English

Optimal convex approximations of quantum states

Quantum Physics 2019-01-24 v2

Abstract

We consider the problem of optimally approximating an unavailable quantum state ρ\rho by the convex mixing of states drawn from a set of available states {νi}\{ \nu_i\}. The problem is recast to look for the least distinguishable state from ρ\rho among the convex set ipiνi\sum_i p_i \nu_i, and the corresponding optimal weights {pi}\{ p_i \} provide the optimal convex mixing. We present the complete solution for the optimal convex approximation of a qubit mixed state when the set of available states comprises the three bases of the Pauli matrices.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1710.01565,
  title  = {Optimal convex approximations of quantum states},
  author = {Massimiliano F. Sacchi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.01565},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

5 pages; 2 figures; added the section 'Addendum' and a reference to X.-B. Liang, B. Li, and S.-M. Fei, Phys. Rev. A 99, 016301 (2019), which corrects some results of Sec. III

R2 v1 2026-06-22T22:03:27.645Z