State-dependent cloning machines that have so far been considered either deterministically copy a set of states approximately or probablistically copy them exactly. In considering the case of two equiprobable pure states, we derive the maximum global fidelity of N approximate clones given M initial exact copies, where $N>M$. We also consider strategies that interpolate between approximate and exact cloning. A tight inequality is obtained that expresses a trade-off between the global fidelity and success probability. This inequality is found to tend, in the limit $N\overrightarrow{}\infty$, to a known inequality that expresses the trade-off between error and inconclusive result probabilities for state-discrimination measurements. Quantum-computational networks are also constructed for the kinds of cloning machine we describe. For this purpose, we introduce two gates: the distinguishability transfer and state separation gates. Their key properties are described and we show how they may be decomposed into basic operations.

• Received 23 December 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.60.136