Optimal copy complexity of quantum state cloning

Abstract

Quantum state cloning is the task of approximately producing additional copies of an unknown quantum state from a finite number of input copies. The optimal cloning fidelity is known exactly for pure states, but no comparable characterization is known for general mixed states. We determine the optimal asymptotic copy complexity for $d$-dimensional states of rank at most $r$: producing $M$ additional copies with worst-case fidelity at least $1-\varepsilon$ requires and is achievable with $N=Θ(Mrd/\varepsilon)$ input copies. Remarkably, the lower bound already holds for a family of states with a fixed flat spectrum, while the matching upper bound is achieved by random purification followed by optimal pure-state cloning. For $M=1$, we further show that high-fidelity tomography can be coherently converted into cloning with comparable error, revealing an operational origin of the matching cloning and tomography complexities.