Quantum state separation, unambiguous discrimination and exact cloning

Unambiguous discrimination and exact cloning reduce the square-overlap betw een quantum states, exemplifying the more general type of procedure we term state separation. We obtain the maximum probability with which two equipro bable quantum states can be separated by an arbitrary degree, and find that the established bounds on the success probabilities for discrimination and cloning are special cases of this general bound. The latter also gives the maximum probability of successfully producing N exact copies of a quantum system whose state is chosen secretly from a known pair, given M initial re alizations of the state, where N > M. We also discuss the relationship betw een this bound and that on unambiguous state discrimination.