# Universal cloning of continuous quantum variables

## Abstract

The cloning of quantum variables with continuous spectra is analyzed. A universal—or Gaussian—quantum cloning machine is exhibited that copies equally well the states of two conjugate variables such as position and momentum. It also duplicates all coherent states with a fidelity of 2/3. More generally, the copies are shown to obey a no-cloning Heisenberg-like uncertainty relation.

PACS numbers: 03.65.Bz, 03.67.-a, 89.70.+c

Most of the concepts of quantum computation have been initially developed for discrete quantum variables, in particular, binary quantum variables (quantum bits). Recently, however, a lot of attention has been devoted to the study of continuous quantum variables in informational or computation processes, as they might be intrinsically easier to manipulate than their discrete counterparts. Variables with a continuous spectrum such as the position of a particle or the amplitude of an electromagnetic field have been shown to be useful to perform quantum teleportation, quantum error correction, or, even more generally, quantum computation. Also, quantum cryptographic schemes relying on continuous variables have been proposed, while the concept of entanglement purification has been extended to continuous variables. In this context, a promising feature of quantum computation over continuous variables is that it can be performed in quantum optics experiments by manipulating squeezed states with linear optics elements such as beam splitters.

In this Letter, the problem of copying the state of a system with continuous spectrum is investigated, and it is shown that a particular unitary transformation, called cloning, can be found that universally copies the position and momentum states. Let us first state the problem in physical terms. Consider, as an example of a continuous variable, the position $`x`$ of a particle in a one-dimensional space, and its canonically conjugate variable $`p`$. If the wave function is a Dirac delta function—the particle is fully localized in position space, then $`x`$ can be measured exactly, and several perfect copies of the system can be prepared. However, such a cloning process fails to exactly copy non-localized states, e.g., momentum states. Conversely, if the wave function is a plane wave with momentum $`p`$—the particle is localized in momentum space, then $`p`$ can be measured exactly and one can again prepare perfect copies of this plane wave. However, such a “plane-wave cloner” is then unable to copy position states exactly. In short, it is impossible to copy perfectly the states of two conjugate variables such as position and momentum or the quadrature amplitudes of an electromagnetic field. This simply illustrates the famous no-cloning theorem for continuous variables.

In what follows, it is shown that a unitary cloning transformation can nevertheless be found that provides two copies of a system with a continuous spectrum, but at the price of a non-unity cloning fidelity. More generally, we show that a class of cloning machines can be defined that yield two imperfect copies of a continuous variable, say $`x`$. The quality of the two copies obey a no-cloning uncertainty relation akin to the Heisenberg relation, implying that the product of the $`x`$-error variance on the first copy times the $`p`$-error variance on the second one remains bounded by $`(\mathrm{}/2)^2`$—it cannot be zero. Within this class, a universal cloner can be found that provides two identical copies of a continuous system with the same error distribution for position and momentum states. This cloner effects Gaussian-distributed position- and momentum-errors on the input variable, and is the continuous counterpart of the universal cloner for quantum bits. More generally, it duplicates in a same manner the eigenstates of linear combinations of $`\widehat{x}`$ and $`\widehat{p}`$, such as Gaussian wave packets or coherent states. The latter states are shown to be cloned with a fidelity that is equal to 2/3.

In the following, we shall work in position basis, whose states $`|x`$ are normalized according to $`x|x^{}=\delta (xx^{})`$. We assume $`\mathrm{}=1`$, so that the momentum eigenstates are given by $`|p=(2\pi )^{1/2}𝑑x\mathrm{e}^{ipx}|x`$. Let us define the maximally-entangled states of two continuous variables,

$$|\psi (x,p)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi }}_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑x^{}\mathrm{e}^{ipx^{}}|x^{}_1|x^{}+x_2$$
(1)   
where 1 and 2 denote the two variables, while $`x`$ and $`p`$ are two real parameters. Equation (1) is akin to the original Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) state, but parametrized by the center-of-mass position and momentum. It is easy to check that $`|\psi (x,p)`$ is maximally entangled as $`\mathrm{Tr}_1\left(|\psi \psi |\right)=\mathrm{Tr}_2\left(|\psi \psi |\right)=𝟙/(\mathrm{𝟚}\pi )`$ for all values of $`x`$ and $`p`$, with $`\mathrm{Tr}_{1,2}`$ denoting partial traces with respect to variable 1 and 2, respectively. The states $`|\psi `$ are orthonormal, i.e., $`\psi (x^{},p^{})|\psi (x,p)=\delta (xx^{})\delta (pp^{})`$, and satisfy a closure relation

$$_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑x𝑑p|\psi (x,p)\psi (x,p)|=𝟙_\mathrm{𝟙}𝟙_\mathrm{𝟚}$$
(2)   
so they form an orthonormal basis of the joint Hilbert space of variables 1 and 2. Interestingly, applying some unitary operator on one of these two variables makes it possible to transform the EPR states into each other. Specifically, let us define a set of displacement operators $`\widehat{D}`$ parametrized by $`x`$ and $`p`$,

$$\widehat{D}(x,p)=\mathrm{e}^{ix\widehat{p}}\mathrm{e}^{ip\widehat{x}}=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑x^{}\mathrm{e}^{ipx^{}}|x^{}+xx^{}|$$
(3)   
which form a continuous Heisenberg group. Physically, $`\widehat{D}(x,p)`$ denotes a momentum shift of $`p`$ followed by a position shift of $`x`$. If $`\widehat{D}(x,p)`$ acts on one of two entangled continuous variables, it is straightforward to check that

$$𝟙\widehat{𝔻}(𝕩,𝕡)|\psi (\mathrm{𝟘},\mathrm{𝟘})=|\psi (𝕩,𝕡)$$
(4)   
This will be useful to specify the errors induced by the continuous cloning machines considered later on. Assume that the input variable of a cloner is initially entangled with another (so-called reference) variable, so that their joint state is $`|\psi (0,0)`$. If cloning induces, say, a position-shift error of $`x`$ on the copy, then the joint state of the reference and copy variables will be $`|\psi (x,0)`$ as a result of Eq. (4). Similarly, a momentum-shift error of $`p`$ will result in $`|\psi (0,p)`$. More generally, if these $`x`$ and $`p`$ errors are distributed at random according to the probability $`P(x,p)`$, then the joint state will be the mixture

$$_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑x𝑑pP(x,p)|\psi (x,p)\psi (x,p)|$$
(5)   
Let us now consider a cloning machine defined as the unitary transformation $`\widehat{𝒰}`$ acting on three continuous variables: the input variable (variable 2) supplemented with two auxiliary variables, the blank copy (variable 3) and an ancilla (variable 4). After applying $`\widehat{𝒰}`$, variables 2 and 3 are taken as the two outputs of the cloner, while variable 4 (the ancilla) is simply traced over. Assume now that variable 1 denotes a reference variable that is initially entangled with the cloner input—their joint state is $`|\psi (0,0)_{1,2}`$, while the auxiliary variables 3 and 4 are initially prepared in the entangled state

$$|\chi _{3,4}=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑x𝑑pf(x,p)|\psi (x,p)_{3,4}$$
(6)   
where $`f(x,p)`$ is an (arbitrary) complex amplitude function of $`x`$ and $`p`$. The cloning transformation is defined as

$$\widehat{𝒰}_{2,3,4}=\mathrm{e}^{i(\widehat{x}_4\widehat{x}_3)\widehat{p}_2}\mathrm{e}^{i\widehat{x}_2(\widehat{p}_3+\widehat{p}_4)}$$
(7)   
where $`\widehat{x}_k`$ ($`\widehat{p}_k`$) is the position (momentum) operator for variable $`k`$. Then, the joint state of the reference, the two copies, and the ancilla after cloning is given by $`|\mathrm{\Phi }_{1,2,3,4}=𝟙_\mathrm{𝟙}\widehat{𝒰}_{\mathrm{𝟚},\mathrm{𝟛},\mathrm{𝟜}}|\psi (\mathrm{𝟘},\mathrm{𝟘})_{\mathrm{𝟙},\mathrm{𝟚}}|\chi _{\mathrm{𝟛},\mathrm{𝟜}}`$. Using Eqs. (6) and (7), it can be written as

$$|\mathrm{\Phi }=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑x𝑑pf(x,p)|\psi (x,p)_{1,2}|\psi (x,p)_{3,4}$$
(8)   
This is a very peculiar 4-variable state in that it can be reexpressed in a similar form by exchanging variables 2 and 3, namely

$$|\mathrm{\Phi }=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑x𝑑pg(x,p)|\psi (x,p)_{1,3}|\psi (x,p)_{2,4}$$
(9)   
with

$$g(x,p)=\frac{1}{2\pi }_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑x^{}𝑑p^{}\mathrm{e}^{i(px^{}xp^{})}f(x^{},p^{})$$
(10)   
Thus, interchanging the two cloner outputs amounts to substitute the function $`f`$ with its two-dimensional Fourier transform $`g`$. This property is crucial as it ensures that the two copies suffer from complementary position and momentum errors. Indeed, using Eq. (8) and tracing over variables 3 and 4, we see that the joint state of the reference and the first output is given by Eq. (5), with $`|f|^2`$ playing the role of $`P`$. Hence, the first copy (called copy $`a`$ later on) is imperfect in the sense that the input variable gets a random position- and momentum-shift error drawn from the probability distribution $`P_a(x,p)=|f(x,p)|^2`$. Similarly, tracing the state (9) over variables 2 and 4 implies that the second copy (or copy $`b`$) is affected by a position- and momentum-shift error distributed as $`P_b(x,p)=|g(x,p)|^2`$. The complementarity between the quality of the two copies originates from the relation between the amplitude functions $`f`$ and $`g`$, i. e., Eq. (10), in close analogy with what was shown for discrete quantum cloners.

Now, let us apply the cloning transformation $`\widehat{𝒰}`$ on an input position state $`|x_0`$. We simply need to project the reference variable onto state $`|x_0`$. Applied to the initial joint state of the reference and the input $`|\psi (0,0)_{1,2}`$, this projection operator $`|x_0x_0|𝟙`$ yields $`|x_0_1|x_0_2`$ up to a normalization, so the input is indeed projected onto the desired state. Applying this projector to the state $`|\mathrm{\Phi }`$ as given by Eq. (8) results in the state

$$_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑x𝑑pf(x,p)\mathrm{e}^{ipx_0}|x_0+x_2|\psi (x,p)_{3,4}$$
(11)   
for the remaining variables 2, 3, and 4. The state of copy $`a`$ (or variable 2) is then obtained by tracing over variables 3 and 4,

$$\rho _a=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑xP_a(x)|x_0+xx_0+x|$$
(12)   
where $`P_a(x)=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑pP_a(x,p)`$ is the position-error (marginal) distribution affecting copy $`a`$. Hence, the first copy undergoes a random position error which is distributed as $`P_a(x)`$. Similarly, applying the projector on the alternate expression for $`|\mathrm{\Phi }`$, Eq. (9), and tracing over variables 2 and 4 results in a state $`\rho _b`$ of the second copy that is akin to Eq. (12) with $`P_b(x)=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑pP_b(x,p)`$. The result of cloning an input momentum state $`|p_0`$ can also be easily determined by applying a projector onto $`|p_0`$ to the reference variable, so that the initial joint state of the reference and the input is projected on $`|p_0_1|p_0_2`$. Using Eqs. (8) and (9), we obtain the analogous expressions for the state of copies $`a`$ and $`b`$,

$$\rho _{a(b)}=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑pP_{a(b)}(p)|p_0+pp_0+p|$$
(13)   
where $`P_{a(b)}(p)=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑xP_{a(b)}(x,p)`$. Consequently, the two copies undergo a random momentum error distributed as $`P_{a(b)}(p)`$. The tradeoff between the quality of the copies can be expressed by relating the variances of the distributions $`P_a(x,p)`$ and $`P_b(x,p)`$.

Let us analyze this no-cloning complementary by applying the Heisenberg uncertainty relation to the state

$`|\zeta _{1,2}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑x𝑑pf(x,p)|x_1|p_2}`$ (14)   
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑x𝑑pg(x,p)|p_1|x_2}`$ (15)   
where $`|p_{1(2)}`$ denote the momentum states of the first (second) variable. The two pairs of conjugate operators $`(\widehat{x}_1,\widehat{p}_1)`$ and $`(\widehat{p}_2,\widehat{x}_2)`$ give rise, respectively, to the two no-cloning uncertainty relations

$`(\mathrm{\Delta }x_a)^2(\mathrm{\Delta }p_b)^2`$ $``$ $`1/4`$ (16)   
$`(\mathrm{\Delta }x_b)^2(\mathrm{\Delta }p_a)^2`$ $``$ $`1/4`$ (17)   
where $`(\mathrm{\Delta }x_a)^2`$ and $`(\mathrm{\Delta }x_b)^2`$ denote the variance of $`P_a(x)`$ and $`P_b(x)`$, respectively. (The analogous notation holds for the momentum-shift distributions affecting both copies.) Consequently, if the cloning process induces a small position (momentum) error on the first copy, then the second copy is necessarily affected by a large momentum (position) error.

We now focus our attention on a symmetric and universal continuous cloner that saturates the above no-cloning uncertainty relations. We restrict ourselves to solutions of the form $`f(x,p)=q(x)Q(p)`$ where $`Q(p)=(2\pi )^{1/2}_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑x\mathrm{e}^{ipx}q(x)`$ is the Fourier transform of $`q(x)`$. It can be checked that this choice satisfies the symmetry requirement, $`g(x,p)=f(x,p)`$ . Now, for the cloner to act equally on position and momentum states, $`q(x)`$ must be equal to its Fourier transform. Hence, the universal continuous cloner corresponds to the choice

$$f(x,p)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi }}\mathrm{e}^{\frac{x^2+p^2}{2}}$$
(18)   
so that $`P_{a(b)}(x,p)=\mathrm{e}^{(x^2+p^2)}/\pi `$ is simply a bi-variate Gaussian of variance 1/2 on $`x`$\- and $`p`$-axis. The two auxiliary variables must then be prepared in the state

$$|\chi =\frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi }}_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑y𝑑z\mathrm{e}^{(y^2+z^2)/2}|y|y+z$$
(19)   
The resulting transformation effected by this universal cloner on an input position state $`|x`$ is given by

$`|x|0|0{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi }}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑y𝑑z\mathrm{e}^{(y^2+z^2)/2}}`$ (21)   
$`\times |x+y|x+z|x+y+z`$   
where the three variables denote the two copies and the ancilla, respectively. It is easy to check that Eq. (21) implies Eq. (12) and its counterpart for copy $`b`$ with $`P_a(x)=P_b(x)=\mathrm{exp}(x^2)/\sqrt{\pi }`$, so that both copies are affected by a Gaussian-distributed position error of variance 1/2. The choice $`(\mathrm{\Delta }x_a)^2=(\mathrm{\Delta }x_b)^2=(\mathrm{\Delta }p_a)^2=(\mathrm{\Delta }p_b)^2=1/2`$ ensures that the cloner is universal, that is, position and momentum states are copied with the same error variance. The value 1/2 implies that the cloner is optimal among the class of cloners considered here in view of Eq. (16). Furthermore, the cylindric symmetry of $`f(x,p)`$ \[i.e., it depends only on the radial coordinate $`(x^2+p^2)^{1/2}`$\] implies that this cloner copies the eigenstates of any operator of the form $`c\widehat{x}+d\widehat{p}`$ with the same error distribution, as we will show.

Let us first determine the operation of this universal cloner on an arbitrary state $`|\xi `$ expressed in position basis as $`_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑x\xi (x)|x`$. For this, we project the reference variable onto state $`|\xi ^{}`$, i.e., the state obtained by changing $`\xi (x)`$ into its complex conjugate. This projector $`|\xi ^{}\xi ^{}|𝟙`$ applied on the initial state $`|\psi (0,0)_{1,2}`$ yields the state $`|\xi ^{}_1|\xi _2`$ up to a normalization, so the input is indeed projected onto $`|\xi `$. Now, applying this projector to the state $`|\mathrm{\Phi }`$ after cloning implies that the three remaining variables are projected onto the state

$$_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑x𝑑pf(x,p)|\xi (x,p)_2|\psi (x,p)_{3,4}$$
(22)   
where $`|\xi (x,p)=\widehat{D}(x,p)|\xi =_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑x^{}\xi (x^{})\mathrm{e}^{ipx^{}}|x^{}+x`$ is the input state $`|\xi `$ affected by a momentum shift of $`p`$ followed by a position shift of $`x`$. This yields

$$\rho _{a(b)}=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑x𝑑pP_{a(b)}(x,p)|\xi (x,p)\xi (x,p)|$$
(23)   
so that the two outputs are mixtures of the $`|\xi (x,p)`$ states, with $`x`$ and $`p`$ distributed according to $`P_{a(b)}(x,p)`$. Expressed in terms of Wigner distributions, Eq. (23) implies that $`W_{\mathrm{out}}(x,p)=W_{in}(x,p)P(x,p)`$ with $``$ denoting convolution. In particular, the universal cloner simply effects a spreading out of the input Wigner function by a bi-variate Gaussian of variance 1/2.

These considerations can be easily generalized to any pair of canonically conjugate variables in a rotated phase space. First note that, using the Baker-Hausdorff formula and $`[\widehat{x},\widehat{p}]=i`$, the displacement operator can be rewritten as $`\widehat{D}(x,p)=\mathrm{e}^{ixp/2}\mathrm{e}^{i(p\widehat{x}x\widehat{p})}`$. Consider now any pair of observables $`\widehat{u}`$ and $`\widehat{v}`$ satisfying the commutation rule $`[\widehat{u},\widehat{v}]=i`$. Let $`\widehat{u}=c\widehat{x}+d\widehat{p}`$ and $`\widehat{v}=d\widehat{x}+c\widehat{p}`$, where $`c`$ and $`d`$ are real and satisfy $`c^2+d^2=1`$. It is easy to check that $`v\widehat{u}u\widehat{v}=p\widehat{x}x\widehat{p}`$, where the variables $`u`$ and $`v`$ are defined just as $`\widehat{u}`$ and $`\widehat{v}`$, so that $`\widehat{D}`$ takes a similar form in terms of $`\widehat{u}`$ and $`\widehat{v}`$ (up to an irrelevant phase). Therefore, as a consequence of the cylindric symmetry of the Gaussian $`|f(x,p)|^2`$, the eigenstates $`|u`$ of the observable $`\widehat{u}`$ undergo a random shift of $`u`$ that is distributed as $`\mathrm{exp}(u^2)/\sqrt{\pi }`$. (The position and momentum states are just two special cases of this.) We can also treat the cloning of coherent states (Gaussian wave packets) by considering the complex rotation that defines the annihilation and creation operators $`\widehat{a}=(\widehat{x}+i\widehat{p})/\sqrt{2}`$ and $`\widehat{a}^{}=(\widehat{x}i\widehat{p})/\sqrt{2}`$. The displacement operator can then be written (up to an irrelevant phase) in the usual form $`\widehat{D}(\alpha )=\mathrm{e}^{\alpha \widehat{a}^{}\alpha ^{}\widehat{a}}`$, where $`\alpha =(x+ip)/\sqrt{2}`$ is a c-number that characterizes the position and momentum shift. This operator transforms the coherent state $`|\alpha _0`$ (i.e., the eigenstate of $`\widehat{a}`$ with eigenvalue $`\alpha _0`$) into $`\widehat{D}(\alpha )|\alpha _0=\mathrm{e}^{i\theta }|\alpha _0+\alpha `$, where $`\theta =\mathrm{Im}(\alpha \alpha _0^{})`$. Thus, if the input of the universal cloner is a coherent state $`|\alpha _0`$, its two outputs are a mixture of coherent states characterized by the density operator

$$\rho =d^2\alpha G(\alpha )|\alpha _0+\alpha \alpha _0+\alpha |$$
(24)   
where the integral is over the complex plane, and $`G(\alpha )=2\mathrm{exp}(2|\alpha |^2)/\pi `$ is a Gaussian distribution in $`\alpha `$ space. Then, using $`|\alpha |\alpha ^{}|^2=\mathrm{exp}(|\alpha \alpha ^{}|^2)`$, it is easy to calculate the cloning fidelity:

$$f=\alpha _0|\rho |\alpha _0=\frac{2}{\pi }d^2\alpha \mathrm{e}^{3|\alpha |^2}=\frac{2}{3}$$
(25)   
This fidelity does not depend on $`\alpha _0`$, so it is universal for all coherent states.

Finally, we consider the cloning of quadrature squeezed states, defined as the eigenstates of $`\widehat{b}=(\widehat{x}/\sigma +i\sigma \widehat{p})/\sqrt{2}`$, where $`\sigma `$ is a real parameter. These states can be denoted as $`|\beta `$, where $`\beta =(x/\sigma +i\sigma p)/\sqrt{2}`$ is a c-number. We have again $`\widehat{D}(\beta )=\mathrm{e}^{\beta \widehat{b}^{}\beta ^{}\widehat{b}}`$, so that $`\widehat{D}(\beta )|\beta _0=|\beta _0+\beta `$ up to a phase. In order to keep the fidelity maximum, however, we must use here a non-universal cloner defined by

$$f(x,p)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi }}\mathrm{e}^{\frac{x^2}{2\sigma ^2}+\frac{\sigma ^2p^2}{2}}$$
(26)   
Both copies yielded by this cloner are affected by an $`x`$-error of variance $`\sigma ^2/2`$ and a $`p`$-error variance of $`1/(2\sigma ^2)`$, which implies that the density operator has the same form as Eq. (24) with $`G(\beta )=2\mathrm{exp}(2|\beta |^2)/\pi `$. As a consequence, there exists a specific cloning machine for each value of $`\sigma `$ that copies all squeezed states corresponding to that $`\sigma `$ with a fidelity of 2/3. In contrast, cloning these states using the universal cloner gives a fidelity that decreases as squeezing increases.

We have shown that a universal cloning machine for continuous quantum variables can be defined that transforms position (momentum) states into a Gaussian-distributed mixture of position (momentum) states with an error variance of 1/2. It is universal, as the eigenstates of any linear combination of $`\widehat{x}`$ and $`\widehat{p}`$ are copied with the same error distribution. In particular, it duplicates all coherent states with a fidelity of 2/3. We conjecture that this cloning fidelity is optimal. An experimental realization of this universal cloner could be envisaged based on the manipulation of modes of the electromagnetic field. The cloning transformation $`\widehat{𝒰}`$ would then couple two auxiliary modes to the input mode to be copied. Since $`\widehat{𝒰}`$ amounts to a sequence of “continuous controlled-not gates”, it could be implemented by pairwise optical QND coupling between these three modes. As a final remark, it is worth noting that the two auxiliary modes must be prepared in state (19), which is simply the product vacuum state $`|0_3|0_4`$ processed by a controlled-not gate $`\mathrm{e}^{i\widehat{x}_3\widehat{p}_4}`$. This suggests that the noise that inevitably arises in the cloning of the input mode is simply linked to the vacuum fluctuations of the two auxiliary modes.

This work was supported in part by DARPA/ARO under grant # DAAH04-96-1-3086 through the QUIC Program. N. J. C. is grateful to Samuel Braunstein, Jonathan Dowling, and Serge Massar for very helpful comments on this manuscript.