EBIT, Ebit or ebit may refer to: *EBIT, or Earnings before interest and taxes, in finance *EBIT, or Electron beam ion trap, in physics *An ebit (quantum state), a two-party quantum state with quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the ...
s for
quantum communication In quantum information theory, a quantum channel is a communication channel that can transmit quantum information, as well as classical information. An example of quantum information is the general dynamics of a qubit. An example of classical in ...
protocols. The two parties establish a set of shared noisy
ebit EBIT, Ebit or ebit may refer to: *EBIT, or Earnings before interest and taxes, in finance *EBIT, or Electron beam ion trap, in physics *An ebit (quantum state), a two-party quantum state with quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the ...
s in the following way. The sender Alice first prepares n
Bell state In quantum information science, the Bell's states or EPR pairs are specific quantum states of two qubits that represent the simplest examples of quantum entanglement. The Bell's states are a form of entangled and normalized basis vectors. Thi ...
s \left\vert \Phi^\right\rangle ^ locally. She sends the second
qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...
of each pair over a noisy
quantum channel In quantum information theory, a quantum channel is a communication channel that can transmit quantum information, as well as classical information. An example of quantum information is the general dynamics of a qubit. An example of classical in ...
to a receiver Bob. Let \left\vert \Phi_^\right\rangle be the state \left\vert \Phi^\right\rangle^ rearranged so that all of Alice's
qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...
s are on the left and all of Bob's
qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...
s are on the right. The noisy
quantum channel In quantum information theory, a quantum channel is a communication channel that can transmit quantum information, as well as classical information. An example of quantum information is the general dynamics of a qubit. An example of classical in ...
applies a Pauli error in the error set \mathcal\subset\Pi^ to the set of n
qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...
s sent over the channel. The sender and receiver then share a set of n noisy
ebit EBIT, Ebit or ebit may refer to: *EBIT, or Earnings before interest and taxes, in finance *EBIT, or Electron beam ion trap, in physics *An ebit (quantum state), a two-party quantum state with quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the ...
s of the form \left( \mathbf\otimes\mathbf\right) \left\vert \Phi_^\right\rangle where the identity \mathbf acts on Alice's
qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...
s and \mathbf is some
Pauli operator In mathematical physics and mathematics, the Pauli matrices are a set of three complex matrices that are traceless, Hermitian, involutory and unitary. Usually indicated by the Greek letter sigma (), they are occasionally denoted by tau () when ...
in \mathcal acting on Bob's
qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...
s. A one-way stabilizer entanglement distillation protocol uses a
stabilizer code Stabilizer, stabiliser, stabilisation or stabilization may refer to: Chemistry and food processing * Stabilizer (chemistry), a substance added to prevent unwanted change in state of another substance ** Polymer stabilizers are stabilizers used ...
for the distillation procedure. Suppose the stabilizer \mathcal for an \left n,k\right/math> quantum error-correcting code has generators g_,\ldots,g_. The distillation procedure begins with Alice
measuring Measurement is the quantification of attributes of an object or event, which can be used to compare with other objects or events. In other words, measurement is a process of determining how large or small a physical quantity is as compared to ...
the n-k generators in \mathcal. Let \left\ be the set of the 2^
projector A projector or image projector is an optical device that projects an image (or moving images) onto a surface, commonly a projection screen. Most projectors create an image by shining a light through a small transparent lens, but some newer type ...
s that project onto the 2^ orthogonal subspaces corresponding to the generators in \mathcal. The
measurement Measurement is the quantification of attributes of an object or event, which can be used to compare with other objects or events. In other words, measurement is a process of determining how large or small a physical quantity is as compared to ...
projects \left\vert \Phi_^\right\rangle randomly onto one of the i subspaces. Each \mathbf_ commutes with the noisy operator \mathbf on Bob's side so that \left( \mathbf_\otimes\mathbf\right) \left( \mathbf \otimes\mathbf\right) \left\vert \Phi_^\right\rangle =\left( \mathbf\otimes\mathbf\right) \left( \mathbf_\otimes \mathbf\right) \left\vert \Phi_^\right\rangle . The following important ''Bell-state matrix identity'' holds for an arbitrary matrix \mathbf: \left( \mathbf\otimes\mathbf\right) \left\vert \Phi_^ \right\rangle =\left( \mathbf\otimes\mathbf^\right) \left\vert \Phi_^\right\rangle . Then the above expression is equal to the following: \left( \mathbf\otimes\mathbf\right) \left( \mathbf_ \otimes\mathbf\right) \left\vert \Phi_^\right\rangle =\left( \mathbf\otimes\mathbf\right) \left( \mathbf_^\otimes \mathbf\right) \left\vert \Phi_^\right\rangle =\left( \mathbf\otimes\mathbf\right) \left( \mathbf_ \otimes\mathbf_^\right) \left\vert \Phi_^\right\rangle . Therefore, each of Alice's projectors \mathbf_ projects Bob's
qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...
s onto a subspace \mathbf_^ corresponding to Alice's projected subspace \mathbf_. Alice restores her
qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...
s to the simultaneous +1-
eigenspace In linear algebra, an eigenvector ( ) or characteristic vector is a Vector (mathematics and physics), vector that has its direction (geometry), direction unchanged (or reversed) by a given linear map, linear transformation. More precisely, an e ...
of the generators in \mathcal. She sends her measurement results to Bob. Bob measures the generators in \mathcal. Bob combines his measurements with Alice's to determine a
syndrome A syndrome is a set of medical signs and symptoms which are correlated with each other and often associated with a particular disease or disorder. The word derives from the Greek language, Greek σύνδρομον, meaning "concurrence". When a sy ...
for the error. He performs a recovery operation on his
qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...
s to reverse the error. He restores his
qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...
s \mathcal. Alice and Bob both perform the decoding
unitary Unitary may refer to: Mathematics * Unitary divisor * Unitary element * Unitary group * Unitary matrix * Unitary morphism * Unitary operator * Unitary transformation * Unitary representation * Unitarity (physics) * ''E''-unitary inverse semigr ...
corresponding to
stabilizer Stabilizer, stabiliser, stabilisation or stabilization may refer to: Chemistry and food processing * Stabilizer (chemistry), a substance added to prevent unwanted change in state of another substance ** Polymer stabilizers are stabilizers used ...
\mathcal to convert their k logical
ebit EBIT, Ebit or ebit may refer to: *EBIT, or Earnings before interest and taxes, in finance *EBIT, or Electron beam ion trap, in physics *An ebit (quantum state), a two-party quantum state with quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the ...
s to k physical
ebit EBIT, Ebit or ebit may refer to: *EBIT, or Earnings before interest and taxes, in finance *EBIT, or Electron beam ion trap, in physics *An ebit (quantum state), a two-party quantum state with quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the ...
s.


Entanglement-assisted stabilizer code

Luo and Devetak provided a straightforward extension of the above protocol (Luo and Devetak 2007). Their method converts an
entanglement-assisted stabilizer code In the theory of quantum communication, the entanglement-assisted stabilizer formalism is a method for protecting quantum information with the help of entanglement shared between a sender and receiver before they transmit quantum data over a quantum ...
into an entanglement-assisted entanglement distillation protocol. Luo and Devetak form an entanglement distillation protocol that has entanglement assistance from a few noiseless
ebit EBIT, Ebit or ebit may refer to: *EBIT, or Earnings before interest and taxes, in finance *EBIT, or Electron beam ion trap, in physics *An ebit (quantum state), a two-party quantum state with quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the ...
s. The crucial assumption for an entanglement-assisted entanglement distillation protocol is that Alice and Bob possess c noiseless
ebit EBIT, Ebit or ebit may refer to: *EBIT, or Earnings before interest and taxes, in finance *EBIT, or Electron beam ion trap, in physics *An ebit (quantum state), a two-party quantum state with quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the ...
s in addition to their n noisy
ebit EBIT, Ebit or ebit may refer to: *EBIT, or Earnings before interest and taxes, in finance *EBIT, or Electron beam ion trap, in physics *An ebit (quantum state), a two-party quantum state with quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the ...
s. The total state of the noisy and noiseless
ebit EBIT, Ebit or ebit may refer to: *EBIT, or Earnings before interest and taxes, in finance *EBIT, or Electron beam ion trap, in physics *An ebit (quantum state), a two-party quantum state with quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the ...
s is \left(\mathbf^\otimes\left( \mathbf\right) ^\right)\left\vert \Phi_^\right\rangle where \mathbf^ is the 2^\times2^
identity matrix In linear algebra, the identity matrix of size n is the n\times n square matrix with ones on the main diagonal and zeros elsewhere. It has unique properties, for example when the identity matrix represents a geometric transformation, the obje ...
acting on Alice's
qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...
s and the noisy
Pauli operator In mathematical physics and mathematics, the Pauli matrices are a set of three complex matrices that are traceless, Hermitian, involutory and unitary. Usually indicated by the Greek letter sigma (), they are occasionally denoted by tau () when ...
\left( \mathbf\right) ^ affects Bob's first n
qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...
s only. Thus the last c
ebit EBIT, Ebit or ebit may refer to: *EBIT, or Earnings before interest and taxes, in finance *EBIT, or Electron beam ion trap, in physics *An ebit (quantum state), a two-party quantum state with quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the ...
s are noiseless, and Alice and Bob have to correct for errors on the first n
ebit EBIT, Ebit or ebit may refer to: *EBIT, or Earnings before interest and taxes, in finance *EBIT, or Electron beam ion trap, in physics *An ebit (quantum state), a two-party quantum state with quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the ...
s only. The protocol proceeds exactly as outlined in the previous section. The only difference is that Alice and Bob measure the generators in an
entanglement-assisted stabilizer code In the theory of quantum communication, the entanglement-assisted stabilizer formalism is a method for protecting quantum information with the help of entanglement shared between a sender and receiver before they transmit quantum data over a quantum ...
. Each generator spans over n+c
qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...
s where the last c
qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...
s are noiseless. We comment on the yield of this entanglement-assisted entanglement distillation protocol. An entanglement-assisted code has n-k generators that each have n+c Pauli entries. These parameters imply that the entanglement distillation protocol produces k+c ebits. But the protocol consumes c initial noiseless
ebit EBIT, Ebit or ebit may refer to: *EBIT, or Earnings before interest and taxes, in finance *EBIT, or Electron beam ion trap, in physics *An ebit (quantum state), a two-party quantum state with quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the ...
s as a catalyst for distillation. Therefore, the yield of this protocol is k/n.


Entanglement dilution

The reverse process of entanglement distillation is entanglement dilution, where large copies of the Bell state are converted into less entangled states using LOCC with high fidelity. The aim of the entanglement dilution process, then, is to saturate the inverse ratio of n to m, defined as the distillable entanglement.


Applications

Besides its important application in quantum communication, entanglement purification also plays a crucial role in
error correction In information theory and coding theory with applications in computer science and telecommunications, error detection and correction (EDAC) or error control are techniques that enable reliable delivery of digital data over unreliable communi ...
for
quantum computation A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. On small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of both particles and waves, and quantum computing takes advantage of this behavior using specialized hardware. C ...
, because it can significantly increase the quality of logic operations between different qubits. The role of entanglement distillation is discussed briefly for the following applications.


Quantum error correction

Entanglement distillation protocols for mixed states can be used as a type of error-correction for quantum communications channels between two parties Alice and Bob, enabling Alice to reliably send mD(p) qubits of information to Bob, where D(p) is the distillable entanglement of p, the state that results when one half of a Bell pair is sent through the noisy channel \epsilon connecting Alice and Bob. In some cases, entanglement distillation may work when conventional quantum error-correction techniques fail. Entanglement distillation protocols are known which can produce a non-zero rate of transmission D(p) for channels which do not allow the transmission of quantum information due to the property that entanglement distillation protocols allow classical communication between parties as opposed to conventional error-correction which prohibits it.


Quantum cryptography

The concept of correlated measurement outcomes and entanglement is central to quantum key exchange, and therefore the ability to successfully perform entanglement distillation to obtain maximally entangled states is essential for quantum cryptography. If an entangled pair of particles is shared between two parties, anyone intercepting either particle will alter the overall system, allowing their presence (and the amount of information they have gained) to be determined so long as the particles are in a maximally entangled state. Also, in order to share a secret key string, Alice and Bob must perform the techniques of privacy amplification and information reconciliation to distill a shared secret key string. Information reconciliation is error-correction over a public channel which reconciles errors between the correlated random classical bit strings shared by Alice and Bob while limiting the knowledge that a possible eavesdropper Eve can have about the shared keys. After information reconciliation is used to reconcile possible errors between the shared keys that Alice and Bob possess and limit the possible information Eve could have gained, the technique of privacy amplification is used to distill a smaller subset of bits maximizing Eve's uncertainty about the key.


Quantum teleportation

In quantum teleportation, a sender wishes to transmit an arbitrary quantum state of a particle to a possibly distant receiver. Quantum teleportation is able to achieve faithful transmission of quantum information by substituting classical communication and prior entanglement for a direct quantum channel. Using teleportation, an arbitrary unknown qubit can be faithfully transmitted via a pair of maximally-entangled qubits shared between sender and receiver, and a 2-bit classical message from the sender to the receiver. Quantum teleportation requires a noiseless quantum channel for sharing perfectly entangled particles, and therefore entanglement distillation satisfies this requirement by providing the noiseless quantum channel and maximally entangled qubits.


See also

*
Quantum channel In quantum information theory, a quantum channel is a communication channel that can transmit quantum information, as well as classical information. An example of quantum information is the general dynamics of a qubit. An example of classical in ...
*
Quantum cryptography Quantum cryptography is the science of exploiting quantum mechanical properties to perform cryptographic tasks. The best known example of quantum cryptography is quantum key distribution, which offers an information-theoretically secure soluti ...
*
Quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the phenomenon where the quantum state of each Subatomic particle, particle in a group cannot be described independently of the state of the others, even when the particles are separated by a large distance. The topic o ...
*
Quantum state In quantum physics, a quantum state is a mathematical entity that embodies the knowledge of a quantum system. Quantum mechanics specifies the construction, evolution, and measurement of a quantum state. The result is a prediction for the system ...
*
Quantum teleportation Quantum teleportation is a technique for transferring quantum information from a sender at one location to a receiver some distance away. While teleportation is commonly portrayed in science fiction as a means to transfer physical objects from on ...
*
LOCC LOCC, or local operations and classical communication, is a method in quantum information theory where a local (product) operation is performed on part of the system, and where the result of that operation is "communicated" classically to another ...
*
Purification theorem In game theory, the purification theorem was contributed by Nobel laureate John Harsanyi in 1973. The theorem justifies a puzzling aspect of mixed strategy Nash equilibria In game theory, the Nash equilibrium is the most commonly used solutio ...


Notes and references

* * . * . * . * * * * * Mark M. Wilde
"From Classical to Quantum Shannon Theory", arXiv:1106.1445
Quantum information science Statistical mechanics {{DEFAULTSORT:Entanglement Distillation