Binary Projective Measurement via Linear Optics and Photon Counting

Abstract

We investigate the implementation of binary projective measurements with linear optics. This problem can be viewed as a single-shot discrimination of two orthogonal pure quantum states. We show that any two orthogonal states can be perfectly discriminated using only linear optics, photon counting, coherent ancillary states, and feedforward. The statement holds in the asymptotic limit of a large number of these physical resources.