Unambiguous discrimination of general quantum operations
The discrimination of quantum operations has long been an intriguing challenge, with theoretical research notably advancing our understanding of the quantum features in discriminating quantum objects. This challenge is closely related to the discrimination of quantum states, and proof-of-principle demonstrations of the latter have already been realized using optical photons. However, the experimental demonstration of discriminating general quantum operations, including both unitary and nonunitary operations, has remained elusive. In general quantum systems, especially those with high dimensions, the preparation of arbitrary quantum states and the implementation of arbitrary quantum operations and generalized measurements are nontrivial tasks. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the optimal unambiguous discrimination of up to six displacement operators and the unambiguous discrimination of nonunitary quantum operations. Our results demonstrate powerful tools for experimental research in quantum information processing and are expected to stimulate a wide range of valuable applications in the field of quantum sensing.
Authors
- Jing-Ning Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3712-5774)
- Chang‐Ling Zou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2484-7292)
- Luyan Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4419-5674)
- Yipu Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0221-9607)
- Ling Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3326-032X)
- Weizhou Cai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0650-0861)
- Ziyue Hua (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4860-8803)
- Xiaoxuan Pan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7081-9172)
- Haiyan Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4906-8845)
- Xinyu Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5180-6958)
- Yuwei Ma
- Xianghao Mu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-0054-3802)
- Weiting Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1510-772X)
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Hefei University (CN)
- Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences (CN)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2024-11-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adq2529
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Quantum Information and Cryptography
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.69
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities