Let /spl rho/ denote the density matrix of a quantum state having n parts 1, ..., n. For I/spl sube/N={1, ..., n}, let /spl rho//sub I/=Tr/sub N/spl bsol/I/(/spl rho/) denote the density matrix of the state comprising those parts i such that i/spl isin/I, and let S(/spl rho//sub I/) denote the von Neumann (1927) entropy of the state /spl rho//sub I/. The collection of /spl nu/=2/sup n/ numbers {S(/spl rho//sub I/)}/sub I/spl sube/N/ may be regarded as a point, called the allocation of entropy for /spl rho/, in the vector space R/sup /spl nu//. Let A/sub n/ denote the set of points in R/sup /spl nu// that are allocations of entropy for n-part quantum states. We show that A~/sub n/~ (the topological closure of A/sub n/) is a closed convex cone in R/sup /spl nu//. This implies that the approximate achievability of a point as an allocation of entropy is determined by the linear inequalities that it satisfies. Lieb and Ruskai (1973) have established a number of inequalities for multipartite quantum states (strong subadditivity and weak monotonicity). We give a finite set of instances of these inequalities that is complete (in the sense that any valid linear inequality for allocations of entropy can be deduced from them by taking positive linear combinations) and independent (in the sense that none of them can be deduced from the others by taking positive linear combinations). Let B/sub n/ denote the polyhedral cone in R/sup /spl nu// determined by these inequalities. We show that A~/sub n/~=B/sub n/ for n/spl les/3. The status of this equality is open for n/spl ges/4. We also consider a symmetric version of this situation, in which S(/spl rho//sub I/) depends on I only through the number i=/spl ne/I of indexes in I and can thus be denoted S(/spl rho//sub i/). In this case, we give for each n a finite complete and independent set of inequalities governing the symmetric allocations of entropy {S(/spl rho//sub i/)}/sub 0/spl les/i/spl les/n/ in R/sup n+1/.
Let /spl rho/ denote the density matrix of a quantum state having n parts 1, ..., n. For I/spl sube/N={1, ..., n}, let /spl rho//sub I/=Tr/sub N/spl bsol/I/(/spl rho/) denote the density matrix of the state comprising those parts i such that i/spl isin/I, and let S(/spl rho//sub I/) denote the von Neumann (1927) entropy of the state /spl rho//sub I/. The collection of /spl nu/=2/sup n/ numbers {S(/spl rho//sub I/)}/sub I/spl sube/N/ may be regarded as a point, called the allocation of entropy for /spl rho/, in the vector space R/sup /spl nu//. Let A/sub n/ denote the set of points in R/sup /spl nu// that are allocations of entropy for n-part quantum states. We show that A~/sub n/~ (the topological closure of A/sub n/) is a closed convex cone in R/sup /spl nu//. This implies that the approximate achievability of a point as an allocation of entropy is determined by the linear inequalities that it satisfies. Lieb and Ruskai (1973) have established a number of inequalities for multipartite quantum states (strong subadditivity and weak monotonicity). We give a finite set of instances of these inequalities that is complete (in the sense that any valid linear inequality for allocations of entropy can be deduced from them by taking positive linear combinations) and independent (in the sense that none of them can be deduced from the others by taking positive linear combinations). Let B/sub n/ denote the polyhedral cone in R/sup /spl nu// determined by these inequalities. We show that A~/sub n/~=B/sub n/ for n/spl les/3. The status of this equality is open for n/spl ges/4. We also consider a symmetric version of this situation, in which S(/spl rho//sub I/) depends on I only through the number i=/spl ne/I of indexes in I and can thus be denoted S(/spl rho//sub i/). In this case, we give for each n a finite complete and independent set of inequalities governing the symmetric allocations of entropy {S(/spl rho//sub i/)}/sub 0/spl les/i/spl les/n/ in R/sup n+1/.
This article presents self-contained proofs of the strong subadditivity inequality for von Neumann’s quantum entropy, S(ρ), and some related inequalities for the quantum relative entropy, most notably its convexity and its monotonicity under stochastic maps. Moreover, the approach presented here, which is based on Klein’s inequality and Lieb’s theorem that the function A→Tr eK+log A is concave, allows one to obtain conditions for equality. In the case of strong subadditivity, which states that S(ρ123)+S(ρ2)⩽S(ρ12)+S(ρ23) where the subscripts denote subsystems of a composite system, equality holds if and only if log ρ123=log ρ12−log ρ2+log ρ23. Using the fact that the Holevo bound on the accessible information in a quantum ensemble can be obtained as a consequence of the monotonicity of relative entropy, we show that equality can be attained for that bound only when the states in the ensemble commute. The article concludes with an Appendix giving a short description of Epstein’s elegant proof of Lieb’s theorem.
Relations among von Neumann entropies of different parts of an N-partite quantum system have direct impact on our understanding of diverse situations ranging from spin systems to quantum coding theory and black holes. Best formulated in terms of the set Σ_{N}^{*} of possible vectors comprising the entropies of the whole and its parts, the famous strong subaddivity inequality constrains its closure Σ[over ¯]_{N}^{*}, which is a convex cone. Further homogeneous constrained inequalities are also known. In this Letter we provide (nonhomogeneous) inequalities that constrain Σ_{N}^{*} near the apex (the vector of zero entropies) of Σ[over ¯]_{N}^{*}, in particular showing that Σ_{N}^{*} is not a cone for N≥3. Our inequalities apply to vectors with certain entropy constraints saturated and, in particular, they show that while it is always possible to upscale an entropy vector to arbitrary integer multiples it is not always possible to downscale it to arbitrarily small size, thus answering a question posed by Winter.
One of the main recent achievements of quantum information theory [1] is the proof of the equivalence of several (sub-, super-) additivity conjectures for finite-dimensional quantum channels and systems [2] (see the survey in [3]). The main purpose of this paper is to give a generalization of this result to the infinite-dimensional case. Let H and H ′ be separable Hilbert spaces. A quantum channel is a linear completely positive trace-preserving map Φ: T(H ) 7→ T(H ′), where T(H ) is the ideal of all trace class operators on H . In particular, Φ generates an affine map of the convex set S(H ) of states (that is, density operators) on the space H to the set S(H ′) of states on the space H ′ [1]. Important characteristics of a quantum channel are the output entropy HΦ(ρ) = H(Φ(ρ)), a lower-semicontinuous concave function on the input state space with values in [0,+∞], and its convex closure (see [4]), denoted by b HΦ(ρ) and called the b H-function of the channel Φ. It was shown in [5] that the convex closure of the output entropy of an arbitrary quantum channel Φ is given by the expression b HΦ(ρ) = inf μ Z
The von Neumann entropy plays a vital role in quantum information theory. The von Neumann entropy determines, e.g., the capacities of quantum channels. Also, entropies of composite quantum systems are important for future quantum networks, and their characterization is related to the quantum marginal problem. Furthermore, they play a role in quantum thermodynamics. In this thesis the set of quantum entropies of multipartite quantum systems is studied. The problem of its characterization is not new -- however, progress has been sparse, indicating that the problem might be hard and that new methods might be needed. Here, a variety of different and complementary approaches are taken. First, I look at global properties. It is known that the von Neumann entropy region -- just like its classical counterpart -- forms a convex cone. I describe the symmetries of this cone and highlight geometric similarities and differences to the classical entropy cone. In a different approach, I utilize the local geometric properties of extremal rays of a cone. I show that quantum states whose entropy lies on such an extremal ray of the quantum entropy cone have a very simple structure. As the set of all quantum states is very complicated, I look at a simple subset called stabilizer states. I improve on previously known results by showing that under a technical condition on the local dimension, entropies of stabilizer states respect an additional class of information inequalities that is valid for random variables from linear codes. In a last approach I find a representation-theoretic formulation of the classical marginal problem simplifying the comparison with its quantum mechanical counterpart. This novel correspondence yields a simplified formulation of the group characterization of classical entropies (IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory, 48(7):1992-1995, 2002) in purely combinatorial terms.
Information inequalities govern the ultimate limitations in information theory and as such play a pivotal role in characterizing what values the entropy of multipartite states can take. Proving an information inequality, however, quickly becomes arduous when the number of involved parties increases. For classical systems, [Yeung, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory (1997)] proposed a framework to prove Shannon-type inequalities via linear programming. Here, we derive an analogous framework for quantum systems, based on the strong sub-additivity and weak monotonicity inequalities for the von-Neumann entropy. Importantly, this also allows us to handle constrained inequalities, which - in the classical case - served as a crucial tool in proving the existence of non-standard, so-called non-Shannon-type inequalities [Zhang & Yeung, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory (1998)]. Our main contribution is the Python package qITIP, for which we present the theory and demonstrate its capabilities with several illustrative examples.
We investigate the universal inequalities relating the α -Rényi entropies of the marginals of a multi-partite quantum state. This is in analogy to the same question for the Shannon and von Neumann entropies ( α =1), which are known to satisfy several non-trivial inequalities such as strong subadditivity. Somewhat surprisingly, we find for 0< α <1 that the only inequality is non-negativity: in other words, any collection of non-negative numbers assigned to the non-empty subsets of n parties can be arbitrarily well approximated by the α -entropies of the 2 n −1 marginals of a quantum state. For α >1, we show analogously that there are no non-trivial homogeneous (in particular, no linear) inequalities. On the other hand, it is known that there are further, nonlinear and indeed non-homogeneous, inequalities delimiting the α -entropies of a general quantum state. Finally, we also treat the case of Rényi entropies restricted to classical states (i.e. probability distributions), which, in addition to non-negativity, are also subject to monotonicity. For α ≠0,1, we show that this is the only other homogeneous relation.