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Let $\mathcal{H}$ be a $d$ -dimensional Hilbert space, and let $|\psi\rangle,|\phi\rangle \in \mathcal{H}$ be two quantum states.

  1. Show that if $|\psi\rangle$ and $|\phi\rangle$ are orthogonal, then there exists a projective measurement that distinguishes them. That is, there exists a two-outcome projective measurement $\left\{P_{0}, P_{1}\right\}$ such that $$ p_{\psi}\left(P_{0}\right)=1 \quad \text { and } \quad p_{\phi}\left(P_{1}\right)=1 $$
  2. Show that if $|\psi\rangle$ and $|\phi\rangle$ are not orthogonal, then there is no projective measurement that distinguishes them.

Attemps: I form a general Projective operator an two General states, I tried it for a $2*2$ dimension and then I was wondering why do we say that $|\psi\rangle$ and $|\phi\rangle$ should be orthogonal?

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    $\begingroup$ Hint for 1: what happens if you try to construct a measurement where one of the projectors is $|\psi \rangle \langle \psi |$? $\endgroup$
    – Rammus
    Oct 8, 2020 at 16:32

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Let $P_0=|\psi\rangle\!\langle\psi|$ and $P_1=I-P_0$. This is a projective measurement which deterministically distinguishes the two orthogonal states.

More generally, consider a projective measurement with operators $\newcommand{\ket}[1]{\lvert#1\rangle}\{P_i\}_{i=1}^d$ and $\newcommand{\braket}[2]{\langle #1\rvert #2\rangle}\newcommand{\ketbra}[1]{\lvert #1\rangle\!\langle #1\rvert} P_i\equiv\ketbra{\eta_i}$ where $\braket{\eta_i}{\eta_j}=\delta_{ij}$, and a set of (not necessarily orthogonal) states $\{\ket{\psi_i}\}_{i=1}^\ell$ with $\ell\le d$. To distinguish the states deterministically we need $$\operatorname{Tr}(P_i \ketbra{\psi_j})=|\braket{\eta_i}{\psi_j}|^2=\delta_{ij}.\tag2$$ Define the matrices $\Pi\equiv\sum_{i=1}^d |\eta_i\rangle\!\langle i|$ and $\Psi\equiv\sum_{i=1}^\ell|\psi_i\rangle\!\langle i|$. Note that $\Pi$ is $d\times d$ and $\Psi$ is $d\times\ell$. Eq. (1) is thus equivalent to $\Pi^\dagger \Psi=I_{d\times \ell}$ (we can tune the definitions of the states $\ket{\eta_i}$ to have $\braket{\eta_i}{\psi_i}\in\mathbb R$ without any loss in generality). This is only possible if $\Psi$ is "maximally entangled", i.e. has rank $\ell$ and all its (nonzero) singular values equal $1$ (equivalently, iff $\Psi^\dagger\Psi=I_{\ell}$). This is true iff the states $\ket{\psi_i}$ are orthonormal.

The last statement follows from observing that $\Psi^\dagger\Psi$ has the same nonzero singular values/eigenvalues as $\Psi\Psi^\dagger=\sum_{i=1}^\ell \ketbra{\psi_i}$. The latter having an $\ell$-fold degenerate eigenvalue $+1$ means $$\Psi\Psi^\dagger = \sum_i\ketbra{\psi_i}=\sum_i\ketbra{\phi_i}$$ for some orthonormal set $\{\ket{\phi_i}\}_{i=1}^\ell$. This in turns implies that for some unitary $U$ we have $\ket{\psi_i}=\sum_j U_{ij}\ket{\phi_j}$, and thus $\braket{\psi_i}{\psi_j}=\delta_{ij}$.

This shows that non-orthogonal states cannot be distinguished deterministically via projective measurements (in fact, they cannot be distinguished deterministically by any measurement, but that's not what we are showing here).

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  • $\begingroup$ I take it $\Psi$ would need to be padded to make it equivalent in dimension to $\Pi$ before application of $\Pi$ to $Psi$? $\endgroup$ Oct 9, 2020 at 13:41
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    $\begingroup$ @GaussStrife well $\Psi$ has dimension $d\times \ell$ and $\Pi$ is $d\times d$, so the dimensions match and the product $\Pi^\dagger\Psi$ is well defined. Explicitly, we simply have $(\Pi^\dagger\Psi)_{ij}=\langle \eta_i|\psi_j\rangle$ $\endgroup$
    – glS
    Oct 9, 2020 at 13:44

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