Discrimination between pure states and mixed states

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the problem of determining whether a quantum system is in a pure state, or in a mixed state. We apply two strategies to settle this problem: the unambiguous discrimination and the maximum confidence discrimination. We also proved that the optimal versions of both strategies are equivalent. The efficiency of the discrimination is also analyzed. This scheme also provides a method to estimate purity of quantum states, and Schmidt numbers of composed systems.