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arXiv:2609.18803

Feasibility Ordering of Entanglement-Source Placement for Qubit Channels

Samuel Marquez Gonzalez

quant-phmath-phSubmitted Sep 16, 2026• Announced Sep 17, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

This work studies the placement of an entanglement source along a communication line formed by two noisy qubit channels. Recent work argued, on analytical and numerical grounds, that midpoint placement should be at least as favorable as endpoint placement. Here it is shown that, for arbitrary qubit channels, if a sequential composition can preserve entanglement, then the corresponding parallel action cannot annihilate all entanglement. The proof uses the transpose-factorization criterion introduced in that recent work. Quantum Sinkhorn scaling converts every strictly positive qubit channel into a unital representative, and the special normal form of unital qubit channels then yields the required factorization of the transposed map through the original channel. Depolarizing regularization and the closedness of the set of entanglement-breaking channels extend the result to arbitrary channels. Consequently, $Λ_1 \otimes Λ_2 \in \mathrm{EA}$ implies $Λ_2 \circ Λ_1 \in \mathrm{EB}$, and, by exchanging the two channels, the same holds for the opposite composition order. This proves the recent conjecture that midpoint placement is optimal for all qubit channels, in the feasibility sense in which that optimality was originally defined.

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This work studies the placement of an entanglement source along a communication line formed by two noisy qubit channels. Recent work argued, on analytical and numerical grounds, that midpoint placement should be at least as favorable as endpoint placement. Here it is shown that, for arbitrary qubit channels, if a sequential composition can preserve entanglement, then the corresponding parallel action cannot annihilate all entanglement. The proof uses the transpose-factorization criterion introduced in that recent work. Quantum Sinkhorn scaling converts every strictly positive qubit channel into a unital representative, and the special normal form of unital qubit channels then yields the required factorization of the transposed map through the original channel. Depolarizing regularization and the closedness of the set of entanglement-breaking channels extend the result to arbitrary channels. Consequently, Λ1⊗Λ2∈EAΛ_1 \otimes Λ_2 \in \mathrm{EA}Λ1​⊗Λ2​∈EA implies Λ2∘Λ1∈EBΛ_2 \circ Λ_1 \in \mathrm{EB}Λ2​∘Λ1​∈EB, and, by exchanging the two channels, the same holds for the opposite composition order. This proves the recent conjecture that midpoint placement is optimal for all qubit channels, in the feasibility sense in which that optimality was originally defined.
We consider the problem of purifying noisy qubit unitary channels. Given the ability to apply an unknown qubit unitary channel followed by depolarizing noise, we aim to construct a superchannel that purifies the noisy unitary back to the original unknown unitary. We first provide numerical evidence that sequential strategies can strictly outperform parallel strategies when the number of channel uses is finite, highlighting the fundamental distinction from state purification. We then provide a concrete U(2)\mathrm{U}(2)U(2)-covariant parallel protocol based on a novel entanglement-assisted quantum error-correcting code that suppresses the first-order noise strength as O(1/n)O(1/n)O(1/n) with nnn channel uses and show this scaling is asymptotically optimal in the low-noise regime, even when sequential strategies are allowed.
Entanglement distribution is a crucial problem in quantum information science, owing to the essential role that entanglement plays in enabling advanced quantum protocols, including quantum teleportation and quantum cryptography. We investigate strategies for distributing quantum entanglement between two distant parties through noisy quantum channels. Specifically, we compare two configurations: one where the entanglement source is placed at the midpoint of the communication line, and another where it is located at one end. For certain families of qubit channels we show analytically that the midpoint strategy is optimal. Based on extensive numerical analysis, we conjecture that this strategy is generally optimal for all qubit channels. Focusing on the midpoint configuration, we develop semidefinite programming (SDP) techniques to assess whether entanglement can be successfully distributed through the network, and to quantify the amount of entanglement that can be distributed in the process. In many relevant cases the SDP formulation reliably captures the maximal amount of entanglement which can be distributed, if entanglement is quantified using the negativity. We analyze several channel models and demonstrate that, for various combinations of amplitude damping and depolarizing noise, entanglement distribution is only possible with weakly entangled input states. Excessive entanglement in the input state can hinder the channel's ability to establish entanglement. Our findings have implications for optimizing entanglement distribution in realistic quantum communication networks.
We consider the minimal entropy of qubit states transmitted through two uses of a noisy quantum channel, which is modeled by the action of a completely positive trace-preserving (or stochastic) map. We provide strong support for the conjecture that this minimal entropy is additive, namely, that the minimum entropy can be achieved when product states are transmitted. Explicitly, we prove that for a tensor product of two unital stochastic maps on qubit states, using an entanglement that involves only states which emerge with minimal entropy cannot decrease the entropy below the minimum achievable using product states. We give a separate argument, based on the geometry of the image of the set of density matrices under stochastic maps, which suggests that the minimal entropy conjecture holds for nonunital as well as for unital maps. We also show that the maximal norm of the output states is multiplicative for most product maps on n-qubit states, including all those for which at least one map is unital. For the class of unital channels on C/sup 2/, we show that additivity of minimal entropy implies that the Holevo (see IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, vol.44, p.269-73, 1998 and Russian Math. Surv., p.1295-1331, 1999) capacity of the channel is additive over two inputs, achievable with orthogonal states, and equal to the Shannon capacity. This implies that superadditivity of the capacity is possible only for nonunital channels.
M. Christandl conjectured that the composition of any trace preserving PPT map with itself is entanglement breaking. We prove that Christandl's conjecture holds asymptotically by showing that the distance between the iterates of any unital or trace preserving PPT map and the set of entanglement breaking maps tends to zero. Finally, for every graph we define a one-parameter family of maps on matrices and determine the least value of the parameter such that the map is variously, positive, completely positive, PPT and entanglement breaking in terms of properties of the graph. Our estimates are sharp enough to conclude that Christandl's conjecture holds for these families.
The positive-partial-transpose-squared (PPT-squared) conjecture asks whether the composition of two positive-partial-transpose (PPT) quantum channels must be entanglement breaking (EB). The problem remains open in general and, within the diagonal orthogonal covariant (DOC) class, the first unresolved deterministic dimension is four. A sufficient condition for PPT-squared composition is derived for DOC maps in arbitrary finite dimension. The proof isolates the quantum coherence data into two correlation matrices, mixes each with the identity until it lies in the convex hull of rank-one correlation matrices, and converts the resulting objects into an explicit triplewise completely positive (TCP) core. The remaining contribution is purely classical and is TCP whenever a simple entrywise mixing inequality is satisfied. For PPT DOC maps ΦA,B,CΦ_{A,B,C}ΦA,B,C​ and ΦD,E,FΦ_{D,E,F}ΦD,E,F​ on MdM_dMd​, the entrywise bound (AD)ij≥2⌊d⌋AiiAjjDiiDjj(AD)_{ij}\ge 2\lfloor\sqrt{d}\rfloor\sqrt{A_{ii}A_{jj}D_{ii}D_{jj}}(AD)ij​≥2⌊d​⌋Aii​Ajj​Dii​Djj​​ for all i,ji,ji,j guarantees that ΦA,B,C∘ΦD,E,FΦ_{A,B,C}\circΦ_{D,E,F}ΦA,B,C​∘ΦD,E,F​ is EB. In dimension four the universal coefficient becomes four. A continuous family of bistochastic PPT channels is then constructed; every member with a≠1a\ne1a=1 is not EB, while every pairwise composition within the family is proved to be EB. A rank-sensitive refinement shows explicitly how low coherence rank can improve the universal coefficient. The resulting certificate is sufficient rather than necessary and is complementary to factor-width and semidefinite-hierarchy approaches.
The counterintuitive effect of non-unique ordering of two-qubit states with quantum entanglement measures was discovered over ten years ago. More precisely, it was shown by Monte Carlo simulations that there exist states for which the entanglement of formation and the negativity do not impose the same ordering of states, i.e. E F (ρ AB )⩽(⩾)E F (ρ' AB ) is not equivalent to N (ρ AB )⩽(⩾) N (ρ' AB ). Recently, it was discovered that quantum discord and the geometric quantum discord do not necessarily imply the same ordering of two-qubit X -states, which means that the lack of the unique ordering of states with quantum entanglement measures goes beyond entanglement. Inspired by this observation, we study the problem of the states ordering with quantum discords, considering two-qubit Bell-diagonal states for analytical simplicity. In particular, we identify some classes of states for which the states ordering with quantum discords is preserved as long as the states belong to the same class and give a few illustrative examples.