A generalized framework for quantum state discrimination, hybrid algorithms, and the quantum change point problem

Abstract: Quantum state discrimination is a central task in many quantum computing settings where one wishes to identify what quantum state they are holding. We introduce a framework that generalizes many of its variants and present a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm based on semidefinite programming to calculate the maximum reward when the states are pure and have efficient circuits. To this end, we study the (not necessarily linearly independent) pure state case and reduce the standard SDP problem size from $2^n L$ to $N L$ where $n$ is the number of qubits, $N$ is the number of states, and $L$ is the number of possible guesses (typically $L = N$). As an application, we give now-possible algorithms for the quantum change point identification problem which asks, given a sequence of quantum states, determine the time steps when the quantum states changed. With our reductions, we are able to solve SDPs for problem sizes of up to $220$ qubits in about $8$ hours and we also give heuristics which speed up the computations.