Activation of quantum capacity is a surprising phenomenon according to which the quantum capacity of a certain channel may increase by combining it with another channel with zero quantum capacity. Superactivation describes an even more particular occurrence, in which both channels have zero quantum capacity, but their composition has a nonvanishing one. We investigate these effects for all single-mode phase-insensitive Gaussian channels, which include thermal attenuators and amplifiers, assisted by a two-mode positive-partial-transpose channel. Our result shows that activation phenomena are special but not uncommon. We can reveal superactivation in a broad range of thermal attenuator channels, even when the transmissivity is quite low, or the thermal noise is high. This means that we can transmit quantum information reliably through very noisy Gaussian channels with the help of another Gaussian channel, whose quantum capacity is also zero. We further show that no superactivation is possible for entanglement-breaking Gaussian channels in physically relevant circumstances by proving the nonactivation property of the coherent information of bosonic entanglement-breaking channels with finite input energy.
The superactivation of zero-capacity optical quantum channels makes it possible to use two zero-capacity optical quantum channels, with a positive joint capacity at the output. Here we show, that noisy Gaussian quantum channels with the help of entanglement and coherent optical devices, can be used to transmit quantum information perfectly. It will be demonstrated that using the superactivation effect, it is possible to develop efficient quantum repeaters with the elimination of the very inefficient and expensive purification process.
The quantum capacity of the bosonic thermal attenuator, which is given by the regularization of its coherent information, is unknown. The seminal work of Holevo and Werner established in 1999 the standard one-use lower bound obtained from input thermal states. We first prove that this long-standing lower bound is the exact supremum over all single-mode Gaussian states and then show that, crucially, a non-Gaussian state can do better. As a consequence, we prove positivity of the quantum capacity in a parameter region where the channel is not antidegradable, yet its coherent information optimized over single-mode Gaussian states vanishes. For example, with one thermal photon in the environment and at transmissivity
η=0.8, the coherent information is non-positive for every single-mode Gaussian input. We give an explicit rank-two non-Gaussian state, supported on only six Fock levels, whose coherent information is certified to be at least
4.7×10−4 qubits per channel use. This short witness is far from numerically optimal: a numerical optimization over fixed non-Gaussian families reaches at least
8.4×10−3 qubits per channel use at the same point. More generally, at
ν=1, using non-Gaussian inputs we certify positivity of the coherent information, and therefore of the quantum capacity, down to
η=0.7841; by contrast, the channel is antidegradable, and hence has zero quantum capacity, for
η≤0.75. Overall, our work identifies new high-noise regimes in which bosonic quantum communication is possible.
Quantum channels with no quantum capacity can be activated by specific kinds of channels. This activation effect might be useful to overcome noise of channels by attaching other channels, which can enhance the capacity of a given channel. We show that such an activation is possible by specific positive-partial-transpose channels and Gaussian lossy channels whose quantum capacities are known. We also test the more general case involving a Gaussian thermal attenuator whose exact value of quantum capacity has been unknown so far. By employing a recently suggested narrow upper bound on the quantum capacity of the thermal attenuator, we confirm the fact that an activation of quantum capacity occurs as well. This result is applicable for realistic situations in which Gaussian channels describe the noises of communication systems.