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arXiv:2601.20044 · Physical Review Letters

Quantum Channels on Graphs: a Resonant Tunneling Perspective

Giuseppe Catalano, Farzad Kianvash, Vittorio Giovannetti

quant-phSubmitted Jan 27, 2026• Announced Jan 29, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Quantum transport on structured networks is strongly influenced by interference effects, which can dramatically modify how information propagates through a system. We develop a quantum-information-theoretic framework for scattering on graphs in which a full network of connected scattering sites is treated as a quantum channel linking designated input and output ports. Using the Redheffer star product to construct global scattering matrices from local ones, we identify resonant concatenation, a nonlinear composition rule generated by internal back-reflections. In contrast to ordinary channel concatenation, resonant concatenation can suppress noise and even produce super-activation of the quantum capacity, yielding positive capacity in configurations where each constituent channel individually has zero capacity. We illustrate these effects through models exhibiting resonant-tunneling-enhanced transport. Our approach provides a general methodology for analyzing coherent information flow in quantum graphs, with relevance for quantum communication, control, and simulation in structured environments.

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5 + 13 pages, 2 + 8 figures

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Quantum transport on structured networks is strongly influenced by interference effects, which can dramatically modify how information propagates through a system. We develop a quantum-information-theoretic framework for scattering on graphs in which a full network of connected scattering sites is treated as a quantum channel linking designated input and output ports. Using the Redheffer star product to construct global scattering matrices from local ones, we identify resonant concatenation, a nonlinear composition rule generated by internal back-reflections. In contrast to ordinary channel concatenation, resonant concatenation can suppress noise and even produce super-activation of the quantum capacity, yielding positive capacity in configurations where each constituent channel individually has zero capacity. We illustrate these effects through models exhibiting resonant-tunneling-enhanced transport. Our approach provides a general methodology for analyzing coherent information flow in quantum graphs, with relevance for quantum communication, control, and simulation in structured environments.
We develop a comprehensive theoretical framework for analyzing quantum information flow in networked quantum systems with emphasis on entanglement distribution and temporal correlation structures. Drawing from recent applications in real-time sensing and detection systems, we formulate a general mathematical model that describes how quantum correlations propagate through network topologies and evolve over time. The framework incorporates decoherence effects, network connectivity constraints, and measurement-induced state collapse to provide realistic bounds on information transmission capabilities. We derive analytical expressions for entanglement generation rates, fidelity preservation across network hops, and temporal correlation decay under various noise models. The theory establishes fundamental limits on the capacity of quantum networks to maintain coherent information transfer and identifies optimal network architectures for specific correlation preservation requirements. We extend our analysis to adaptive network configurations where topology can be dynamically adjusted based on environmental conditions or information priorities. The theoretical results provide design principles for quantum communication protocols, distributed quantum sensing arrays, and real-time quantum-enhanced detection systems, bridging fundamental quantum information theory with practical networked applications.
Quantum channels are functions that map density matrices to density matrices. They can be used to describe a vast array of system environment interactions for quantum mechanical systems. The focus in quantum information theory lies on the study of the information content -- the quantum entropy -- of input and output system. The property of how much information a channel can convey is called capacity. When two quantum channels are combined they act on a bigger, possibly entangled state in parallel. The effects of entanglement on the capacity of a pair of channels have been widely studied. Still, recent work showed unexpected behavior. Hastings found that the capacities of two channels to transmit classical information does not simply add, but can exceed the sum of the individual quantum capacities, a property called superadditivity. We study Hastings' work and find estimates for how large the dimensions of such channels would have to be. The question of capacity relates to the behavior of quantum channels in extremal cases, when the output entropy is minimized. It is natural to wonder about the "standard" behavior of quantum channels and consider their average output entropy. We have studied this behavior in particular in cases where many relatively simple quantum channels act in parallel. When combining quantum channels in parallel, the parts of the system evolve independently of each other -- up to entanglement -- and only interact with the environment. Expanding on this idea one can think of a system where the parts not only interact with the environment but also directly with each other, a quantum channel network. Interesting cases of such systems arise naturally in the study of large biological molecules. In this case, information is often transmitted via energy pulses. Thus, the study of entropy and the study of energy overlap. Of particular interest to us are antennas in photo-active systems, they absorb light energy and transports it to a chemical reaction site. Recently, it has been discovered in the FMO molecule that this process evolves coherently, i.e. shows quantum oscillatory behavior. We study such quantum channel networks and how they can be approximated by kinetic networks. When considering the transport efficiency, this helps separating possible coherent effects from incoherent hopping.
Abstract Determining whether a noisy quantum channel can be used to reliably transmit quantum information is a challenging problem in quantum information theory. This is because it requires computation of the channel’s coherent information for an unbounded number of copies of the channel. In this paper, we devise an elementary perturbative technique to solve this problem in a wide variety of circumstances. Our analysis reveals that a channel’s ability to transmit information is intimately connected to the relative sizes of its input, output, and environment spaces. We exploit this link to develop easy tests which can be used to detect positivity of quantum channel capacities simply by comparing the channels’ input, output, and environment dimensions. Several noteworthy examples, such as the depolarizing and transpose-depolarizing channels (including the Werner-Holevo channel), dephasing channels, generalized Pauli channels, multi-level amplitude damping channels, and (conjugate) diagonal unitary covariant channels, serve to aptly exhibit the utility of our method. Notably, in all these examples, the coherent information of a single copy of the channel turns out to be positive.
Quantum feedback networks have been introduced in quantum optics as a framework for constructing arbitrary networks of quantum mechanical systems connected by unidirectional quantum optical fields, and has allowed for a system theoretic approach to open quantum optics systems. Our aim here is to establish a network theory for quantum transport systems where typically the mediating fields between systems are bidirectional. Mathematically, this leads us to study quantum feedback networks where fields arrive at ports in input-output pairs, making it a special case of the unidirectional theory where inputs and outputs are paired. However, it is conceptually important to develop this theory in the context of quantum transport theory-the resulting theory extends traditional approaches which tend to view the components in quantum transport as scatterers for the various fields, in the process allowing us to consider emission and absorption of field quanta by these components. The quantum feedback network theory is applicable to both Bose and Fermi fields, moreover, it applies to nonlinear dynamics for the component systems. We advance the general theory, but study the case of linear passive quantum components in some detail.
Quantum technologies rely on the ability to coherently transfer information encoded in quantum states along quantum channels. Decoherence induced by the environment sets limits on the efficiency of any quantum-enhanced protocol. Generally, the longer a quantum channel is the worse its capacity is. We show that for non-Markovian quantum channels this is not always true: surprisingly the capacity of a longer channel can be greater than of a shorter one. We introduce a general theoretical framework linking non-Markovianity to the capacities of quantum channels and demonstrate how harnessing non-Markovianity may improve the efficiency of quantum information processing and communication.
We study various super-activation effects in the following zero-error communication scenario: One sender wants to send classical or quantum information through a noisy quantum channel to one receiver with zero probability of error. First we show that there are quantum channels of which a single use is not able to transmit classical information perfectly yet two uses can. This is achieved by employing entangled input states between different uses of the given channel and thus cannot happen for classical channels. Second we exhibit a class of quantum channel with vanishing zero-error classical capacity such that when a noiseless qubit channel or one ebit shared entanglement are available, it can be used to transmit log⁡2d\log_2 dlog2​d noiseless qubits, where 2d is the dimension of input state space. Third we further construct quantum channels with vanishing zero-error classical capacity when assisted with classical feedback can be used to transmit both classical and quantum information perfectly. These striking findings not only indicate both the zero-error quantum and classical capacities of quantum channels satisfy a strong super-additivity beyond any classical channels, but also highlight the activation power of auxiliary physical resources in zero-error communication.