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Additivity of the Classical Capacity of Entanglement-Breaking Quantum Channels

Peter W. Shor

Published Jan 1, 2002• 157 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We show that for the tensor product of an entanglement-breaking quantum channel with an arbitrary quantum channel, both the minimum entropy of an output of the channel and the Holevo-Schumacher-Westmoreland capacity are additive. In addition, for the tensor product of two arbitrary quantum channels, we give a bound involving entanglement of formation for the amount of subadditivity (for minimum entropy output) or superadditivity (for classical capacity) that can occur. One of the more important open questions of quantum information theory is the determination of the capacity of a quantum channel for carrying classical information. This question has been only partially resolved. If entanglement between multiple inputs to the channel is not allowed, a formula for the classical capacity of a quantum channel has indeed been discovered [1, 2]. This capacity formula for a quantum channel Ψ is χ ∗ (Ψ) = max p i,ρ i H Ψ(piρi) − ∑

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We show that for the tensor product of an entanglement-breaking quantum channel with an arbitrary quantum channel, both the minimum entropy of an output of the channel and the Holevo-Schumacher-Westmoreland capacity are additive. In addition, for the tensor product of two arbitrary quantum channels, we give a bound involving entanglement of formation for the amount of subadditivity (for minimum entropy output) or superadditivity (for classical capacity) that can occur. One of the more important open questions of quantum information theory is the determination of the capacity of a quantum channel for carrying classical information. This question has been only partially resolved. If entanglement between multiple inputs to the channel is not allowed, a formula for the classical capacity of a quantum channel has indeed been discovered [1, 2]. This capacity formula for a quantum channel Ψ is χ ∗ (Ψ) = max p i,ρ i H Ψ(piρi) − ∑
A class of problems in quantum information theory, having an elementary formulation but still resisting solution, concerns the additivity properties of various quantities characterizing quantum channels, notably the "classical capacity", and the "maximal output purity". All known results, including extensive numerical work, are consistent with the conjecture that these quantities are indeed additive (resp. multiplicative) with respect to tensor products of channels. A proof of this conjecture would have important consequences in quantum information theory. In particular, according to this conjecture, the classical capacity or the maximal purity of outputs cannot be increased by using entangled inputs of the channel. In this paper we state the additivity/multiplicativity problems, give some relations between them, and prove some new partial results, which also support the conjecture.
Abstract: We give the trade-off curve showing the capacity of a quantum channel as a function of the amount of entanglement used by the sender and receiver for transmitting information. The endpoints of this curve are given by the Holevo-Schumacher-Westmoreland capacity formula and the entanglement-assisted capacity, which is the maximum over all input density matrices of the quantum mutual information. The proof we give is based on the Holevo-Schumacher-Westmoreland formula, and also gives a new and simpler proof for the entanglement-assisted capacity formula. 1
We find an upper bound for the minimum output entropy of a unital quantum channel, and obtain an exact formula for general qubit channels. Our techniques incorporate the Rényi entropies, particularly, with Rényi parameter α = 2. Moreover, since our upper bound is additive under tensor product, we get as a corollary an upper bound for the classical capacity of unital quantum channels. Interestingly, our upper bound for the classical capacity depends only on the operator norm of matrix representations of channels on the space of traceless Hermitian operators, and is tight in the sense that it gives the precise quantity of classical capacity of the Werner-Holevo channel. As an example, we study quantum channels with operator sum representation that is made of the discrete Weyl operators (generalized Pauli operators), and explain how our formula works in this case. Finally, we find new examples for which the minimum output Rényi 2-entropy is additive.
We give the trade-off curve showing the capacity of a quantum channel as a function of the amount of entanglement used by the sender and receiver for transmitting information. The endpoints of this curve are given by the Holevo-Schumacher-Westmoreland capacity formula and the entanglement-assisted capacity, which is the maximum over all input density matrices of the quantum mutual information. The proof we give is based on the Holevo-Schumacher-Westmoreland formula, and also gives a new and simpler proof for the entanglement-assisted capacity formula.
We give the trade-off curve showing the capacity of a quantum channel as a function of the amount of entanglement used by the sender and receiver for transmitting information. The endpoints of this curve are given by the Holevo-Schumacher-Westmoreland capacity formula and the entanglement-assisted capacity, which is the maximum over all input density matrices of the quantum mutual information. The proof we give is based on the Holevo-Schumacher-Westmoreland formula, and also gives a new and simpler proof for the entanglement-assisted capacity formula.