TY - JOUR

T1 - Minimum error probability of quantum illumination

AU - De Palma, Giacomo

AU - Borregaard, Johannes

PY - 2018/7/2

Y1 - 2018/7/2

N2 - Quantum illumination is a technique for detecting the presence of a target in a noisy environment by means of aquantum probe. We prove that the two-mode squeezed vacuum state is the optimal probe for quantum illuminationin the scenario of asymmetric discrimination, where the goal is to minimize the decay rate of the probability of afalse positive with a given probability of a false negative. Quantum illumination with two-mode squeezed vacuumstates offers a 6 dB advantage in the error probability exponent compared to illumination with coherent states.Whether more advanced quantum illumination strategies may offer further improvements had been a longstandingopen question. Our fundamental result proves that nothing can be gained by considering more exotic quantumstates, such as, e.g., multimode entangled states. Our proof is based on a fundamental entropic inequality for thenoisy quantum Gaussian attenuators. We also prove that without access to a quantum memory, the optimal probesfor quantum illumination are the coherent states.

AB - Quantum illumination is a technique for detecting the presence of a target in a noisy environment by means of aquantum probe. We prove that the two-mode squeezed vacuum state is the optimal probe for quantum illuminationin the scenario of asymmetric discrimination, where the goal is to minimize the decay rate of the probability of afalse positive with a given probability of a false negative. Quantum illumination with two-mode squeezed vacuumstates offers a 6 dB advantage in the error probability exponent compared to illumination with coherent states.Whether more advanced quantum illumination strategies may offer further improvements had been a longstandingopen question. Our fundamental result proves that nothing can be gained by considering more exotic quantumstates, such as, e.g., multimode entangled states. Our proof is based on a fundamental entropic inequality for thenoisy quantum Gaussian attenuators. We also prove that without access to a quantum memory, the optimal probesfor quantum illumination are the coherent states.

U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevA.98.012101

DO - 10.1103/PhysRevA.98.012101

M3 - Journal article

VL - 98

JO - Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics

JF - Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics

SN - 1050-2947

IS - 1

M1 - 012101

ER -