Optimal unambiguous discrimination between subsets of non-orthogonal quantum states

Abstract

It is known that unambiguous discrimination among non-orthogonal but linearly independent quantum states is possible with a certain probability of success. Here, we consider a variant of that problem. Instead of discriminating among all of the different states, we shall only discriminate between two subsets of them. In particular, for the case of three non-orthogonal states, we show that the optimal strategy to distinguish between a set containing one of the states from the set containing the other two has a higher success rate than if we wish to discriminate among all three states. Somewhat surprisingly, for unambiguous discrimination the subsets need not be linearly independent. A fully analytical solution is presented, and we also show how to construct generalized interferometers (multiports) that provide an optical implementation of the optimal strategy.

10 pages, changes in section 2, replaced with published version, to appear in Physical Review A