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arXiv:2604.27042

Onset of superactivation of quantum capacity

Marco Parentin, Bjarne Bergh, Nilanjana Datta, Mark M. Wilde

quant-phSubmitted Apr 29, 2026• Announced Apr 30, 2026• 0 citations• Revised May 4, 2026 (v2)
v1 · Apr 29, 2026v2 · May 4, 2026
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Abstract

Superactivation of quantum capacity is the phenomenon whereby two quantum channels, each with zero quantum capacity, can exhibit a strictly positive capacity when used in tandem. In this work, we explore superactivation in the previously unexplored non-asymptotic regime of finitely many channel uses. We give a definition of finite-blocklength superactivation and propose numerical methods that can certify it. Then, focusing on the 50% erasure and positive-partial-transpose channels considered in the original work on superactivation, we show that as few as 17 uses of the joint channel already enable qubit transmission with a fidelity unattainable by any number of uses of either channel alone, demonstrating a strong finite-blocklength form of superactivation and opening the door to experimental demonstration.

Comments
64 pages, 12 figures. v2: Updated references

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Superactivation of quantum capacity is the phenomenon whereby two quantum channels, each with zero quantum capacity, can exhibit a strictly positive capacity when used in tandem. In this work, we explore superactivation in the previously unexplored non-asymptotic regime of finitely many channel uses. We give a definition of finite-blocklength superactivation and propose numerical methods that can certify it. Then, focusing on the 50% erasure and positive-partial-transpose channels considered in the original work on superactivation, we show that as few as 17 uses of the joint channel already enable qubit transmission with a fidelity unattainable by any number of uses of either channel alone, demonstrating a strong finite-blocklength form of superactivation and opening the door to experimental demonstration.
Smith and Yard (2008) famously demonstrated that two quantum channels with zero quantum capacity can possess a strictly positive joint capacity, a phenomenon known as superactivation. Their proof relies on the existence of Positive Partial Transpose (PPT) states possessing a strictly positive Devetak-Winter private key rate (KDW>0K_{DW} > 0KDW​>0), explicitly citing a 4x4 construction by Horodecki et al. We present a two-tiered computational refutation of this phenomenon. First, using a high-precision global optimization framework with exact Stinespring purifications, we compute KDWK_{DW}KDW​ across the full 512-dimensional PPT manifold for d=4x4 and find a strict upper bound of KDW≤−0.68K_{DW} \le -0.68KDW​≤−0.68 bits, physically breaking the foundational protocol. Second, to address recent theoretical defenses concerning macro-scale finite-blocklength scaling (N≥17N \ge 17N≥17), we deploy a 30-qubit hybrid machine learning simulator (equivalent to N=15N=15N=15 joint channels). By evaluating the joint topology under strict causal limits and with omniscient encoder prescience, we demonstrate a complete failure to achieve positive capacity, establishing that superactivation is physically impossible in practical quantum systems.
Private communication over a noisy quantum channel requires reliable transmission to the receiver and secrecy from the environment. Whether two channels with zero private capacity can jointly enable private communication is a longstanding open problem in quantum information theory. Here we resolve this problem by exhibiting a four-level channel and a qubit erasure channel with half erasure probability, each with zero private capacity, whose joint use achieves more than 0.0001903 private bits per product use. The encoding gives the receiver a linear information gain with at most quadratic environmental leakage, enabling privacy through a fixed joint measurement and classical coding. This superactivation, impossible for independent classical memoryless wiretap channels, shows that a channel's private capacity alone does not determine its value for secure communication. The initial activation example was identified through interactions with large language models, and the result has been formalized in Lean 4.
Activation of quantum capacity is a surprising phenomenon according to which the quantum capacity of a certain channel may increase by combining it with another channel with zero quantum capacity. Superactivation describes an even more particular occurrence, in which both channels have zero quantum capacity, but their composition has a nonvanishing one. We investigate these effects for all single-mode phase-insensitive Gaussian channels, which include thermal attenuators and amplifiers, assisted by a two-mode positive-partial-transpose channel. Our result shows that activation phenomena are special but not uncommon. We can reveal superactivation in a broad range of thermal attenuator channels, even when the transmissivity is quite low, or the thermal noise is high. This means that we can transmit quantum information reliably through very noisy Gaussian channels with the help of another Gaussian channel, whose quantum capacity is also zero. We further show that no superactivation is possible for entanglement-breaking Gaussian channels in physically relevant circumstances by proving the nonactivation property of the coherent information of bosonic entanglement-breaking channels with finite input energy.
In this work a new phenomenon called polaractivation is introduced. Polaractivation is based on quantum polar encoding and the result is similar to the superactivation effect — positive capacity can be achieved with zero-capacity quantum channels. However, polaractivation has many advantages over the superactivation: it is limited neither by any preliminary conditions on the quantum channel nor on the maps of other channels involved in the joint channel structure. We prove that the polaractivation works for arbitrary zero-private capacity quantum channels and we demonstrate, that the symmetric private classical capacity of arbitrary zero-private capacity quantum channels is polaractive.
Noisy quantum channels degrade quantum resources such as coherence and entanglement and hence pose challenges for realizing quantum technologies. Coherent control of noisy channels allows us to minimize their effects on the quantum system. Here we achieve the cancellation of two noisy quantum channels by superposing their corresponding Stinespring dilation unitaries. We first arrive at conditions under which superposition of channels results in a valid quantum channel. We then consider superposing two dephasing channels and observe their destructive interference, thereby effectively recovering the quantum coherence. On superposing two zero-capacity depolarizing channels, we show superactivation of quantum capacity. We experimentally realize the cancellation of two dephasing channels using a three-qubit NMR register. Furthermore, using a five-qubit NMR register, we realize the cancellation of two depolarization channels and demonstrate superactivation of quantum capacity.
The quantum capacity of a noisy channel quantifies the maximum rate at which quantum information can be transmitted reliably. For general channels, its evaluation requires an optimization over arbitrarily many channel uses. Degradable channels form a central exception: their capacity is given by the single-letter coherent information, while antidegradable channels have zero capacity. Nevertheless, even for these fundamental classes, it has remained open whether communication above capacity becomes possible when a fixed non-maximal error is tolerated. Here we resolve this problem by proving an exponential strong converse for every finite-dimensional degradable and antidegradable channel: at any rate above capacity, the fidelity of every coding scheme decays exponentially with the number of channel uses. As an immediate consequence, we establish the first all-code exponential strong converse for the quantum erasure channel throughout its full parameter range, strengthening previous results that applied only to almost all codes. We also show that exponential strong-converse bounds are preserved under receiver post-processing. This yields efficiently computable semidefinite-programming bounds for arbitrary finite-dimensional channels, improved bounds for Pauli channels, and an exact exponential strong converse for a nondegradable multilevel amplitude-damping family.