Optimal quantum repeaters for qubits and qudits

A class of optimal quantum repeaters for qubits is suggested. The schemes are minimal, i.e., they involve a single additional probe qubit, and optimal, i.e., they provide the maximum information adding the minimum amount of noise. Information gain and state disturbance are quantified by fidelities which, for our schemes, saturate the ultimate bound imposed by quantum mechanics for randomly distributed signals. Special classes of signals are also investigated, in order to improve the information-disturbance trade-off. Extension to higher-dimensional signals (qudits) is straightforward.