DUAN Luming, GUO Guangcan
理论物理通讯. 1999, 31(2): 223-226.
The famous quantum no-cloning theorem [Nature 299(1952)802] forbids replication of an arbitrary unknown quantum state. But it leaves open the follorc-ing question: If the state is not completely arbitrary, but secretly chosen from a certain set $ = {|Ψ1>,| Ψ2>,...,|Ψn>}, whether is the cloning possible? It is proved that the states from the set $ = {|Ψ1>,| Ψ2>,...,|Ψn>} can be faithfully cloned by a general unitary-reduction operation in a probabilistic fashion if and only if |Ψ1>,| Ψ2>,... and |Ψn> are linearly-independent.