Multiparty Operational Quantum Mutual Information
Asutosh Kumar
Abstract
Mutual information is the reciprocal information that is common to or shared by two or more parties. Quantum mutual information (QMI) for bipartite quantum systems is non-negative, and bears the interpretation of total correlation between the two subsystems.This may, however, be no longer true for three or more party quantum systems. It is possible that three-party QMI can be negative. That QMI can assume negative value is confronting, and we give operational definition of QMI which is non-negative. We then define multiparty operational quantum discord, and give some examples. Interestingly, we observe that quantum discord increases when measurement is performed on larger number of subsystems. Consequently, the symmetric version of quantum discord, which involves measurement on all parties, reveals the maximal quantumness. This raises question on the interpretation of measured mutual information as classical correlation.