In this paper, we study the [Formula: see text]-convex set of unital entanglement breaking (EB-)maps on matrix algebras. General properties and an abstract characterization of [Formula: see text]-extreme points are discussed. By establishing a Radon–Nikodym-type theorem for a class of EB-maps we give a complete description of the [Formula: see text]-extreme points. It is shown that a unital EB-map [Formula: see text] is [Formula: see text]-extreme if and only if it has Choi-rank equal to [Formula: see text]. Finally, as a direct consequence of the Holevo form of EB-maps, we derive a non-commutative analog of the Krein–Milman theorem for [Formula: see text]-convexity of the set of unital EB-maps.
In this paper, we study the [Formula: see text]-convex set of unital entanglement breaking (EB-)maps on matrix algebras. General properties and an abstract characterization of [Formula: see text]-extreme points are discussed. By establishing a Radon–Nikodym-type theorem for a class of EB-maps we give a complete description of the [Formula: see text]-extreme points. It is shown that a unital EB-map [Formula: see text] is [Formula: see text]-extreme if and only if it has Choi-rank equal to [Formula: see text]. Finally, as a direct consequence of the Holevo form of EB-maps, we derive a non-commutative analog of the Krein–Milman theorem for [Formula: see text]-convexity of the set of unital EB-maps.
We obtain a complete characterization of eventually entanglement breaking (EEB) unital channels in terms of some simple commutation properties of their eigenvectors. Specifically, the following properties are equivalent for a unital channel: (i) it is EEB; (ii) it is eventually positive partial transpose (PPT); (iii) it is eventually mixed twisted dephasing; and (iv) its eigenvectors corresponding to non-zero eigenvalues commute with all its peripheral eigenvectors. Similar results hold for one-parameter semigroups of unital quantum channels, where continuity forces such semigroups to become primitive. We employ a matrix integral technique inspired by a result of Watrous. We also characterize the extreme points of the convex set of unital EB channels and, using this characterization and the theory of equiangular tight frames (ETFs), identify several extreme points beyond the twisted dephasing channels.
Convex sets of quantum states and processes play a central role in quantum theory and quantum information. Many important examples of convex sets in quantum theory are spectrahedra, that is, sets of positive operators satisfying affine constraints. These examples include sets of quantum states with given expectation values of a set of observables, sets of multipartite quantum states with given marginals, sets of quantum measurements, channels and multitime quantum processes, as well as sets of higher-order quantum maps and quantum causal structures. This contribution provides a characterization of the extreme points of general spectrahedra, and bounds on the ranks of the corresponding operators. The general results are applied to several special cases, and then used to retrieve classic results such as Choi’s characterization of the extreme quantum channels, Parthasarathy’s characterization of the extreme quantum states with given marginals and the quantum version of Birkhoff’s theorem for qubit unital channels. Finally, we propose a notion of positive operator valued measures (POVMs) with general affine constraints for their normalization, and we characterize the extremal POVMs.
A unit-preserving and completely positive linear map, or a channel, Λ:A→Ain between C*-algebras A and Ain is called entanglement-breaking (EB) if ω◦(Λ⊗idB) is a separable state for any C*-algebra B and any state ω on the injective C*-tensor product Ain⊗B. In this paper, we establish the equivalence of the following conditions for a channel Λ with a quantum input space and with a general outcome C*-algebra, generalizing the known results in finite dimensions: (i) Λ is EB; (ii) Λ has a measurement-prepare form (Holevo form); (iii) n copies of Λ are compatible for all 2 ≤ n < ∞; (iv) countably infinite copies of Λ are compatible. By using this equivalence, we also show that the set of randomization-equivalence classes of normal EB channels with a fixed input von Neumann algebra is upper and lower Dedekind-closed, i.e., the supremum or infimum of any randomization-increasing or decreasing net of EB channels is also EB. As an example, we construct an injective normal EB channel with an arbitrary outcome operator algebra M acting on an infinite-dimensional separable Hilbert space by using the coherent states and the Bargmann measure.
In this thesis, quantum channels are studied from the point of view of Mathematics. We studied the CPTP (completely positive trace preserving) and UCPTP channels, the latter being the unital channels. In both cases, the sets are compact convex, so they are the closure of their extreme points. We constructed extreme CPTP maps for every possible rank. We also constructed extreme UCPTP maps with rank 2 for each possible dimension. For ranks of at least 3, we constructed extreme UCPTP maps for many dimensions and ranks. We also proved that the tensor product of extreme CPTP maps is an extreme CPTP map. For UCPTP maps, we proved that the same is not always true, with many counterexamples. It is known that the category of CPTP maps is semicartesian. We add to this a classification of binary products. We proved that products only exist in trivial cases. For binary coproducts, we obtained the dimensions they should have, if they exist. In both cases, topological techniques were used. For this reason, we also investigated the topology of the closure of the set of extreme points of the CPTP maps. Topological invariants can be computed from decompositions of a space such as CW structures. These are a type of decomposition in which the space is expressed as a gluing of balls. In the search for a CW structure for the closure of the set of extreme CPTP maps, we obtained a partial decomposition that resembles a CW structure of the complex projective space.
Convex sets of quantum states and processes play a central role in quantum theory and quantum information. Many important examples of convex sets in quantum theory are spectrahedra, that is, sets of positive operators subject to affine constraints. These examples include sets of quantum states with given expectation values of some observables of interest, sets of multipartite quantum states with given marginals, sets of quantum measurements, channels, and multitime quantum processes, as well as sets of higher-order quantum maps and quantum causal structures. This contribution provides a characterisation of the extreme points of general spectrahedra, and bounds on the ranks of the corresponding operators. The general results are applied to several special cases, and are used to retrieve classic results such as Choi's characterisation of the extreme quantum channels, Parhasarathy's characterisation of the extreme quantum states with given marginals, and the quantum version of Birkhoff's theorem for qubit unital channels. Finally, we propose a notion of positive operator valued measures (POVMs) with general affine constraints for their normalisation, and we characterise the extremal POVMs.
Abstract In this paper, we consider the convex structure of the set of unital quantum channels. To do this, we introduce a novel framework to construct and characterise different families of low-rank unital quantum maps. In this framework, unital quantum maps are represented as a set of complex parameters on which we impose a set of constraints. The different families of unital maps are obtained by mapping those parameters into the operator representation of a quantum map. For these families, we also introduce a scalar measuring their distance to the set of mixed-unitary maps. We consider the particular case of qutrit channels which is the smallest set of maps for which the existence of non-unitary extremal maps is known. In this setting, we show how our framework generalises the description of well-known maps such as the antisymmetric Werner–Holevo map but also novel families of qutrit maps.