The method of complementary channel for analysis of reversibility (sufficiency) of a quantum channel with respect to families of input states (pure states for the most part) are considered and applied to Bosonic linear (quasi-free) channels, in particular, to Bosonic Gaussian channels. The obtained reversibility conditions for Bosonic linear channels have clear physical interpretation and their sufficiency is also shown by explicit construction of reversing channels. The method of complementary channel gives possibility to prove necessity of these conditions and to describe all reversed families of pure states in the Schrodinger representation. Some applications in quantum information theory are considered. Conditions for existence of discrete classical-quantum subchannels and of completely depolarizing subchannels of a Bosonic linear channel are presented.
A necessary condition for reversibility (sufficiency) of a quantum channel with respect to complete families of states with bounded rank is obtained. A full description (up to isometrical equivalence) of all quantum channels reversible with respect to orthogonal and nonorthogonal complete families of pure states is given. Some applications in quantum information theory are considered. The main results can be formulated in terms of the operator algebras theory (as conditions for reversibility of channels between algebras of all bounded operators).
What would be a reasonable definition of the conditional entropy of bipartite quantum processes, and what novel insight would it provide? We develop this notion using four information-theoretic axioms and define the corresponding quantitative formulas. Our definitions of the conditional entropies of channels are based on the generalized state and channel divergences, for instance, quantum relative entropy. We find that the conditional entropy of quantum channels has potential to reveal insights for quantum processes that aren't already captured by the existing entropic functions, entropy or conditional entropy, of the states and channels. The von Neumann conditional entropy
S[A∣B]N of the channel
NA′B′→AB is based on the quantum relative entropy, with system pairs
A′,A and
B′,B being nonconditioning and conditioning systems, respectively. We identify a connection between the underlying causal structure of a bipartite channel and its conditional entropy. In particular, we provide a necessary and sufficient condition for a bipartite quantum channel
NA′B′→AB in terms of its von Neumann conditional entropy
S[A∣B]N, to have no causal influence from
A′ to
B. As a consequence, if
S[A∣B]N<−log∣A∣ then the channel necessarily has causal influence (signaling) from
A′ to
B. Our definition of the conditional entropy establishes the strong subadditivity of the entropy for quantum channels. We also study the total amount of correlations possible due to quantum processes by defining the multipartite mutual information of quantum channels.
The von Neumann entropy of a quantum state is a central concept in physics and information theory, having a number of compelling physical interpretations. There is a certain perspective that the most fundamental notion in quantum mechanics is that of a quantum channel, as quantum states, unitary evolutions, measurements, and discarding of quantum systems can each be regarded as certain kinds of quantum channels. Thus, an important goal is to define a consistent and meaningful notion of the entropy of a quantum channel. Motivated by the fact that the entropy of a state ρ can be formulated as the difference of the number of physical qubits and the "relative entropy distance"between ρ and the maximally mixed state, here we define the entropy of a channel N as the difference of the number of physical qubits of the channel output with the "relative entropy distance"between N and the completely depolarizing channel. We prove that this definition satisfies all of the axioms, recently put forward by Gour [IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 65, 5880 (2019)IETTAW0018-944810.1109/TIT.2019.2907989], required for a channel entropy function. The task of quantum channel merging, in which the goal is for the receiver to merge his share of the channel with the environment's share, gives a compelling operational interpretation of the entropy of a channel. The entropy of a channel can be negative for certain channels, but this negativity has an operational interpretation in terms of the channel merging protocol. We define Rényi and min-entropies of a channel and prove that they satisfy the axioms required for a channel entropy function. Among other results, we also prove that a smoothed version of the min-entropy of a channel satisfies the asymptotic equipartition property.
Quantum operations provide a general description of the state changes allowed by quantum mechanics. The reversal of quantum operations is important for quantum error–correcting codes, teleportation and reversing quantum measurements. We derive information–theoretic conditions and equivalent algebraic conditions that are necessary and sufficient for a general quantum operation to be reversible. We analyse the thermodynamic cost of error correction and show that error correction can be regarded as a kind of `Maxwell demon', for which there is an entropy cost associated with information obtained from measurements performed during error correction. A prescription for thermodynamically efficient error correction is given.
A partially reversible operation is introduced in quantum measurement processes and the information-theoretical property is investigated. The dual map of a partially reversible operation becomes reversible with respect to the intrinsic observable of a physical system. It is shown that the amount of information about the intrinsic observable of the physical system, obtained in a quantum measurement process described by a partially reversible operation, is equal to the decrease of the entropy of the measured physical system.