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arXiv:1610.01998 · Nature Communications

Round complexity in the local transformations of quantum and classical states

Eric Chitambar, Min-Hsiu Hsieh

Published Dec 6, 2017• 18 citations
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Abstract

In distributed quantum and classical information processing, spatially separated parties operate locally on their respective subsystems, but coordinate their actions through multiple exchanges of public communication. With interaction, the parties can perform more tasks. But how the exact number and order of exchanges enhances their operational capabilities is not well understood. Here we consider the minimum number of communication rounds needed to perform the locality-constrained tasks of entanglement transformation and its classical analog of secrecy manipulation. We provide an explicit construction of both quantum and classical state transformations which, for any given r, can be achieved using r rounds of classical communication exchanges, but no fewer. To show this, we build on the common structure underlying both resource theories of quantum entanglement and classical secret key. Our results reveal that highly complex communication protocols are indeed necessary to fully harness the information-theoretic resources contained in general quantum and classical states.

DOI
10.1038/s41467-017-01887-5

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In distributed quantum and classical information processing, spatially separated parties operate locally on their respective subsystems, but coordinate their actions through multiple exchanges of public communication. With interaction, the parties can perform more tasks. But how the exact number and order of exchanges enhances their operational capabilities is not well understood. Here we consider the minimum number of communication rounds needed to perform the locality-constrained tasks of entanglement transformation and its classical analog of secrecy manipulation. We provide an explicit construction of both quantum and classical state transformations which, for any given r, can be achieved using r rounds of classical communication exchanges, but no fewer. To show this, we build on the common structure underlying both resource theories of quantum entanglement and classical secret key. Our results reveal that highly complex communication protocols are indeed necessary to fully harness the information-theoretic resources contained in general quantum and classical states.
A powerful operational paradigm for distributed quantum information processing involves manipulating pre-shared entanglement by local operations and classical communication (LOCC). The LOCC round complexity of a given task describes how many rounds of classical communication are needed to complete the task. Despite some results separating one-round versus two-round protocols, very little is known about higher round complexities. In this paper, we revisit the task of one-shot random-party entanglement distillation as a way to highlight some interesting features of LOCC round complexity. We first show that for random-party distillation in three qubits, the number of communication rounds needed in an optimal protocol depends on the entanglement measure used; for the same fixed state some entanglement measures need only two rounds to maximize whereas others need an unbounded number of rounds. In doing so, we construct a family of LOCC instruments that require an unbounded number of rounds to implement. We then prove explicit tight lower bounds on the LOCC round number as a function of distillation success probability. Our calculations show that the original W-state random distillation protocol by Fortescue and Lo is essentially optimal in terms of round complexity.
We construct a protocol for extracting distributed single-qubit quantum information encoded in a stabilizer code of multiple qubits, only with single-qubit local operations and classical communication (LOCC) without global operations or entanglement resources. This protocol achieves efficient extraction within a polynomial time in terms of the number of physical qubits. We apply this protocol to a setting of quantum information splitting where a subset of spatially separated parties cooperate by classical communication to extract quantum information shared among all the parties. For this task, our LOCC extraction protocol allows designing hierarchical information access structures among the parties, where the minimum number of parties required to cooperate depends on the location of extracting the shared quantum information. Extraction of quantum information encoded in the stabilizer code appears widely in distributed quantum information processing, such as quantum secret sharing. Our results allow such distributed quantum information processing without entanglement costs.
We prove a trade-off relation between the entanglement cost and classical communication round complexity of a protocol in implementing a class of two-qubit unitary gates by two distant parties, a key subroutine in distributed quantum information processing. The task is analyzed in an information theoretic scenario of asymptotically many input pairs with a small error that is required to vanish sufficiently quickly. The trade-off relation is shown by (i) one ebit of entanglement per pair is necessary for implementing the unitary by any two-round protocol, and (ii) the entanglement cost by a three-round protocol is strictly smaller than one ebit per pair. We also provide an example of bipartite unitary gates for which there is no such trade-off.
We prove that there is a trade-off relation between the entanglement cost and the number of rounds of communication, for two distant parties to accomplish a bidirectional quantum information task by local operations and classical communication (LOCC). We consider an implementation of a class of two-qubit controlled-unitary gate by LOCC assisted by shared entanglement, in an information theoretical scenario of asymptotically many input pairs and vanishingly small error. We prove the trade-off relation by showing that one ebit of entanglement per pair is necessary to be consumed for implementing the unitary by any two-round protocol, whereas the entanglement cost by a four-round protocol is strictly smaller than one ebit per pair.
We studied pure state transformations using local operations assisted by finitely many rounds of classical communication (LOCCIN{\text{LOCC}}_{I\phantom{\rule{-0.30em}{0ex}}N}LOCCIN​) [C. Spee, J. I. de Vicente, D. Sauerwein, and B. Kraus [Phys. Rev. Lett. (to be published)], arXiv:1606.04418]. Here, we present the details of some of the proofs and generalize the construction of examples of state transformations via LOCCIN{\text{LOCC}}_{I\phantom{\rule{-0.30em}{0ex}}N}LOCCIN​ which require a probabilistic step. However, we also present explicit examples of SLOCC classes where any separable transformation can be realized by a protocol in which each step is deterministic (all-det-LOCCIN{\text{LOCC}}_{I\phantom{\rule{-0.30em}{0ex}}N}LOCCIN​). Such transformations can be considered as natural generalizations of bipartite transformations. Furthermore, we provide examples of pure state transformations which are possible via separable transformations, but not via LOCCIN{\text{LOCC}}_{I\phantom{\rule{-0.30em}{0ex}}N}LOCCIN​. We also analyze an interesting genuinely multipartite effect which we call locking or unlocking the power of other parties. This means that one party can prevent or enable the implementation of LOCC transformations by other parties. Moreover, we investigate the maximally entangled set restricted to LOCCIN{\text{LOCC}}_{I\phantom{\rule{-0.30em}{0ex}}N}LOCCIN​ and show how easily computable bounds on some entanglement measures can be derived by restricting to LOCCIN{\text{LOCC}}_{I\phantom{\rule{-0.30em}{0ex}}N}LOCCIN​.
Recent advances have led towards first prototypes of quantum networks in which entanglement is distributed by sources producing bipartite entangled states. This raises the question of which states can be generated in quantum networks based on bipartite sources using local operations and classical communication. In this work, we study state transformations under finite rounds of local operations and classical communication (LOCC) in networks based on maximally entangled two-qubit states. We first derive the symmetries for arbitrary network structures, as these determine which transformations are possible. Then, we show that contrary to tree graphs, for which it has already been shown that any state within the same entanglement class can be reached, there exist states which can be reached probabilistically but not deterministically if the network contains a cycle. Furthermore, we provide a systematic way to determine states which are not reachable in networks consisting of a cycle. Moreover, we provide a complete characterization of the states which can be reached in a cycle network with a protocol where each party measures only once, and each step of the protocol results in a deterministic transformation. Finally, we present an example which cannot be reached with such a simple protocol, and constitutes, up to our knowledge, the first example of a LOCC transformation among fully entangled states requiring three rounds of classical communication.