Abstract Various quantum analogues of the central limit theorem, which is one of the cornerstones of probability theory, are known in the literature. One such analogue, due to Cushen and Hudson, is of particular relevance for quantum optics. It implies that the state in any single output arm of an n-splitter, which is fed with n copies of a centred state
ρ ρ with finite second moments, converges to the Gaussian state with the same first and second moments as
ρ ρ . Here we exploit the phase space formalism to carry out a refined analysis of the rate of convergence in this quantum central limit theorem. For instance, we prove that the convergence takes place at a rate
O(n−1/2) O n - 1 / 2 in the Hilbert–Schmidt norm whenever the third moments of
ρ ρ are finite. Trace norm or relative entropy bounds can be obtained by leveraging the energy boundedness of the state. Via analytical and numerical examples we show that our results are tight in many respects. An extension of our proof techniques to the non-i.i.d. setting is used to analyse a new model of a lossy optical fibre, where a given m-mode state enters a cascade of n beam splitters of equal transmissivities
λ1/n λ 1 / n fed with an arbitrary (but fixed) environment state. Assuming that the latter has finite third moments, and ignoring unitaries, we show that the effective channel converges in diamond norm to a simple thermal attenuator, with a rate
O(n−2(m+1)1) O ( n - 1 2 ( m + 1 ) ) . This allows us to establish bounds on the classical and quantum capacities of the cascade channel. Along the way, we derive several results that may be of independent interest. For example, we prove that any quantum characteristic function
χρ χ ρ is uniformly bounded by some
ηρ<1 η ρ < 1 outside of any neighbourhood of the origin; also,
ηρ η ρ can be made to depend only on the energy of the state
ρ ρ .
We introduce a framework to study discrete-variable (DV) quantum systems based on qudits. It relies on notions of a mean state (MS), a minimal stabilizer-projection state (MSPS), and a new convolution. Some interesting consequences are: The MS is the closest MSPS to a given state with respect to the relative entropy; the MS is extremal with respect to the von Neumann entropy, demonstrating a "maximal entropy principle in DV systems." We obtain a series of inequalities for quantum entropies and for Fisher information based on convolution, giving a "second law of thermodynamics for quantum convolutions." We show that the convolution of two stabilizer states is a stabilizer state. We establish a central limit theorem, based on iterating the convolution of a zero-mean quantum state, and show this converges to its MS. The rate of convergence is characterized by the "magic gap," which we define in terms of the support of the characteristic function of the state. We elaborate on two examples: the DV beam splitter and the DV amplifier.