Subsystem Trace-Distances of Two Random States

TL;DR

This paper investigates how well one can distinguish between two random pure quantum states using partial measurements on subsystems, revealing a sharp transition in distinguishability as the fraction of unmeasured qubits varies.

Contribution

It provides an analytical description of the subsystem trace-distance transition in random states, including effects of conservation laws and finite-size corrections.

Findings

Subsystem trace-distance sharply transitions from 1 to 0 at half the qubits unmeasured.

Analytical crossover behavior is derived for finite systems.

Predictions are validated through numerical simulations of chaotic many-body models.

Abstract

We study two-state discrimination in chaotic quantum systems. Assuming that one of two $N$-qubit pure states has been randomly selected, the probability to correctly identify the selected state from an optimally chosen experiment involving a subset of $N-N_B$ qubits is given by the trace-distance of the states, with $N_B$ qubits partially traced out. In the thermodynamic limit $N\to\infty$, the average subsystem trace-distance for random pure states makes a sharp, first order transition from unity to zero at $f=1/2$, as the fraction $f=N_B/N$ of unmeasured qubits is increased. We analytically calculate the corresponding crossover for finite numbers $N$ of qubits, study how it is affected by the presence of local conservation laws, and test our predictions against exact diagonalization of models for many-body chaos.