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Physical Review A

Total versus quantum correlations in quantum states

Nan Li, Shunlong Luo

Published Sep 26, 2007• 113 citations
Publisher

Abstract

On the premises that total correlations in a bipartite quantum state are measured by the quantum mutual information, and that separation of total correlations into quantum and classical parts satisfies an intuitive dominance relation, we examine to what extent various entropic entanglement measures, such as the distillable entanglement, the relative entropy entanglement, the squashed entanglement, the entanglement cost, and the entanglement of formation, can be regarded as consistent measures of quantum correlations. We illustrate that the entanglement of formation often overestimates quantum correlations and thus is too big to be a genuine measure of quantum correlations. This indicates that the entanglement of formation does not quantify the quantum correlations intrinsic to a quantum state, but rather characterizes the pure entanglement needed to build the quantum state via local operations and classical communication. Furthermore, it has the consequence that, if the additive conjecture for the entanglement of formation is true (as is widely believed), then the entanglement cost, which is an operationally defined measure of entanglement with significant physical meaning, cannot be a consistent measure of quantum correlations in the sense that it may exceed total correlations. Alternatively, if the entanglement cost is dominated by total correlations, as our intuition suggests, then we can immediately disprove the additive conjecture. Both scenarios have their counterintuitive and appealing aspects, and a natural challenge arising in this context is to prove or disprove that the entanglement cost is dominated by the quantum mutual information.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.76.032327

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On the premises that total correlations in a bipartite quantum state are measured by the quantum mutual information, and that separation of total correlations into quantum and classical parts satisfies an intuitive dominance relation, we examine to what extent various entropic entanglement measures, such as the distillable entanglement, the relative entropy entanglement, the squashed entanglement, the entanglement cost, and the entanglement of formation, can be regarded as consistent measures of quantum correlations. We illustrate that the entanglement of formation often overestimates quantum correlations and thus is too big to be a genuine measure of quantum correlations. This indicates that the entanglement of formation does not quantify the quantum correlations intrinsic to a quantum state, but rather characterizes the pure entanglement needed to build the quantum state via local operations and classical communication. Furthermore, it has the consequence that, if the additive conjecture for the entanglement of formation is true (as is widely believed), then the entanglement cost, which is an operationally defined measure of entanglement with significant physical meaning, cannot be a consistent measure of quantum correlations in the sense that it may exceed total correlations. Alternatively, if the entanglement cost is dominated by total correlations, as our intuition suggests, then we can immediately disprove the additive conjecture. Both scenarios have their counterintuitive and appealing aspects, and a natural challenge arising in this context is to prove or disprove that the entanglement cost is dominated by the quantum mutual information.
Abstract In Li and Luo (2007 Phys. Rev. A 76 032327), the inequality ( 1 / 2 )  ≥  was identified as a fundamental postulate for a consistent theory of quantum versus classical correlations for arbitrary measures of total  and quantum  correlations in bipartite quantum states. Besides, Hayden et al (2006 Commun. Math. Phys. 265 95) have conjectured that, in some conditions within systems endowed with infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces, quantum correlations may dominate not only half of total correlations but total correlations itself. Here, in a two-mode Gaussian state, quantifying  and  respectively by the quantum mutual information  G and the entanglement of formation (EoF)  F G , we verify that  F , R G is always less than ( 1 / 2 )  R G when  G and  F G are defined via the Rényi-2 entropy. While via the von Neumann entropy,  F , V G may even dominate 
Werner states are paradigmatic examples of quantum states and play an innovative role in quantum information theory. In investigating the correlating capability of Werner states, we find the curious phenomenon that quantum correlations, as quantified by the entanglement of formation, may exceed the total correlations, as measured by the quantum mutual information. Consequently, though the entanglement of formation is so widely used in quantifying entanglement, it cannot be interpreted as a consistent measure of quantum correlations per se if we accept the folklore that total correlations are measured (or rather upper bounded) by the quantum mutual information.
How strongly can one system be correlated with another? In the classical world, this basic question concerning correlative capacity has a very satisfying answer: The ``effective size'' of the marginal system, as quantified by the Shannon entropy, sets a tight upper bound to the correlations, as quantified by the mutual information. Although in the quantum world bipartite correlations, like their classical counterparts, are also well quantified by mutual information, the similarity ends here: The correlations in a bipartite quantum system can be twice as large as the marginal entropy. In the paradigm of quantum discord, the correlations are split into classical and quantum components, and it was conjectured that both the classical and quantum correlations are (like the classical mutual information) bounded above by each subsystem's entropy. In this work, by exploiting the interplay between entanglement of formation, mutual information, and quantum discord, we disprove that conjecture. We further indicate a scheme to restore harmony between quantum and classical correlative capacities. The results illustrate dramatically the asymmetric nature of quantum discord and highlight some subtle and unusual features of quantum correlations.
The nature of quantum entropies, and its use in Quantum Information Theory in the form of (i) total entropy, (ii) relative entropy and (iii) conditional entropy is revisited. In this ordering, we first show the correlations existing between the total q-entropy and entanglement, quantified in the form of entanglement of formation. Then, we revisit the use of the quantum relative entropy as a measure of entanglement, and we finally discuss some features of the quantum conditional q-entropies, which are used in turn as a separability criterion.
We relate the problem of irreversibility of entanglement with the recently defined measures of quantum correlation--quantum discord and one-way quantum deficit. We show that the entanglement of formation is always strictly larger than the coherent information and the entanglement cost is also larger in most cases. We prove irreversibility of entanglement under local operations and classical communication for a family of entangled states. This family is a generalization of the maximally correlated states for which we also give an analytic expression for the distillable entanglement, the relative entropy of entanglement, the distillable secret key, and the quantum discord.