Quantum retrodiction made fully symmetric

Abstract

Quantum retrodiction is a time-symmetric approach to quantum mechanics with applications in a number of important problems. One of the major challenges to its more widespread applicability is the restriction of its symmetric formalism to unbiased sources. The main result of this paper is to develop a general theory yielding a symmetric formalism for arbitrary sources. We then highlight on a specific example, by presenting the optimal solution to the retrodiction problem that is dual to unambiguous state discrimination, how the generalized approach works. We also show how this formalism leads to a symmetric formulation of the communication channel between Alice and Bob and point to the intrinsic connection between retrodiction and the no-signaling principle.