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Conditional quantum mutual information, relative entropy differences, and the Petz recovery map

Mark M. Wilde

Published May 18, 2015• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

The fact that the quantum relative entropy is non-increasing with respect to quantum physical evolutions lies at the core of many optimality theorems in quantum information theory and has applications in other areas of physics. In this work, we establish improvements of this entropy inequality in the form of physically meaningful remainder terms. One of the main results can be summarized informally as follows: if the decrease in quantum relative entropy between two quantum states after a quantum physical evolution is relatively small, then it is possible to perform a recovery operation, such that one can perfectly recover one state while approximately recovering the other. This can be interpreted as quantifying how well one can reverse a quantum physical evolution. Our proof method is elementary, relying on the method of complex interpolation, basic linear algebra, and the recently introduced Renyi generalization of a relative entropy difference. The theorem has a number of applications in quantum information theory, which have to do with providing physically meaningful improvements to many known entropy inequalities.

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The fact that the quantum relative entropy is non-increasing with respect to quantum physical evolutions lies at the core of many optimality theorems in quantum information theory and has applications in other areas of physics. In this work, we establish improvements of this entropy inequality in the form of physically meaningful remainder terms. One of the main results can be summarized informally as follows: if the decrease in quantum relative entropy between two quantum states after a quantum physical evolution is relatively small, then it is possible to perform a recovery operation, such that one can perfectly recover one state while approximately recovering the other. This can be interpreted as quantifying how well one can reverse a quantum physical evolution. Our proof method is elementary, relying on the method of complex interpolation, basic linear algebra, and the recently introduced Renyi generalization of a relative entropy difference. The theorem has a number of applications in quantum information theory, which have to do with providing physically meaningful improvements to many known entropy inequalities.
The fact that the quantum relative entropy is non-increasing with respect to quantum physical evolutions lies at the core of many optimality theorems in quantum information theory and has applications in other areas of physics. In this work, we establish improvements of this entropy inequality in the form of physically meaningful remainder terms. One of the main results can be summarized informally as follows: if the decrease in quantum relative entropy between two quantum states after a quantum physical evolution is relatively small, then it is possible to perform a recovery operation, such that one can perfectly recover one state while approximately recovering the other. This can be interpreted as quantifying how well one can reverse a quantum physical evolution. Our proof method is elementary, relying on the method of complex interpolation, basic linear algebra and the recently introduced Rényi generalization of a relative entropy difference. The theorem has a number of applications in quantum information theory, which have to do with providing physically meaningful improvements to many known entropy inequalities.
The relative entropy is a principal measure of distinguishability in quantum information theory, with its most important property being that it is non-increasing with respect to noisy quantum operations. Here, we establish a remainder term for this inequality that quantifies how well one can recover from a loss of information by employing a rotated Petz recovery map. The main approach for proving this refinement is to combine the methods of [Fawzi and Renner, 2014] with the notion of a relative typical subspace from [Bjelakovic and Siegmund-Schultze, 2003]. Our paper constitutes partial progress towards a remainder term which features just the Petz recovery map (not a rotated Petz map), a conjecture which would have many consequences in quantum information theory. A well known result states that the monotonicity of relative entropy with respect to quantum operations is equivalent to each of the following inequalities: strong subadditivity of entropy, concavity of conditional entropy, joint convexity of relative entropy, and monotonicity of relative entropy with respect to partial trace. We show that this equivalence holds true for refinements of all these inequalities in terms of the Petz recovery map. So either all of these refinements are true or all are false.
The relative entropy is a principal measure of distinguishability in quantum information theory, with its most important property being that it is non-increasing with respect to noisy quantum operations. Here, we establish a remainder term for this inequality that quantifies how well one can recover from a loss of information by employing a rotated Petz recovery map. The main approach for proving this refinement is to combine the methods of [Fawzi and Renner, arXiv:1410.0664] with the notion of a relative typical subspace from [Bjelakovic and Siegmund-Schultze, arXiv:quant-ph/0307170]. Our paper constitutes partial progress towards a remainder term which features just the Petz recovery map (not a rotated Petz map), a conjecture which would have many consequences in quantum information theory. A well known result states that the monotonicity of relative entropy with respect to quantum operations is equivalent to each of the following inequalities: strong subadditivity of entropy, concavity of conditional entropy, joint convexity of relative entropy, and monotonicity of relative entropy with respect to partial trace. We show that this equivalence holds true for refinements of all these inequalities in terms of the Petz recovery map. So either all of these refinements are true or all are false.
Lieb and Ruskai's strong subadditivity theorem, which shows that the conditional mutual information must be nonnegative, is fundamental in quantum theory. It has numerous applications, such as in quantum error correction. When the mutual information is zero, the Petz recovery map can be used to reconstruct the quantum channel. When the mutual information is small, one seeks to define an optimal recovery channel. To this end, a mathematical characterization of the mutual information is desirable. We address this problem by providing an exact characterization of the mutual information, along with characterizations for other entropies. Our controls are sharp, leaving no room for improvement, in the sense that we provide equalities, regardless of whether the mutual information (or remainder) is small or large. We transform the definitions of these entropies into a summation of explicitly constructed terms, and the definition of each term obviously demonstrates the desired positivity/convexity/concavity. The summation converges rapidly and absolutely in a chosen elementary norm.
The quantum relative entropy between two states satisfies a monotonicity property meaning that applying the same quantum channel to both states can never increase their relative entropy. It is known that this inequality is only tight when there is a recovery map that exactly reverses the effects of the quantum channel on both states. In this paper, we strengthen this inequality by showing that the difference of relative entropies is bounded below by the measured relative entropy between the first state and a recovered state from its processed version. The recovery map is a convex combination of rotated Petz recovery maps and perfectly reverses the quantum channel on the second state. As a special case, we reproduce recent lower bounds on the conditional mutual information, such as the one proved by Fawzi and Renner. Our proof only relies on the elementary properties of pinching maps and the operator logarithm.
The quantum relative entropy between two states satisfies a monotonicity property, meaning that applying the same quantum channel to both states can never increase their relative entropy. It is known that this inequality is only tight when there is a “recovery map” that exactly reverses the effects of the quantum channel on both states. In this paper we strengthen this inequality by showing that the difference of relative entropies is bounded below by the measured relative entropy between the first state and a recovered state from its processed version. The recovery map is a convex combination of rotated Petz recovery maps and perfectly reverses the quantum channel on the second state. As a special case we reproduce recent lower bounds on the conditional mutual information such as the one proved in [Fawzi and Renner, Commun. Math. Phys., 2015]. Our proof only relies on elementary properties of pinching maps and the operator logarithm.