01340nas a2200157 4500000000100000008004100001100001900042700002700061700002200088700002200110245006900132856003700201300001100238490000700249520092600256 2019 d1 aKamil Korzekwa1 aStanisław Czachórski1 aZbigniew Puchała1 aKarol Życzkowski00aDistinguishing classically indistinguishable states and channels uhttps://arxiv.org/abs/1812.09083 a4753030 v523 a
We investigate an original family of quantum distinguishability problems, where the goal is to perfectly distinguish between M quantum states that become identical under a completely decohering map. Similarly, we study distinguishability of M quantum channels that cannot be distinguished when one is restricted to decohered input and output states. The studied problems arise naturally in the presence of a superselection rule, allow one to quantify the amount of information that can be encoded in phase degrees of freedom (coherences), and are related to time-energy uncertainty relation. We present a collection of results on both necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of M perfectly distinguishable states (channels) that are classically indistinguishable.