Abstract The sandwiched Rényi divergences of two finite-dimensional density operators quantify their asymptotic distinguishability in the strong converse domain. This establishes the sandwiched Rényi divergences as the operationally relevant ones among the infinitely many quantum extensions of the classical Rényi divergences for Rényi parameter
α>1 α > 1 . The known proof of this goes by showing that the sandwiched Rényi divergence coincides with the regularized measured Rényi divergence, which in turn is proved by asymptotic pinching, a fundamentally finite-dimensional technique. Thus, while the notion of the sandwiched Rényi divergences was extended recently to density operators on an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space (in fact, even for states of an arbitrary von Neumann algebra), these quantities were so far lacking an operational interpretation similar to the finite-dimensional case, and it has also been open whether they coincide with the regularized measured Rényi divergences. In this paper we fill this gap by answering both questions in the positive for density operators on an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space, using a simple finite-dimensional approximation technique. We also initiate the study of the sandwiched Rényi divergences, and the related problem of the strong converse exponent, for pairs of positive semi-definite operators that are not necessarily trace-class (this corresponds to considering weights in a general von Neumann algebra setting). This is motivated by the need to define conditional Rényi entropies in the infinite-dimensional setting, while it might also be interesting from the purely mathematical point of view of extending the concept of Rényi (and other) divergences to settings beyond the standard one of positive trace-class operators (positive normal functionals in the von Neumann algebra setting). In this spirit, we also discuss the definition and some properties of the more general family of Rényi
(α,z) ( α , z ) -divergences of positive semi-definite operators on an infinite-dimensional separable Hilbert space.
The doubly minimized Petz Renyi mutual information of order
α is defined as the minimum of the Petz divergence of order
α of a given bipartite quantum state relative to all product states. The doubly minimized sandwiched Renyi mutual information is defined analogously, with the Petz divergence replaced by the sandwiched divergence. In this work, we study certain binary quantum state discrimination problems related to correlation detection. We show that the corresponding direct exponent is determined by the doubly minimized Petz Renyi mutual information of order
α∈(1/2,1), and that the strong converse exponent is determined by the doubly minimized sandwiched Renyi mutual information of order
α∈(1,∞). This provides an operational interpretation of these types of Renyi mutual information and generalizes previous results for classical probability distributions to the quantum setting. For completeness, we also study the corresponding moderate deviation regime both below and above the threshold, and determine the Stein exponent and the second-order asymptotics.
The doubly minimized Petz Rényi mutual information of order α is defined as the minimum of the Petz divergence of order α of a given bipartite quantum state relative to all product states. The doubly minimized sandwiched Rényi mutual information is defined analogously, with the Petz divergence replaced by the sandwiched divergence. In this work, we study certain binary quantum state discrimination problems related to correlation detection. We show that the corresponding direct exponent is determined by the doubly minimized Petz Rényi mutual information of order α ∈ (1/2, 1), and that the strong converse exponent is determined by the doubly minimized sandwiched Rényi mutual information of order α ∈ (1, ∞). This provides an operational interpretation of these types of Rényi mutual information and generalizes previous results for classical probability distributions to the quantum setting. For completeness, we also study the corresponding moderate deviation regime both below and above the threshold, and determine the Stein exponent and the second-order asymptotics.