Distinguishing computable mixtures of quantum states

GRANDE, IGNACIO H. LÓPEZ; SENNO, GABRIEL; DE LA TORRE, GONZALO; LAROTONDA, MIGUEL A.; BENDERSKY, ARIEL; FIGUEIRA, SANTIAGO; ACÍN, ANTONIO

Physical Review A

American Physical Society

Año: 2018 vol. 97

2469-9926

In this article we extend results from our previous work [Bendersky et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 230402 (2016)] by providing a protocol to distinguish in finite time and with arbitrarily high success probability any algorithmic mixture of pure states from the maximally mixed state. Moreover, we include an experimental realization, using a modified quantum key distribution setup, where two different random sequences of pure states are prepared; these sequences are indistinguishable according to quantum mechanics, but they become distinguishable when randomness is replaced with pseudorandomness within the experimental preparation process.