Probabilistically Perfect Cloning of Two Pure States: Geometric Approach

Phys Rev Lett. 2016 May 20;116(20):200401. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.200401. Epub 2016 May 20.

Abstract

We solve the long-standing problem of making n perfect clones from m copies of one of two known pure states with minimum failure probability in the general case where the known states have arbitrary a priori probabilities. The solution emerges from a geometric formulation of the problem. This formulation reveals that cloning converges to state discrimination followed by state preparation as the number of clones goes to infinity. The convergence exhibits a phenomenon analogous to a second-order symmetry-breaking phase transition.