Optimal local discrimination of two multipartite pure states

in a recent paper, Walgate, et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 85 (2000) 4972) demons trated that any two orthogonal multipartite pure states can be optimally di stinguished using only local operations. We utilise their result to show th at this is true for any two multipartite pure states, in the sense of incon clusive discrimination. There are also certain regimes of conclusive discri mination for which the same also applies, although we can only conjecture t hat the result is true for all conclusive regimes. We also discuss a class of states that can be distinguished locally according to any discrimination measure, as they can be locally recreated in the possession of one party. A consequence of this is that any two maximally entangled states can always be optimally discriminated locally, according to any figure of merit. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.