Geometric Rényi divergence and RLD Fisher information under quantum processes without definite causal order
Zixin Huang, Mark M. Wilde
Quantum experiments without a definite causal order offer new ways to distinguish devices, estimate physical parameters, and communicate. We prove a common limit on these tasks: the geometric Rényi divergence at the output of a deterministic completely positive process cannot exceed the sum of the divergences of its individual channel uses. The inequality holds for every Rényi order in $(0,1)\cup(1,2]$ and any number of independently replaceable channels. Parallel experiments with separate reference-assisted inputs approach the bound, giving an exact equality after optimization over processes. We also prove an additive bound on the right logarithmic derivative Fisher information of parameter-dependent channels under every fixed process in this class. A resulting Cramér--Rao bound limits locally unbiased estimation precision without assuming a definite causal order, and an erasure-probability example attains the bound. The proofs for the geometric Rényi divergence and RLD Fisher information follow from the requirement that every independent choice of channels produce a normalized output. We show how this requirement controls positive local operations, and how small channel perturbations convert the divergence inequality into a Fisher-information bound, including for singular channels. Further applications give finite-use bounds on channel discrimination and exclusion, together with communication and private-state-generation converses when the processes preserve the relevant comparison conditions.
quant-pharXiv:2610.39217•Oct 30, 2026•0 citations