Maximal trace distance between isoenergetic bosonic Gaussian states

Abstract: We locate the set of pairs $(\rho_{1},\rho_{2})$ of Gaussian states of a single mode electromagnetic field that exhibit maximal trace distance subject to the energy constraint $\langle a^{\dagger}a \rangle_{\rho_{1}}=\langle a^{\dagger}a \rangle_{\rho_{2}} = E$. Any such pair allows to achieve the minimum possible error in the task of binary distinguishability of two single mode, isoenergetic Gaussian quantum signals. In particular, we show that the logarithm of the minimal error probability for distinguishing two maximally trace distant, isoenergetic Gaussian states scales as $-E^{2}$, less than the achievable scaling of the minimal error probability for distinguishing, e.g., a pair of isoenergetic Heisenberg-Weyl coherent states with energy $E$ or a pair of isoenergetic quadrature squeezed states with energy $E$. For the case of a field consisting of $M>1$ modes, we locate the set of pairs of maximally trace distant isoenergetic, isocovariant Gaussian states. These results have basic applications in the theory of continuous variable quantum communications with Gaussian states of light.