Superactivation of quantum channels is limited by the quantum relative entropy function

In this work we prove that the possibility of superactivation of quantum channel capacities is determined by the mathematical properties of the quantum relative entropy function. Before our work this fundamental and purely mathematical connection between the quantum relative entropy function and the superactivation effect was completely unrevealed. We demonstrate the results for the quantum capacity; however the proposed theorems and connections hold for all other channel capacities of quantum channels for which the superactivation is possible.     

The quantum dynamic capacity formula of a quantum channel

The dynamic capacity theorem characterizes the reliable communication rates of a quantum channel when combined with the noiseless resources of classical communication, quantum communication, and entanglement. In prior work, we proved the converse part of this theorem by making contact with many previous results in the quantum Shannon theory literature. In this work, we prove the theorem with an ??ab initio?? approach, using only the most basic tools in the quantum information theorist??s toolkit: the Alicki-Fannes?? inequality, the chain rule for quantum mutual information, elementary properties of quantum entropy, and the quantum data processing inequality. The result is a simplified proof of the theorem that should be more accessible to those unfamiliar with the quantum Shannon theory literature. We also demonstrate that the ??quantum dynamic capacity formula?? characterizes the Pareto optimal trade-off surface for the full dynamic capacity region. Additivity of this formula reduces the computation of the trade-off surface to a tractable, textbook problem in Pareto trade-off analysis, and we prove that its additivity holds for the quantum Hadamard channels and the quantum erasure channel. We then determine exact expressions for and plot the dynamic capacity region of the quantum dephasing channel, an example from the Hadamard class, and the quantum erasure channel.     

Polar quantum channel coding with optical multi-qubit entangling gates for capacity-achieving channels

We demonstrate a fashion of quantum channel combining and splitting, called polar quantum channel coding, to generate a quantum bit (qubit) sequence that achieves the symmetric capacity for any given binary input discrete quantum channels. The present capacity is achievable subject to input of arbitrary qubits with equal probability. The polarizing quantum channels can be well-conditioned for quantum error-correction coding, which transmits partially quantum data through some channels at rate one with the symmetric capacity near one but at rate zero through others.     

On the reliability exponent of the additive exponential noise channel

We study the reliability exponent of the additive exponential noise channel (AENC) in the absence as well as in the presence of noiseless feedback. For rates above the critical rate, the fixed-transmission-time reliability exponent of the AENC is completely determined, while below the critical rate an expurgated exponent is obtained. Using a fixed-block-length code ensemble (with block length denoting the number of recorded departures), we obtain a lower bound on the random-transmission-time reliability exponent of the AENC. Finally, with a variable-block-length code ensemble, a lower bound on the random-transmission-time zero-error capacity of the AENC with noiseless feedback is obtained.     

Public and private resource trade-offs for a quantum channel

Collins and Popescu realized a powerful analogy between several resources in classical and quantum information theory. The Collins?CPopescu analogy states that public classical communication, private classical communication, and secret key interact with one another somewhat similarly to the way that classical communication, quantum communication, and entanglement interact. This paper discusses the information-theoretic treatment of this analogy for the case of noisy quantum channels. We determine a capacity region for a quantum channel interacting with the noiseless resources of public classical communication, private classical communication, and secret key. We then compare this region with the classical-quantum-entanglement region from our prior efforts and explicitly observe the information-theoretic consequences of the strong correlations in entanglement and the lack of a super-dense coding protocol in the public-private-secret-key setting. The region simplifies for several realistic, physically-motivated channels such as entanglement-breaking channels, Hadamard channels, and quantum erasure channels, and we are able to compute and plot the region for several examples of these channels.     

On the structure of optimal sets for a quantum channel

Special sets of states, called optimal, which are related to the Holevo capacity and to the minimal output entropy of a quantum channel, are considered. By methods of convex analysis and operator theory, structural properties of optimal sets and conditions of their coincidence are explored for an arbitrary channel. It is shown that strong additivity of the Holevo capacity for two given channels provides projective relations between optimal sets for the tensor product of these channels and optimal sets for the individual channels.     

On the second-order asymptotics for entanglement-assisted communication

The entanglement-assisted classical capacity of a quantum channel is known to provide the formal quantum generalization of Shannon’s classical channel capacity theorem, in the sense that it admits a single-letter characterization in terms of the quantum mutual information and does not increase in the presence of a noiseless quantum feedback channel from receiver to sender. In this work, we investigate second-order asymptotics of the entanglement-assisted classical communication task. That is, we consider how quickly the rates of entanglement-assisted codes converge to the entanglement-assisted classical capacity of a channel as a function of the number of channel uses and the error tolerance. We define a quantum generalization of the mutual information variance of a channel in the entanglement-assisted setting. For covariant channels, we show that this quantity is equal to the channel dispersion and thus completely characterize the convergence toward the entanglement-assisted classical capacity when the number of channel uses increases. Our results also apply to entanglement-assisted quantum communication, due to the equivalence between entanglement-assisted classical and quantum communication established by the teleportation and super-dense coding protocols.     

Analysis of quantum linear systems’ response to multi-photon states

The purpose of this paper is to present a mathematical framework for analyzing the response of quantum linear systems driven by multi-photon states. Both the factorizable (namely, no correlation among the photons in the channel) and unfactorizable multi-photon states are treated. Pulse information of a multi-photon input state is represented in terms of tensor, and the response of quantum linear systems to multi-photon input states is characterized by tensor operations. Analytic forms of output correlation functions and output states are derived. The proposed framework is applicable no matter whether the underlying quantum dynamic system is passive or active. Examples from the physics literature are used to illustrate the results presented.     

Three-player quantum Kolkata restaurant problem under decoherence

Effect of quantum decoherence in a three-player quantum Kolkata restaurant problem is investigated using tripartite entangled qutrit states. Different qutrit channels such as, amplitude damping, depolarizing, phase damping, trit-phase flip and phase flip channels are considered to analyze the behaviour of players payoffs. It is seen that Alice’s payoff is heavily influenced by the amplitude damping channel as compared to the depolarizing and flipping channels. However, for higher level of decoherence, Alice’s payoff is strongly affected by depolarizing noise. Whereas the behaviour of phase damping channel is symmetrical around 50% decoherence. It is also seen that for maximum decoherence (p = 1), the influence of amplitude damping channel dominates over depolarizing and flipping channels. Whereas, phase damping channel has no effect on the Alice’s payoff. Therefore, the problem becomes noiseless at maximum decoherence in case of phase damping channel. Furthermore, the Nash equilibrium of the problem does not change under decoherence.     

One-mode quantum Gaussian channels: Structure and quantum capacity

A complete classification of one-mode Gaussian channels is given up to canonical unitary equivalence. We also comment on the quantum capacity of these channels. A channel complementary to the quantum channel with additive classical Gaussian noise is described, providing an example of a one-mode Gaussian channel which is neither degradable nor antidegradable.     

On the Reliability Function for a BSC with Noiseless Feedback at Zero Rate

Problems of Information Transmission - We consider the transmission of nonexponentially many messages through a binary symmetric channel with noiseless feedback. We obtain an upper bound for the...     

Decoherence can help quantum cryptographic security

In quantum key distribution, one conservatively assumes that the eavesdropper Eve is restricted only by physical laws, whereas the legitimate parties, namely the sender Alice and receiver Bob, are subject to realistic constraints, such as noise due to environment-induced decoherence. In practice, Eve too may be bound by the limits imposed by noise, which can give rise to the possibility that decoherence works to the advantage of the legitimate parties. A particular scenario of this type is one where Eve can’t replace the noisy communication channel with an ideal one, but her eavesdropping channel itself remains noiseless. Here, we point out such a situation, where the security of the ping–pong protocol (modified to a key distribution scheme) against a noise-restricted adversary improves under a non-unital noisy channel, but deteriorates under unital channels. This highlights the surprising fact that, contrary to the conventional expectation, noise can be helpful to quantum information processing. Furthermore, we point out that the measurement outcome data in the context of the non-unital channel can’t be simulated by classical noise locally added by the legitimate users.     

Quantum zero-error algorithms cannot be composed

We exhibit two black-box problems, both of which have an efficient quantum algorithm with zero-error, yet whose composition does not have an efficient quantum algorithm with zero-error. This shows that quantum zero-error algorithms cannot be composed. In oracle terms, we give a relativized world where ZQP^ZQP≠ZQP, while classically we always have ZPP^ZPP=ZPP.     

Analytical Properties of Shannon’s Capacity of Arbitrarily Varying Channels under List Decoding: Super-Additivity and Discontinuity Behavior

The common wisdom is that the capacity of parallel channels is usually additive. This was also conjectured by Shannon for the zero-error capacity function, which was later disproved by constructing explicit counterexamples demonstrating the zero-error capacity to be super-additive. Despite these explicit examples for the zero-error capacity, there is surprisingly little known for nontrivial channels. This paper addresses this question for the arbitrarily varying channel (AVC) under list decoding by developing a complete theory. The list capacity function is studied and shown to be discontinuous, and the corresponding discontinuity points are characterized for all possible list sizes. For parallel AVCs it is then shown that the list capacity is super-additive, implying that joint encoding and decoding for two parallel AVCs can yield a larger list capacity than independent processing of both channels. This discrepancy is shown to be arbitrarily large. Furthermore, the developed theory is applied to the arbitrarily varying wiretap channel to address the scenario of secure communication over AVCs.     

Position-based coding and convex splitting for private communication over quantum channels

The classical-input quantum-output (cq) wiretap channel is a communication model involving a classical sender X, a legitimate quantum receiver B, and a quantum eavesdropper E. The goal of a private communication protocol that uses such a channel is for the sender X to transmit a message in such a way that the legitimate receiver B can decode it reliably, while the eavesdropper E learns essentially nothing about which message was transmitted. The \(\varepsilon \)-one-shot private capacity of a cq wiretap channel is equal to the maximum number of bits that can be transmitted over the channel, such that the privacy error is no larger than \(\varepsilon \in (0,1)\). The present paper provides a lower bound on the \(\varepsilon \)-one-shot private classical capacity, by exploiting the recently developed techniques of Anshu, Devabathini, Jain, and Warsi, called position-based coding and convex splitting. The lower bound is equal to a difference of the hypothesis testing mutual information between X and B and the “alternate” smooth max-information between X and E. The one-shot lower bound then leads to a non-trivial lower bound on the second-order coding rate for private classical communication over a memoryless cq wiretap channel.     

Hadamard quantum broadcast channels

We consider three different communication tasks for quantum broadcast channels, and we determine the capacity region of a Hadamard broadcast channel for these various tasks. We define a Hadamard broadcast channel to be such that the channel from the sender to one of the receivers is entanglement-breaking and the channel from the sender to the other receiver is complementary to this one. As such, this channel is a quantum generalization of a degraded broadcast channel, which is well known in classical information theory. The first communication task we consider is classical communication to both receivers, the second is quantum communication to the stronger receiver and classical communication to other, and the third is entanglement-assisted classical communication to the stronger receiver and unassisted classical communication to the other. The structure of a Hadamard broadcast channel plays a critical role in our analysis: The channel to the weaker receiver can be simulated by performing a measurement channel on the stronger receiver’s system, followed by a preparation channel. As such, we can incorporate the classical output of the measurement channel as an auxiliary variable and solve all three of the above capacities for Hadamard broadcast channels, in this way avoiding known difficulties associated with quantum auxiliary variables.     

On classical capacities of infinite-dimensional quantum channels

A coding theorem for entanglement-assisted communication via an infinite-dimensional quantum channel with linear constraints is extended to a natural degree of generality. Relations between the entanglement-assisted classical capacity and χ-capacity of constrained channels are obtained, and conditions for their coincidence are given. Sufficient conditions for continuity of the entanglement-assisted classical capacity as a function of a channel are obtained. Some applications of the obtained results to analysis of Gaussian channels are considered. A general (continuous) version of the fundamental relation between coherent information and the measure of privacy of classical information transmission via an infinite-dimensional quantum channel is proved.     

Quantum correlation via quantum coherence

Quantum correlation includes quantum entanglement and quantum discord. Both entanglement and discord have a common necessary condition—quantum coherence or quantum superposition. In this paper, we attempt to give an alternative understanding of how quantum correlation is related to quantum coherence. We divide the coherence of a quantum state into several classes and find the complete coincidence between geometric (symmetric and asymmetric) quantum discords and some particular classes of quantum coherence. We propose a revised measure for total coherence and find that this measure can lead to a symmetric version of geometric quantum correlation, which is analytic for two qubits. In particular, this measure can also arrive at a monogamy equality on the distribution of quantum coherence. Finally, we also quantify a remaining type of quantum coherence and find that for two qubits, it is directly connected with quantum nonlocality.     

Experimentally feasible measures of distance between quantum operations

We present two measures of distance between quantum processes which can be measured directly in laboratory without resorting to process tomography. The measures are based on the superfidelity, introduced recently to provide an upper bound for quantum fidelity. We show that the introduced measures partially fulfill the requirements for distance measure between quantum processes. We also argue that they can be especially useful as diagnostic measures to get preliminary knowledge about imperfections in an experimental setup. In particular we provide quantum circuit which can be used to measure the superfidelity between quantum processes. We also provide a physical interpretation of the introduced metrics based on the continuity of channel capacity.