Quantum state exclusion with many copies

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Roy, Debanjan, Gupta, Tathagata, Ghosal, Pratik, Sen, Samrat, Bandyopadhyay, Somshubhro
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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_version_ 1866911423716655104
author Roy, Debanjan
Gupta, Tathagata
Ghosal, Pratik
Sen, Samrat
Bandyopadhyay, Somshubhro
author_facet Roy, Debanjan
Gupta, Tathagata
Ghosal, Pratik
Sen, Samrat
Bandyopadhyay, Somshubhro
contents Quantum state exclusion is the task of identifying at least one state from a known set that was not used in the preparation of a quantum system. A set of quantum states is said to admit state exclusion if there exists a measurement whose outcomes can be put in one-to-one correspondence with the states in the set, such that each outcome rules out its corresponding state with certainty (while possibly also ruling out other states), and each outcome occurs with nonzero probability for at least one state in the set. State exclusion, however, is not always possible in the single-copy setting. In this paper, we investigate whether access to multiple identical copies of the system enables state exclusion. We prove that for any set of three or more pure states, state exclusion becomes possible with a finite number of copies. Moreover, we show that the number of copies required may be arbitrarily large: in particular, for every natural number $N$, we construct sets of states for which state exclusion remains impossible with $N$ or fewer copies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_14410
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Quantum state exclusion with many copies
Roy, Debanjan
Gupta, Tathagata
Ghosal, Pratik
Sen, Samrat
Bandyopadhyay, Somshubhro
Quantum Physics
Quantum state exclusion is the task of identifying at least one state from a known set that was not used in the preparation of a quantum system. A set of quantum states is said to admit state exclusion if there exists a measurement whose outcomes can be put in one-to-one correspondence with the states in the set, such that each outcome rules out its corresponding state with certainty (while possibly also ruling out other states), and each outcome occurs with nonzero probability for at least one state in the set. State exclusion, however, is not always possible in the single-copy setting. In this paper, we investigate whether access to multiple identical copies of the system enables state exclusion. We prove that for any set of three or more pure states, state exclusion becomes possible with a finite number of copies. Moreover, we show that the number of copies required may be arbitrarily large: in particular, for every natural number $N$, we construct sets of states for which state exclusion remains impossible with $N$ or fewer copies.
title Quantum state exclusion with many copies
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14410