Contextuality-enhanced quantum state discrimination under fixed failure probability

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Authors: Min Namkung, Hyang‐Tag Lim
Cited by: 1
References: 43

Abstract

Quantum state discrimination enables the accurate identification of quantum states, which are generally nonorthogonal. Among various strategies, minimum-error discrimination and unambiguous state discrimination exhibit contextuality-enhanced success probabilities that surpass classical bounds, offering significant advantages for quantum sensing and communication. However, in practice, both error and failure outcomes can occur, suggesting the need for a unified strategy that incorporates both aspects while exploring the potential for contextuality enhancement. In this work, we theoretically demonstrate contextuality enhancement in quantum state discrimination under a fixed failure probability. We show that this enhancement disappears within a certain intermediate range of failure probabilities--a phenomenon absent in conventional strategies, where both minimum-error and unambiguous discrimination consistently outperform the noncontextual bound for equal priors. Moreover, we analyze how the existence of this non-enhancement region depends on the confusability of the quantum states, which corresponds to their fidelity in a quantum model. We further extend the discussion to the noisy state discrimination, which even encompasses the maximal-confidence discrimination. In this extended discussion, we observe that the non-enhancement region tends to disappear with increasing noise strength.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Quantum Mechanics and Applications Quantum Information and Cryptography Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture

Publication details

Journal / source
Physical Review A
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)
Volume
113
Issue
2
Publication date
4 February 2026
Language
EN