Defining suitable quantum extensions of classical divergences often poses a challenge due to the non-commutative nature of quantum information. In this work, we propose a new approach via what we call the layer cake representation. The resulting quantum Rényi and $f$-divergences are then proven to be equivalent to those recently defined via integral representations. Nevertheless, the approach can provide several insights. We give an alternative proof of the integral representation of the relative entropy by Frenkel and prove a conjecture regarding a trace expression for the Rényi divergence. Additionally, we give applications to error exponents in hypothesis testing, a new Riemann-Stieltjes type integral representation and a variational representation.
Defining suitable quantum extensions of classical divergences often poses a challenge due to the non-commutative nature of quantum information. In this work, we propose a new approach via what we call the layer cake representation. The resulting quantum Rényi and f-divergences are then proven to be equivalent to those recently defined via integral representations. Nevertheless, the approach can provide several insights. We give an alternative proof of the integral representation of the relative entropy by Frenkel and prove a conjecture regarding a trace expression for the Rényi divergence. Additionally, we give applications to error exponents in hypothesis testing, a new Riemann-Stieltjes type integral representation and a variational representation.
The operator layer cake theorem provides an integral representation for the directional derivative of the operator logarithm in terms of a family of projections [arXiv:2507.06232]. Recently, the related work [arXiv:2507.07065] showed that the theorem gives an alternative proof to Frenkel's integral formula for Umegaki's relative entropy [Quantum, 7:1102 (2023)]. In this short note, we find a converse implication, demonstrating that the operator layer cake theorem is equivalent to Frenkel's integral formula.
We prove an integral representation of the α-z Rényi divergences for normal states on arbitrary von Neumann algebras. Along each ray z=cα, the divergence is a positive average of relative entropies evaluated in a canonical family of escort states. For orders α above one, we require the divergence to be finite, whereas for orders below one support inclusion suffices. An explicit boundary correction removes the lower-order support assumption. The proof uses a compatible weighted Haagerup Lp scale and applies outside the data-processing region. For faithful density matrices, we express the derivative of the escort relative entropy with respect to the Rényi order in terms of a nonnegative fluctuation quantity. Differences of order-one derivatives of the divergence give quantum Fisher information and Wigner-Yanase skew information. For faithful bipartite density matrices, we also express optimized conditional α-z entropies at orders above one as averages of ordinary conditional entropies. Further applications concern coherent-state divergences in quantum field theory and the optimizing order for the strong converse exponent in hypothesis-testing.
In this paper we give a systematic and unified treatment and extensions of various results on a new notion of quantum f-divergences defined from quantum hockey stick divergences, the theory of which has been developed recently in \cite{BHT_fdiv,HircheTomamichel_integral,LiuHircheCheng2025}. In particular, we consider non-normalized states and hockey stick f-divergences defined from more general notions of quantum hockey stick divergences, as well as a somewhat more general form of the integral representation defined in terms of an additional real parameter. We also consider the extension of the theory to general von Neumann algebras, and extend various results from \cite{HircheTomamichel_integral,LiuHircheCheng2025} to this setting. Our main results here are the representation of the hockey stick f-divergences in terms of Neyman-Pearson error probabilities, which was given in the finite-dimensional case in \cite{LiuHircheCheng2025}, an extension of Jen\v cová's result \cite{Jencova2023} on the detection of reversibility of a quantum channel on a pair of states in terms of the hockey stick divergences, and an extension of a result in \cite{HircheTomamichel_integral} showing that the regularized hockey stick Rényi α-divergences coincide with the Petz-type Rényi divergences for α∈(0,1) and with the sandwiched Rényi divergences for α>1. Moreover, we give some partial results on the characterization of when different notions of quantum f-divergences give the same value on a pair of quantum states.
Some properties and applications of the new quantum f-divergences
Recently, a new definition for quantum f-divergences was introduced based on an integral representation. These divergences have shown remarkable properties, for example when investigating contraction coefficients under noisy channels. At the same time, many properties well known for other definitions have remained elusive for the new quantum f-divergence because of its unusual representation. In this work, we investigate alternative ways of expressing these quantum f-divergences. We leverage these expressions to prove new properties of these f-divergences and demonstrate some applications. In particular, we give a new proof of the achievability of the quantum Chernoff bound by establishing a strengthening of an inequality by Audenaert et al. We also establish inequalities between some previously known Renyi divergences and the new Renyi divergence. We further investigate some monotonicity and convexity properties of the new f-divergences, and prove inequalities between these divergences for various functions.
We introduce a new cumulant-based quantum relative Rényi functional as a candidate quantum Rényi divergence, derived from the cumulant-generating function (CGF) of the quantum relative surprisal operator and extending the classical connection between Rényi divergence and statistical cumulants to the quantum setting. Unlike the Petz and sandwiched quantum Rényi divergences, the proposed construction is motivated by statistical structure rather than operator-algebraic or operational principles. The functional naturally admits a path-integral-like representation through the Lie-Trotter product expansion, providing a trajectory-based interpretation of quantum divergence in Hilbert space. On its natural non-regularized domain for α>1 under the support condition supp(ρ)⊆supp(σ), we establish several fundamental properties, including positivity, reduction to the classical case, additivity, unitary invariance, continuity, and monotonicity with respect to the Renyi parameter α. Whether the functional satisfies the quantum data-processing inequality (QDPI) under arbitrary CPTP maps remains open. To extend the analysis beyond the studied regime, we introduce a regularized version of the functional and study its behavior at α=0. We show that the resulting relative quantumness quantity vanishes if and only if the underlying states commute, yielding a necessary and sufficient characterization of non-commutativity. For commutativity-preserving (CoP) channels, we further conjecture a QDPI-type monotonicity relation for this quantity. Extensive numerical simulations provide strong evidence in support of this conjecture, with no violations observed for the CoP channels considered in this work.
Single-shot quantum information theory is governed not only by entropy exponents, but also by the finite-resource constants that multiply them. These constants directly affect the quantitative performance of decoupling, covering, convex-splitting, position-based decoding, and one-shot communication protocols, yet they are often inherited from nonoptimal scalar estimates or from classical-to-quantum lifting arguments that introduce additional losses. In this work we show that the operator layer-cake representation provides a mechanism for lifting sharp scalar inequalities to the noncommutative setting without loss. Using an iterative Riemann--Stieltjes integration-by-parts method, we derive sharp quantum trace inequalities that tighten several standard single-shot bounds. For a logarithmic trace inequality recently introduced by Cheng \emph{et al.}\ and subsequently used in quantum covering and decoupling problems, we determine the exact optimal prefactor, replacing the previously known constant by a smaller Lambert-W constant and proving universal optimality for positive operators. We also completely characterize the threshold behavior that appears under normalization to quantum states. In addition, we establish optimal two-sided collision-divergence inequalities, which lead to improved position-based decoding and single-shot classical communication bounds. These results show that several finite-resource bounds in single-shot quantum information can be tightened, and that within the layer-cake Rényi-divergence framework the resulting constants are genuine optimality barriers rather than artifacts of the proof.