Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1204.6042 · International Journal of Modern Physics B

QUANTUM DISCORD AS A RESOURCE IN QUANTUM COMMUNICATION

VAIBHAV MADHOK, ANIMESH DATTA

Published Oct 10, 2012• 76 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

As quantum technologies move from the issues of principle to those of practice, it is important to understand the limitations on attaining tangible quantum advantages. In the realm of quantum communication, quantum discord captures the damaging effects of a decoherent environment. This is a consequence of quantum discord quantifying the advantage of quantum coherence in quantum communication. This establishes quantum discord as a resource for quantum communication processes. We discuss this progress, which derives a quantitative relation between the yield of the fully quantum Slepian–Wolf (FQSW) protocol in the presence of noise and the quantum discord of the state involved. The significance of quantum discord in noisy versions of teleportation, super-dense coding, entanglement distillation and quantum state merging are discussed. These results lead to open questions regarding the tradeoff between quantum entanglement and discord in choosing the optimal quantum states for attaining palpable quantum advantages in noisy quantum protocols.

DOI
10.1142/s0217979213450410

Related papers

Quantum discord as a resource in quantum communication

Vaibhav Madhok

As quantum technologies move from the issues of principle to those of practice, it is important to understand the limitations on attaining tangible quantum advantages. In the realm of quantum communication, quantum discord captures the damaging effects of a decoherent environment. This is a consequence of quantum discord quantifying the advantage of quantum coherence in quantum communication. This establishes quantum discord as a resource for quantum communication processes. We discuss this progress, which derives a quantitative relation between the yield of the fully quantum Slepian-Wolf protocol in the presence of noise and the quantum discord of the state involved. The significance of quantum discord in noisy versions of teleportation, super-dense coding, entanglement distillation and quantum state merging are discussed. These results lead to open questions regarding the tradeoff between quantum entanglement and discord in choosing the optimal quantum states for attaining palpable quantum advantages in noisy quantum protocols.

•Jan 1, 2013•39 citations

Operational interpretations of quantum discord

Daniel Cavalcanti, Leandro Aolita, Sergio Boixo +3 more

Quantum discord quantifies nonclassical correlations beyond the standard classification of quantum states into entangled and unentangled. Although it has received considerable attention, it still lacks any precise interpretation in terms of some protocol in which quantum features are relevant. Here we give quantum discord its first information-theoretic operational meaning in terms of entanglement consumption in an extended quantum-state-merging protocol. We further relate the asymmetry of quantum discord with the performance imbalance in quantum state merging and dense coding.

arXiv:1008.3205•Physical Review A•Mar 31, 2011•346 citations

Operational interpretations of quantum discord

Marco Piani, Daniel Cavalcanti, Leandro Aolita +3 more

Quantum discord quantifies nonclassical correlations beyond the standard classification of quantum states into entangled and unentangled. Although it has received considerable attention, it still lacks any precise interpretation in terms of some protocol in which quantum features are relevant. Here we give quantum discord its first information-theoretic operational meaning in terms of entanglement consumption in an extended quantum-state-merging protocol. We further relate the asymmetry of quantum discord with the performance imbalance in quantum state merging and dense coding.

Bulletin of the American Physical Society•Mar 24, 2011•3 citations

Quantum Correlations and Discord in Werner States for Quantum Teleportation

Saida M. Alkurkushi, Malek Nasser Ali Algabri, Ali Saif M. Hassan

Abstract Quantum teleportation fundamentally depends on shared quantum correlations between spatially separated parties. Although entanglement is widely recognized as the primary resource enabling teleportation, quantum discord represents a more general form of nonclassical correlations that can persist even when entanglement is absent. We provide a thorough analysis combining analytical and numerical evaluations of quantum discord, negativity, and concurrence across varying noise parameters. The study includes simulations under both ide-alized and realistic noisy conditions, incorporating depolarizing noise models alongside experimentally relevant constraints. To improve quantum fidelity and accurately characterize quantum correlations in noisy environments, advanced error mitigation techniques—such as measurement error correction and zero-noise extrapolation—are applied. In this study, we focus on teleportation protocols utilizing two-qubit Werner states, which constitute a significant class of noisy mixed states modeling imperfect entanglement. We systematically examine how the teleportation fidelity varies as a function of the Werner mixing parameter λ and investigate its relationship with the corresponding quantum discord. Our findings indicate that quantum discord remains strictly greater than zero even in parameter regions where entanglement vanishes, emphasizing the role of discord in sustaining quantum advantages in teleportation schemes exposed to noise and imperfections. This highlights the importance of considering non-entanglement quantum correlations for a comprehensive understanding of teleportation resources in realistic settings.

•Sep 9, 2025•0 citations

Witnessing quantum discord for secure quantum key distribution

Rong Wang, Guan‐Jie Fan‐Yuan, Zhen−Qiang Yin +6 more

Abstract The study of quantum information processing seeks to characterize the resources that enable quantum information processing to perform tasks that are unfeasible or inefficient for classical information processing. Quantum cryptography is one such task, and researchers have identified entanglement as a sufficient resource for secure key generation. However, quantum discord, another type of quantum correlation beyond entanglement, has been found to be necessary for guaranteeing secure communication. Despite this, it remains a long-standing problem to clearly understand the role that discord plays and how to effectively utilize discord for analyzing security in specific quantum cryptography protocols. Here, we strictly prove that discord determines the secrecy and show its practical interest by considering a three-state quantum key distribution protocol. Its robustness against imperfections in qubit sources and measurements as well as basis misalignment, results in better key rates than BB84 protocol. Those advantages are experimentally demonstrated via photonic phase encoding systems.

arXiv:2304.05880•Communications Physics•Sep 15, 2026•3 citations

Resources of the advantage in quantum illumination: Discord and entanglement

Mojtaba Asadollahi, Mohammad Hossein Zarei

We investigate how the quantum advantage in quantum illumination is determined by an interplay between entanglement and discord of the probe state. In particular, we consider a setup in which the probe is a maximally mixed marginal (MMM) state and the environmental state is completely mixed where the quantum advantage equals the amount of discord consumed for illumination. Through a conditional extremal analysis, we determine the range of accessible advantages for given values of entanglement and discord. At fixed discord, high entanglement restricts the accessible advantage to high values, making high entanglement sufficient for high advantage. Conversely, at fixed entanglement, low discord limits the advantage to low values, indicating that high discord is necessary for high advantage. These conclusions remain unchanged when alternative correlation measures, including relative entropy and Bures entanglement and geometric discord, are used. The consistency of our results across multiple conceptually distinct measures indicates that the observed resource-advantage relation is not an artifact of a specific quantifier, but a robust feature of the protocol within the family of MMM states. We finally find that in the high-noise regime (near-maximally-mixed state), quantum advantage is, to leading order, a linear function of the initial discord highlighting discord as the key resource for resilience to noise in the protocol.

quant-pharXiv:2602.09468•Quantum Information Processing•Feb 11, 2026•0 citations
As quantum technologies move from the issues of principle to those of practice, it is important to understand the limitations on attaining tangible quantum advantages. In the realm of quantum communication, quantum discord captures the damaging effects of a decoherent environment. This is a consequence of quantum discord quantifying the advantage of quantum coherence in quantum communication. This establishes quantum discord as a resource for quantum communication processes. We discuss this progress, which derives a quantitative relation between the yield of the fully quantum Slepian–Wolf (FQSW) protocol in the presence of noise and the quantum discord of the state involved. The significance of quantum discord in noisy versions of teleportation, super-dense coding, entanglement distillation and quantum state merging are discussed. These results lead to open questions regarding the tradeoff between quantum entanglement and discord in choosing the optimal quantum states for attaining palpable quantum advantages in noisy quantum protocols.
As quantum technologies move from the issues of principle to those of practice, it is important to understand the limitations on attaining tangible quantum advantages. In the realm of quantum communication, quantum discord captures the damaging effects of a decoherent environment. This is a consequence of quantum discord quantifying the advantage of quantum coherence in quantum communication. This establishes quantum discord as a resource for quantum communication processes. We discuss this progress, which derives a quantitative relation between the yield of the fully quantum Slepian-Wolf protocol in the presence of noise and the quantum discord of the state involved. The significance of quantum discord in noisy versions of teleportation, super-dense coding, entanglement distillation and quantum state merging are discussed. These results lead to open questions regarding the tradeoff between quantum entanglement and discord in choosing the optimal quantum states for attaining palpable quantum advantages in noisy quantum protocols.
Quantum discord quantifies nonclassical correlations beyond the standard classification of quantum states into entangled and unentangled. Although it has received considerable attention, it still lacks any precise interpretation in terms of some protocol in which quantum features are relevant. Here we give quantum discord its first information-theoretic operational meaning in terms of entanglement consumption in an extended quantum-state-merging protocol. We further relate the asymmetry of quantum discord with the performance imbalance in quantum state merging and dense coding.
Quantum discord quantifies nonclassical correlations beyond the standard classification of quantum states into entangled and unentangled. Although it has received considerable attention, it still lacks any precise interpretation in terms of some protocol in which quantum features are relevant. Here we give quantum discord its first information-theoretic operational meaning in terms of entanglement consumption in an extended quantum-state-merging protocol. We further relate the asymmetry of quantum discord with the performance imbalance in quantum state merging and dense coding.
Abstract Quantum teleportation fundamentally depends on shared quantum correlations between spatially separated parties. Although entanglement is widely recognized as the primary resource enabling teleportation, quantum discord represents a more general form of nonclassical correlations that can persist even when entanglement is absent. We provide a thorough analysis combining analytical and numerical evaluations of quantum discord, negativity, and concurrence across varying noise parameters. The study includes simulations under both ide-alized and realistic noisy conditions, incorporating depolarizing noise models alongside experimentally relevant constraints. To improve quantum fidelity and accurately characterize quantum correlations in noisy environments, advanced error mitigation techniques—such as measurement error correction and zero-noise extrapolation—are applied. In this study, we focus on teleportation protocols utilizing two-qubit Werner states, which constitute a significant class of noisy mixed states modeling imperfect entanglement. We systematically examine how the teleportation fidelity varies as a function of the Werner mixing parameter λ and investigate its relationship with the corresponding quantum discord. Our findings indicate that quantum discord remains strictly greater than zero even in parameter regions where entanglement vanishes, emphasizing the role of discord in sustaining quantum advantages in teleportation schemes exposed to noise and imperfections. This highlights the importance of considering non-entanglement quantum correlations for a comprehensive understanding of teleportation resources in realistic settings.
Abstract The study of quantum information processing seeks to characterize the resources that enable quantum information processing to perform tasks that are unfeasible or inefficient for classical information processing. Quantum cryptography is one such task, and researchers have identified entanglement as a sufficient resource for secure key generation. However, quantum discord, another type of quantum correlation beyond entanglement, has been found to be necessary for guaranteeing secure communication. Despite this, it remains a long-standing problem to clearly understand the role that discord plays and how to effectively utilize discord for analyzing security in specific quantum cryptography protocols. Here, we strictly prove that discord determines the secrecy and show its practical interest by considering a three-state quantum key distribution protocol. Its robustness against imperfections in qubit sources and measurements as well as basis misalignment, results in better key rates than BB84 protocol. Those advantages are experimentally demonstrated via photonic phase encoding systems.
We investigate how the quantum advantage in quantum illumination is determined by an interplay between entanglement and discord of the probe state. In particular, we consider a setup in which the probe is a maximally mixed marginal (MMM) state and the environmental state is completely mixed where the quantum advantage equals the amount of discord consumed for illumination. Through a conditional extremal analysis, we determine the range of accessible advantages for given values of entanglement and discord. At fixed discord, high entanglement restricts the accessible advantage to high values, making high entanglement sufficient for high advantage. Conversely, at fixed entanglement, low discord limits the advantage to low values, indicating that high discord is necessary for high advantage. These conclusions remain unchanged when alternative correlation measures, including relative entropy and Bures entanglement and geometric discord, are used. The consistency of our results across multiple conceptually distinct measures indicates that the observed resource-advantage relation is not an artifact of a specific quantifier, but a robust feature of the protocol within the family of MMM states. We finally find that in the high-noise regime (near-maximally-mixed state), quantum advantage is, to leading order, a linear function of the initial discord highlighting discord as the key resource for resilience to noise in the protocol.