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arXiv:2502.07745 · IEEE Transactions on Information Theory

Uhlmann’s Theorem for Measured Divergences

Kun Fang, Hamza Fawzi, Omar Fawzi

Published Dec 29, 2025• 2 citations
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Abstract

Uhlmann’s theorem is a cornerstone of quantum information theory, stating that for any quantum state ρABand any state σA, there exists an extension σABof σAsuch that the fidelity between ρABand σABequals the fidelity between their marginals ρAand σA. This property underpins many results and applications in quantum information science. In this work, we generalize Uhlmann’s theorem to a broad class of measuredf-divergences, including the measured α-Rényi divergences for all α ≥ 0. The well-known Uhlmann’s theorem for the fidelity corresponds to the special case α = 1/2. Since most commonly used quantum Rényi divergences, including the Petz and sandwiched Rényi divergences, cannot satisfy this property (except for degenerate cases), this fundamentally distinguishes measuredf-divergences from other quantum divergences and highlights their unique mathematical structure.

DOI
10.1109/tit.2025.3649040

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Civil War Book Review•Aug 15, 2018•1 citation
Uhlmann’s theorem is a cornerstone of quantum information theory, stating that for any quantum state ρABand any state σA, there exists an extension σABof σAsuch that the fidelity between ρABand σABequals the fidelity between their marginals ρAand σA. This property underpins many results and applications in quantum information science. In this work, we generalize Uhlmann’s theorem to a broad class of measuredf-divergences, including the measured α-Rényi divergences for all α ≥ 0. The well-known Uhlmann’s theorem for the fidelity corresponds to the special case α = 1/2. Since most commonly used quantum Rényi divergences, including the Petz and sandwiched Rényi divergences, cannot satisfy this property (except for degenerate cases), this fundamentally distinguishes measuredf-divergences from other quantum divergences and highlights their unique mathematical structure.
Recently, an interesting quantity called the quantum Rényi divergence (or 'sandwiched' Rényi relative entropy) was defined for pairs of positive semi-definite operators ρ and σ. It depends on a parameter α and acts as a parent quantity for other relative entropies which have important operational significance in quantum information theory: the quantum relative entropy and the min- and max-relative entropies. There is, however, another relative entropy, called the 0-relative Rényi entropy, which plays a key role in the analysis of various quantum information-processing tasks in the one-shot setting. We prove that the 0-relative Rényi entropy is obtainable from the quantum Rényi divergence only if ρ and σ have equal supports. This, along with existing results in the literature, suggests that it suffices to consider two essential parent quantities from which operationally relevant entropic quantities can be derived—the quantum Rényi divergence with parameter α ⩾ 1/2, and the α-relative Rényi entropy with α ∈ [0, 1).
Quantum generalizations of Rényi's entropies are a useful tool to describe a variety of operational tasks in quantum information processing. Two families of such generalizations turn out to be particularly useful: the Petz quantum Rényi divergence D̅αand the minimal quantum Rényi divergence D̅α. In this paper, we prove a reverse Araki-Lieb-Thirring inequality that implies a new relation between these two families of divergences, namely that αD̅α(ρ∥σ) ≤ D̅α(ρ∥σ) for α ϵ [0, 1] and where ρ and σ are density operators. This bound suggests defining a “pretty good fidelity”, whose relation to the usual fidelity implies the known relations between the optimal and pretty good measurement as well as the optimal and pretty good singlet fraction.
One possibility of defining a quantum Rényi$\alpha −divergenceoftwoquantumstatesistooptimizetheclassicalReˊnyi-divergence of two quantum states is to optimize the classical Rényi−divergenceoftwoquantumstatesistooptimizetheclassicalReˊnyi\alpha −divergenceoftheirpost−measurementprobabilitydistributionsoverallpossiblemeasurements(measuredReˊnyidivergence),andmayberegularizethesequantitiesovermultiplecopiesofthetwostates(regularizedmeasuredReˊnyi-divergence of their post-measurement probability distributions over all possible measurements (measured Rényi divergence), and maybe regularize these quantities over multiple copies of the two states (regularized measured Rényi−divergenceoftheirpost−measurementprobabilitydistributionsoverallpossiblemeasurements(measuredReˊnyidivergence),andmayberegularizethesequantitiesovermultiplecopiesofthetwostates(regularizedmeasuredReˊnyi\alpha −divergence).AkeyobservationbehindthetheoremforthestrongconverseexponentofasymptoticbinaryquantumstatediscriminationisthattheregularizedmeasuredReˊnyi-divergence). A key observation behind the theorem for the strong converse exponent of asymptotic binary quantum state discrimination is that the regularized measured Rényi−divergence).AkeyobservationbehindthetheoremforthestrongconverseexponentofasymptoticbinaryquantumstatediscriminationisthattheregularizedmeasuredReˊnyi\alpha −divergencecoincideswiththesandwichedReˊnyi-divergence coincides with the sandwiched Rényi−divergencecoincideswiththesandwichedReˊnyi\alpha −divergencewhen-divergence when−divergencewhen\alpha >1.Moreover,italsofollowsfromthesametheoremthattoachievethis,itissufficienttoconsider2−outcomemeasurements(tests)foranynumberofcopies(thisissomewhatsurprising,asachievingthemeasuredReˊnyi. Moreover, it also follows from the same theorem that to achieve this, it is sufficient to consider 2-outcome measurements (tests) for any number of copies (this is somewhat surprising, as achieving the measured Rényi.Moreover,italsofollowsfromthesametheoremthattoachievethis,itissufficienttoconsider2−outcomemeasurements(tests)foranynumberofcopies(thisissomewhatsurprising,asachievingthemeasuredReˊnyi\alpha −divergencefor-divergence for−divergenceforncopiesmightrequireanumberofmeasurementoutcomesthatdivergesincopies might require a number of measurement outcomes that diverges incopiesmightrequireanumberofmeasurementoutcomesthatdivergesinn,ingeneral).Inviewofthis,itseemsnaturaltoexpectthesamewhen, in general). In view of this, it seems natural to expect the same when,ingeneral).Inviewofthis,itseemsnaturaltoexpectthesamewhen\alpha < 1;however,weshowthatthisisnotthecase.Infact,weshowthatevenforcommutingstates(classicalcase)theregularizedquantityattainableusing2−outcomemeasurementsisingeneralstrictlysmallerthantheReˊnyi; however, we show that this is not the case. In fact, we show that even for commuting states (classical case) the regularized quantity attainable using 2-outcome measurements is in general strictly smaller than the Rényi;however,weshowthatthisisnotthecase.Infact,weshowthatevenforcommutingstates(classicalcase)theregularizedquantityattainableusing2−outcomemeasurementsisingeneralstrictlysmallerthantheReˊnyi\alpha −divergence(whichisuniqueintheclassicalcase).Inthegeneralquantumcasethisshowsthattheabove“regularizedtest−measured”Reˊnyi-divergence (which is unique in the classical case). In the general quantum case this shows that the above “regularized test-measured” Rényi−divergence(whichisuniqueintheclassicalcase).Inthegeneralquantumcasethisshowsthattheabove“regularizedtest−measured”Reˊnyi\alpha −divergenceisnotevenaquantumextensionoftheclassicalReˊnyidivergencewhen-divergence is not even a quantum extension of the classical Rényi divergence when−divergenceisnotevenaquantumextensionoftheclassicalReˊnyidivergencewhen\alpha < 1,insharpcontrasttothe, in sharp contrast to the,insharpcontrasttothe\alpha >1$case.
The quantum relative entropy is a measure of the distinguishability of two quantum states, and it is a unifying concept in quantum information theory: many information measures such as entropy, conditional entropy, mutual information, and entanglement measures can be realized from it. As such, there has been broad interest in generalizing the notion to further understand its most basic properties, one of which is the data processing inequality. The quantum f-divergence of Petz is one generalization of the quantum relative entropy, and it also leads to other relative entropies, such as the Petz-Renyi relative entropies. In this contribution, I introduce the optimized quantum f-divergence as a related generalization of quantum relative entropy. I prove that it satisfies the data processing inequality, and the method of proof relies upon the operator Jensen inequality, similar to Petz's original approach. Interestingly, the sandwiched Renyi relative entropies are particular examples of the optimized f-divergence. Thus, one benefit of this approach is that there is now a single, unified approach for establishing the data processing inequality for both the Petz-Renyi and sandwiched Renyi relative entropies, for the full range of parameters for which it is known to hold. Full version of this paper is accessible at arXiv:1710.10252
The quantum relative entropy is a measure of the distinguishability of two quantum states, and it is a unifying concept in quantum information theory: many information measures such as entropy, conditional entropy, mutual information, and entanglement measures can be realized from it. As such, there has been broad interest in generalizing the notion to further understand its most basic properties, one of which is the data processing inequality. The quantum f-divergence of Petz is one generalization of the quantum relative entropy, and it also leads to other relative entropies, such as the Petz-Renyi relative entropies. In this contribution, I introduce the optimized quantum f-divergence as a related generalization of quantum relative entropy. I prove that it satisfies the data processing inequality, and the method of proof relies upon the operator Jensen inequality, similar to Petz's original approach. Interestingly, the sandwiched Renyi relative entropies are particular examples of the optimized f-divergence. Thus, one benefit of this approach is that there is now a single, unified approach for establishing the data processing inequality for both the Petz-Renyi and sandwiched Renyi relative entropies, for the full range of parameters for which it is known to hold. Full version of this paper is accessible at arXiv:1710.10252