Using a suitable algebraic setup, we find new estimates of the quantum capacity and the potential quantum capacity for non-degradable channels obtained by random unitaries associated with a finite group. This approach can be generalized to quantum groups and uses new tools from operator algebras and interpolation of Rényi-type entropies. As an application, we obtain new estimates for the depolarizing channel in high dimension.
Using a suitable algebraic setup, we find new estimates of the quantum capacity and the potential quantum capacity for non-degradable channels obtained by random unitaries associated with a finite group. This approach can be generalized to quantum groups and uses new tools from operator algebras and interpolation of Rényi-type entropies. As an application, we obtain new estimates for the depolarizing channel in high dimension.
Capacities of quantum channels and decoherence times both quantify the extent to which quantum information can withstand degradation by interactions with its environment. However, calculating capacities directly is known to be intractable in general. Much recent work has focused on upper bounding certain capacities in terms of more tractable quantities such as specific norms from operator theory. In the meantime, there has also been substantial recent progress on estimating decoherence times with techniques from analysis and geometry, even though many hard questions remain open. In this article, we introduce a class of continuous-time quantum channels that we called transferred channels, which are built through representation theory from a classical Markov kernel defined on a compact group. In particular, we study two subclasses of such kernels: Hörmander systems on compact Lie-groups and Markov chains on finite groups. Examples of transferred channels include the depolarizing channel, the dephasing channel, and collective decoherence channels acting on d qubits. Some of the estimates presented are new, such as those for channels that randomly swap subsystems. We then extend tools developed in earlier work by Gao, Junge and LaRacuente to transfer estimates of the classical Markov kernel to the transferred channels and study in this way different non-commutative functional inequalities. The main contribution of this article is the application of this transference principle to the estimation of decoherence time, of private and quantum capacities, of entanglement-assisted classical capacities as well as estimation of entanglement breaking times, defined as the first time for which the channel becomes entanglement breaking. Moreover, our estimates hold for non-ergodic channels such as the collective decoherence channels, an important scenario that has been overlooked so far because of a lack of techniques.
We prove that for generalized dephasing channels, the coherent information and reverse coherent information coincides. It also implies an alternative approach for the strong super-additivity and strong converse of generalized dephasing channels using the operator space technique. Our argument is based on an improved Rényi relative entropy estimate via analyzing the channel’s Stinespring space. We also apply this estimate to new examples of quantum channels arising from quantum group co-representation and Kitave’s quantum computation model. In particular, we find concrete examples of non-degradable channels that our estimates are tight and give a formula of nontrivial quantum capacity.
Degradable quantum channels are among the only channels whose quantum and private classical capacities are known. As such, determining the structure of these channels is a pressing open question in quantum information theory. We give a comprehensive review of what is currently known about the structure of degradable quantum channels, including a number of new results as well as alternate proofs of some known results. In the case of qubits, we provide a complete characterization of all degradable channels with two dimensional output, give a new proof that a qubit channel with two Kraus operators is either degradable or anti-degradable, and present a complete description of anti-degradable unital qubit channels with a new proof. For higher output dimensions we explore the relationship between the output and environment dimensions (dB and dE, respectively) of degradable channels. For several broad classes of channels we show that they can be modeled with an environment that is “small” in the sense of ΦC. Such channels include all those with qubit or qutrit output, those that map some pure state to an output with full rank, and all those which can be represented using simultaneously diagonal Kraus operators, even in a non-orthogonal basis. Perhaps surprisingly, we also present examples of degradable channels with “large” environments, in the sense that the minimal dimension dE>dB. Indeed, one can have dE>14dB2. These examples can also be used to give a negative answer to the question of whether additivity of the coherent information is helpful for establishing additivity for the Holevo capacity of a pair of channels. In the case of channels with diagonal Kraus operators, we describe the subclasses that are complements of entanglement breaking channels. We also obtain a number of results for channels in the convex hull of conjugations with generalized Pauli matrices. However, a number of open questions remain about these channels and the more general case of random unitary channels.
A new upper bound for the quantum capacity of the d-dimensional depolarizing channels is presented. Our derivation makes use of a flagged extension of the map where the receiver obtains a copy of a state σ_{0} whenever the messages are transmitted without errors, and a copy of a state σ_{1}, when instead the original state gets fully depolarized. By varying the overlap between the flag states, the resulting transformation nicely interpolates between the depolarizing map (when σ_{0}=σ_{1}), and the d-dimensional erasure channel (when σ_{0} and σ_{1} have orthogonal support). We find sufficient conditions for degradability of the flagged channel, which let us calculate its quantum capacity in a suitable parameter region. From this last result we get the upper bound for the depolarizing channel, which by a direct comparison appears to be tighter than previous available results for d>2, and for d=2 it is tighter in an intermediate regime of noise. In particular, in the limit of large d values, our findings present a previously unnoticed O(1) correction.
In this paper, we compute the exact values of the minimum output entropy and the completely bounded minimal entropy of very large classes of quantum channels acting on matrix algebras Mn. Our new and simple approach relies on the theory of locally compact quantum groups and our results use a new and precise description of bounded Fourier multipliers from L1(G) into Lp(G) for 1<p≤∞ where G is a co-amenable locally compact quantum group and on the automatic completely boundedness of these multipliers that this description entails. Indeed, our approach even allows to use convolution operators on quantum hypergroups. This enable us to connect equally the topic of computation of entropies and capacities to subfactor planar algebras. We also give a upper bound of the classical capacity of each considered quantum channel which is already sharp in the commutative case. Quite surprisingly, we observe by direct computations that some Fourier multipliers identifies to direct sums of classical examples of quantum channels (as dephasing channel or depolarizing channels). Indeed, we show that the study of unital qubit channels can be seen as a part of the theory of Fourier multipliers on the von Neumann algebra of the quaternion group Q8. Unexpectedly, we also connect ergodic actions of (quantum) groups to this topic of computation, allowing some transference to other channels. We also connect the Quantum Harmonic analysis of Werner. Finally, we investigate entangling breaking and PPT Fourier multipliers and we characterize conditional expectations which are entangling breaking.
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).