The Bekenstein bound posits a maximum entropy for matter with finite energy confined to a spatial region. It is often interpreted as a fundamental limit on the information that can be stored by physical objects. In this work, we test this interpretation by asking whether the Bekenstein bound imposes constraints on a channel's communication capacity, a context in which information can be given a mathematically rigorous and operationally meaningful definition. We study specifically the Unruh channel that describes a stationary Alice exciting different species of free scalar fields to send information to an accelerating Bob, who is confined to a Rindler wedge and exposed to the noise of Unruh radiation. We show that the classical and quantum capacities of the Unruh channel obey the Bekenstein bound that pertains to the decoder Bob. In contrast, even at high temperatures, the Unruh channel can transmit a significant number of zero-bits , which are quantum communication resources that can be used for quantum identification and many other primitive protocols. Therefore, unlike classical bits and qubits, zero-bits and their associated information processing capability are generally not constrained by the Bekenstein bound. However, we further show that when both the encoder and the decoder are restricted, the Bekenstein bound does constrain the channel capacities, including the zero-bit capacity.
The Bekenstein bound posits a maximum entropy for matter with finite energy confined to a spatial region. It is often interpreted as a fundamental limit on the information that can be stored by physical objects. In this work, we test this interpretation by asking whether the Bekenstein bound imposes constraints on a channel's communication capacity, a context in which information can be given a mathematically rigorous and operationally meaningful definition. We study specifically the Unruh channel that describes a stationary Alice exciting different species of free scalar fields to send information to an accelerating Bob, who is confined to a Rindler wedge and exposed to the noise of Unruh radiation. We show that the classical and quantum capacities of the Unruh channel obey the Bekenstein bound that pertains to the decoder Bob. In contrast, even at high temperatures, the Unruh channel can transmit a significant number of zero-bits , which are quantum communication resources that can be used for quantum identification and many other primitive protocols. Therefore, unlike classical bits and qubits, zero-bits and their associated information processing capability are generally not constrained by the Bekenstein bound. However, we further show that when both the encoder and the decoder are restricted, the Bekenstein bound does constrain the channel capacities, including the zero-bit capacity.
We establish a unified framework for understanding the fundamental physical limits of computation by developing a geometric theory of resource trade-offs. Our approach treats computation as a physical process constrained by thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, and relativity, leading to a multidimensional capacity region in resource space. We prove that any algorithm achieving error ε on problem class P must satisfy joint constraints across five dimensions: space S, time T, bandwidth H, energy E, and coherence C. The capacity region is characterized by fundamental physical constants: Landauer’s principle (kBT ln 2 per bit erasure), the Margolus-Levitin quantum speed limit (2E/(π~) operations per second), the Bekenstein bound (maximum information density), and statistical sampling limits. We provide explicit constructions showing these bounds are achievable within constant factors for canonical problems including matrix multiplication, covariance estimation, and Gaussian process inference. This framework unifies classical complexity theory with quantum information and thermodynamics, providing the first general theory of multi-resource computational limits with applications to algorithm design, hardware optimization, and fundamental physics.
The classical capacity of a noisy optical channel is the maximum rate at which information can be transmitted reliably, given a constraint on the mean input energy. For the ubiquitous bosonic Gaussian channels, which include standard models of loss and noise in fibre and free-space optical links, determining this rate requires addressing whether entanglement between channel uses or non-Gaussian signals can outperform Gaussian encodings. More precisely, the question is whether the energy-constrained Holevo information is additive across arbitrarily many channel uses and coincides with its Gaussian counterpart. We answer these fundamental questions in the affirmative for every single-mode bosonic Gaussian channel at every input energy. Namely, we prove that independently prepared Gaussian states with Gaussian-distributed random displacements achieve the capacity, including in the low-energy regime where squeezing the signals competes with encoding information in their displacement. Our proof connects an entanglement inequality to a sharp, additive lower bound on output entropy. We then characterise communication above capacity: under a strict total photon-number cutoff, the probability of correct decoding decreases exponentially with the number of channel uses, and we derive explicit bounds on the decay exponent. When only the mean photon number is constrained, a simple energy-rescaling formula determines exactly the entire asymptotic rate--error trade-off: the capacity at mean photon number N and allowed average decoding error ε equals the vanishing-error capacity at mean photon number N/(1−ε). Together, these results identify the ultimate limits of classical communication for some of the most fundamental models of optical communication.
Current advancements in communication equipment demand the investigation of classical information transfer over quantum channels, by encompassing realistic scenarios in finite dimensions. To address this issue, we develop a framework for analyzing classical capacities of quantum channels where the set of states used for encoding information is restricted based on various physical properties. Specifically, we provide expressions for the classical capacities of noiseless and noisy quantum channels when the average energy of the encoded ensemble or the energy of each of the constituent states in the ensemble is bounded. In the case of qubit energy-preserving dephasing channels, we demonstrate that a nonuniform probability distribution based on the energy constraint maximizes capacity, while we derive the compact form of the capacity for equiprobable messages. We suggest an energy-constrained dense coding (DC) protocol that we prove to be optimal in the two-qubit situation and obtain a closed-form expression for the DC capacity. Additionally, we demonstrate a no-go result, which states that when the dimension of the sender and the receiver is two, no energy-preserving operation can offer any quantum advantage for energy-constrained entanglement-assisted capacity. We exhibit that, in the energy-constrained situation, classical-quantum noisy channels can show improved capabilities under entanglement assistance, a phenomenon that is unattainable in the unrestricted scenario.
The processing of quantum information is limited by fundamental physical constraints on how information can be encoded, transmitted, and extracted. In particular, the nonorthogonality of quantum states limits their distinguishability, and thermodynamic constraints, including the energetic cost of state preparation and quantum operations, further restrict the viability of realistic information protocols. This work explores the impact of such constraints on the preparation, evolution, and readout of quantum information. We demonstrate that preparing the system for encoding and measurement affects the distinguishability and purity of the resulting ensemble of states. Furthermore, we analyze a noisy communication channel and propose an optimal protocol for encoding and decoding the transmitted information. For this realistic protocol, we show that the maximum probability of successfully retrieving the information is equal to the maximum correlation that can be achieved between the system and the register. The protocol uses only Gibbs states as free resources, ensuring minimal thermodynamic cost. Based on this, we provide a thermodynamic interpretation of the Holevo information, which quantifies the capacity of the transmitted information and establishes a fundamental limit on its retrieval in thermodynamically constrained scenarios.
In most communication scenarios, sending a symbol encoded in a quantum state requires spending resources such as energy, which can be quantified by a cost of communication. A standard approach in this context is to quantify the performance of communication protocol by classical capacity, quantifying the maximal amount of information that can be transmitted through a quantum channel per single use of the channel. However, different figures of merit are also possible and a particularly well-suited one is the classical capacity per unit cost, which quantifies the maximal amount of information that can be transmitted per unit cost. I generalize this concept to account for the quantum nature of the information carriers and communication channels and show that if there exists a state with cost equal to zero, e.g., a vacuum state, the capacity per unit cost can be expressed by a simple formula containing maximization of the relative entropy between two quantum states. This enables me to analyze the behavior of photon information efficiency for general communication tasks and show simple bounds on the capacity per unit cost in terms of quantities familiar from quantum estimation theory. I calculate also the capacity per unit cost for general Gaussian quantum channels.
A perfect d-dimensional quantum channel can convey log d-bits of classical information by encoding messages in d-orthogonal quantum states. Alternatively, for every quantum state at the senders end, there exist d-encoding operations which produce d-orthogonal quantum states. Transmitting which via a d-level perfect quantum channel it is possible to communicate log d-bits of classical information. But what if the set of encoding operations is restricted only within a physically constrained class? Here, we consider such a class of encoding operations to be the set of free operations for any quantum resource theory and show that the constrained capacity - namely, the free encoding capacity (FEC) emerged as a unit of the corresponding quantum resource. Moreover, we show that for the pointed resource theories - a resource theory admitting only a single free state - FEC becomes a faithful resource measure also. We also discuss the implications of FEC in the question of resource-theoretic state transformations and the possibility of extending its faithfulness for general quantum resource theories.