Family of generalized “pretty good” measurements and the minimal-error pure-state discrimination problems for which they are optimal
Carlos Mochon · Physical Review A · 2006
Given a quantum pure state chosen from a set with some a priori probabilities, what is the optimal measurement needed to correctly guess the given state? We show that a good choice is the family of square-root or ``pretty good'' measurements, as each measurement in the family is optimal for at least one discrimination problem with the same quantum states but possibly different a priori probabilities. Furthermore, the map from measurement to discrimination problems can be explicitly described. In fact, for linearly independent states, every pair of discrimination problem and optimal measurement can be explicitly generated this way.