Approximately clean quantum probability measures

Abstract

A quantum probability measure-or quantum measurement-is said to be clean if it cannot be irreversibly connected to any other quantum probability measure via a quantum channel. The notion of a clean quantum measure was introduced by Buscemi et al. ["Clean positive operator valued measures," J. Math. Phys.46(8), 082109 (2005)10.1063/1.2008996] for finite-dimensional Hilbert space, and was studied subsequently by Kahn ["Clean positive operator-valued measures for qubits and similar cases," J. Phys. A40(18), 4817-4832 (2007)10.1088/1751-8113/40/18/009] and Pellonpää ["Complete characterization of extreme quantum observables in finite dimensions," J. Phys. A44(8), 085304 (2011)10.1088/1751-8113/44/8/085304]. The present paper provides new descriptions of clean quantum probability measures in the case of finite-dimensional Hilbert space. For Hilbert spaces of infinite dimension, we introduce the notion of "approximately clean quantum probability measures" and characterise this property for measures whose range determines a finite-dimensional operator system. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.