Capacity of a quantum communication channel

Rouslan L. Stratonovich

Graeme Smith, Jon Yard

Communication over a noisy quantum channel introduces errors in the transmission that must be corrected. A fundamental bound on quantum error correction is the quantum capacity, which quantifies the amount of quantum data that can be protected. We show theoretically that two quantum channels, each with a transmission capacity of zero, can have a nonzero capacity when used together. This unveils a rich structure in the theory of quantum communications, implying that the quantum capacity does not completely specify a channel's ability to transmit quantum information.

Graeme Smith, John A. Smolin, Andreas Winter

We present an upper bound for the quantum channel capacity that is both additive and convex. Our bound can be interpreted as the capacity of a channel for high-fidelity quantum communication when assisted by a family of channels that have no capacity on their own. This family of assistance channels, which we call symmetric side channels, consists of all channels mapping symmetrically to their output and environment. The bound seems to be quite tight, and for degradable quantum channels it coincides with the unassisted channel capacity. Using this symmetric side channel capacity, we find new upper bounds on the capacity of the depolarizing channel. We also briefly indicate an analogous notion for distilling entanglement using the same class of (one-way) channels, yielding one of the few entanglement measures that is monotonic under local operations with oneway classical communication (1-LOCC), but not under the more general class of local operations with classical communication (LOCC).

Rouslan L. Stratonovich

Rex A. C. Medeiros, Francisco de Assis

Graeme Smith, John A. Smolin, Andreas Winter

In this paper, we present an upper bound for the quantum channel capacity that is both additive and convex. Our bound can be interpreted as the capacity of a channel for high-fidelity quantum communication when assisted by a family of channels that have no capacity on their own. This family of assistance channels, which we call symmetric side channels, consists of all channels mapping symmetrically to their output and environment. The bound seems to be quite tight, and for degradable quantum channels, it coincides with the unassisted channel capacity. Using this symmetric side channel capacity, we find new upper bounds on the capacity of the depolarizing channel. We also briefly indicate an analogous notion for distilling entanglement using the same class of (one-way) channels, yielding one of the few entanglement measures that is monotonic under local operations with one-way classical communication (1-LOCC), but not under the more general class of local operations with classical communication (LOCC).