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arXiv:2507.23046

Quantum Hamming Metrics

Marc A. Rieffel

Published Jul 30, 2025• 0 citations
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Abstract

Given the set of words of a given length for a given alphabet, the Hamming metric between two such words is the number of positions where the two words differ. A quantum version of the corresponding Kantorovich-Wasserstein metric on states was introduced in 2021 by De Palma, Marvian, Trevisan and Lloyd. For the quantum version the alphabet is replaced by a full matrix algebra, and the set of words is replaced by the tensor product of a corresponding number of copies of that full matrix algebra. While De Palma et al. work primarily at the level of states, they do obtain the corresponding seminorm (the quantum Hamming metric) on the algebra of observables that plays the role of assigning Lipschitz constants to functions. A suitable such seminorm on a unital C*-algebra is the current common method for defining a quantum metric on a C*-algebra. In this paper we will reverse the process, by first expressing the Hamming metric in terms of the C*-algebra of functions on the set of words, and then dropping the requirement that the algebra be commutative so as to obtain the quantum Hamming metric. From that we obtain the corresponding Kantorovich-Wasserstein metric on states. Along the way we show that many of the steps can be put in more general forms of some interest, notably for infinite-dimensional C*-algebras.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2507.23046

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Given the set of words of a given length for a given alphabet, the Hamming metric between two such words is the number of positions where the two words differ. A quantum version of the corresponding Kantorovich-Wasserstein metric on states was introduced in 2021 by De Palma, Marvian, Trevisan and Lloyd. For the quantum version the alphabet is replaced by a full matrix algebra, and the set of words is replaced by the tensor product of a corresponding number of copies of that full matrix algebra. While De Palma et al. work primarily at the level of states, they do obtain the corresponding seminorm (the quantum Hamming metric) on the algebra of observables that plays the role of assigning Lipschitz constants to functions. A suitable such seminorm on a unital C*-algebra is the current common method for defining a quantum metric on a C*-algebra. In this paper we will reverse the process, by first expressing the Hamming metric in terms of the C*-algebra of functions on the set of words, and then dropping the requirement that the algebra be commutative so as to obtain the quantum Hamming metric. From that we obtain the corresponding Kantorovich-Wasserstein metric on states. Along the way we show that many of the steps can be put in more general forms of some interest, notably for infinite-dimensional C*-algebras.
We propose a generalization of the Wasserstein distance of order 1 to the quantum states of n qudits. The proposal recovers the Hamming distance for the vectors of the canonical basis, and more generally the classical Wasserstein distance for quantum states diagonal in the canonical basis. The proposed distance is invariant with respect to permutations of the qudits and unitary operations acting on one qudit and is additive with respect to the tensor product. Our main result is a continuity bound for the von Neumann entropy with respect to the proposed distance, which significantly strengthens the best continuity bound with respect to the trace distance. We also propose a generalization of the Lipschitz constant to quantum observables. The notion of quantum Lipschitz constant allows us to compute the proposed distance with a semidefinite program. We prove a quantum version of Marton's transportation inequality and a quantum Gaussian concentration inequality for the spectrum of quantum Lipschitz observables. Moreover, we derive bounds on the contraction coefficients of shallow quantum circuits and of the tensor product of one-qudit quantum channels with respect to the proposed distance. We discuss other possible applications in quantum machine learning, quantum Shannon theory, and quantum many-body systems.
Optimal transport between classical probability distributions has been proven useful in areas such as machine learning and random combinatorial optimization. Quantum optimal transport, and the quantum Wasserstein distance as the minimal cost associated with transforming one quantum state to another, is expected to have implications in quantum state discrimination and quantum metrology. In this work, following the formalism introduced in [De Palma, G. and Trevisan, D. Ann. Henri Poincaré, {\bf 22} (2021), 3199-3234] to compute the optimal transport plan between two quantum states, we give a general formula for the Wasserstein distance of order 2 between any two one-mode Gaussian states. We discuss how the Wasserstein distance between classical Gaussian distributions and the quantum Wasserstein distance by De Palma and Trevisan for thermal states can be recovered from our general formula for Gaussian states. This opens the path to directly compare various known distance measures with the Wasserstein distance through their closed-form solutions.
We propose a generalization of the Wasserstein distance of order 1 to the quantum states of n qudits. The proposal recovers the Hamming distance for the vectors of the canonical basis, and more generally the classical Wasserstein distance for quantum states diagonal in the canonical basis. The proposed distance is invariant with respect to permutations of the qudits and unitary operations acting on one qudit and is additive with respect to the tensor product. Our main result is a continuity bound for the von Neumann entropy with respect to the proposed distance, which significantly strengthens the best continuity bound with respect to the trace distance. We also propose a generalization of the Lipschitz constant to quantum observables. The notion of quantum Lipschitz constant allows us to compute the proposed distance with a semidefinite program. We prove a quantum version of Marton's transportation inequality and a quantum Gaussian concentration inequality for the spectrum of quantum Lipschitz observables. Moreover, we derive bounds on the contraction coefficients of shallow quantum circuits and of the tensor product of one-qudit quantum channels with respect to the proposed distance. We discuss other possible applications in quantum machine learning, quantum Shannon theory, and quantum many-body systems.
Quantum Wasserstein divergences are modified versions of quantum Wasserstein distances defined by channels and they have been conjectured to be genuine metrics on quantum state spaces by De Palma and Trevisan. We prove triangle inequality for quantum Wasserstein divergences for every quantum system described by a separable Hilbert space and any quadratic cost operator under the assumption that a particular state involved is pure and all the states have finite energy. We also provide strong numerical evidence suggesting that the triangle inequality holds in general for an arbitrary choice of states.
Convex roofs are natural ways to extend a scalar function defined on the extreme points of a convex set KKK to the whole set. In this work we focus on the case K=C×CK = C \times CK=C×C for some convex set CCC, and the extension of a distance ddd defined on the extreme points of CCC. In general, the triangle inequality may not survive the extension process. We therefore consider the metric envelope of such extensions and study the metric properties they endow CCC with. More generally, we also consider products of different convex sets C1×C2C_1 \times C_2C1​×C2​ and costs defined on their extreme points, in which case no metric envelope is involved. We then show a two-way correspondence between convex extensions and Kantorovich optimal transport formulations. On the one hand, these extensions can be recovered as quotients of standard, classical Kantorovich costs or Wasserstein distances by the barycenter map. On the other hand, various Kantorovich formulations re-write as such convex extensions. Classical optimal transport is recovered as the case of the simplex, and both the semiclassical optimal transport cost of Golse and Paul and the entanglement-free quantum Wasserstein objects of Beatty and Stilck França are recovered by considering the non-simplex convex set of quantum states. This work provides a clear bridge between the theory of convex extensions and that of optimal transport, with a unifying framework for classical, semiclassical and entanglement-free quantum instances of Kantorovich formulations.
Discriminating between quantum states and channels is an important task in the field of quantum computation and quantum information theory. Metrics and statistical distances form the tools for various approaches proposed for this task. We analyse existing results to compare properties, main purpose, computability and advantages and disadvantages of each approach.This article is part of the theme issue 'Numerical analysis, spectral graph theory, orthogonal polynomials and quantum algorithms'.