Any physical process can be represented as a quantum channel mapping an initial state to a final state. Hence it can be characterized from the point of view of communication theory, i.e., in terms of its ability to transfer information. Quantum information provides a theoretical framework and the proper mathematical tools to accomplish this. In this context the notion of codes and communication capacities have been introduced by generalizing them from the classical Shannon theory of information transmission and error correction. The underlying assumption of this approach is to consider the channel not as acting on a single system, but on sequences of systems, which, when properly initialized allow one to overcome the noisy effects induced by the physical process under consideration. While most of the work produced so far has been focused on the case in which a given channel transformation acts identically and independently on the various elements of the sequence (memoryless configuration in jargon), correlated error models appear to be a more realistic way to approach the problem. A slightly different, yet conceptually related, notion of correlated errors applies to a single quantum system which evolves continuously in time under the influence of an external disturbance which acts on it in a non-Markovian fashion. This leads to the study of memory effects in quantum channels: a fertile ground where interesting novel phenomena emerge at the intersection of quantum information theory and other branches of physics. A survey is taken of the field of quantum channels theory while also embracing these specific and complex settings.
Abstract Any kind of quantum resource useful in different information processing tasks is vulnerable to several types of environmental noise. Here we study the behaviour of quantum correlations such as entanglement and steering in two-qubit systems under the application of the generalised amplitude damping channel and propose two protocols towards preserving them under this type of noise. First, we employ the technique of weak measurement and reversal for the purpose of preservation of correlations. We then show how the evolution under the channel action can be seen as an unitary process. We use the technique of weak measurement and most general form of selective positive operator valued measure (POVM) to achieve preservation of correlations for a significantly large range of parameter values.
Based on the quantum technique of the weak measurement and quantum measurement reversal (WMR), we propose a scheme to protect entanglement for an entangled two-qubit pure state from four typical quantum noise channels with memory, i.e., the amplitude damping channel, the phase damping channel, the bit flip channel, and the depolarizing channel. For a given initial state | ψ 〉 = a| 00 〉 + d| 11 〉, it is found that the WMR operation indeed helps to protect entanglement from the above four quantum channels with memory, and the protection effect of WMR scheme is better when the coefficient a is small. For the other initial state | ϕ 〉 = b| 01 〉 + c| 10 〉, the effect of the protection scheme is the same regardless of the coefficient b and the WMR operation can protect entanglement in the amplitude damping channel with memory. Moreover, the protection of entanglement in quantum noise channels without memory in contrast to the results of the channels with memory is more effective. For | ψ 〉 or | ϕ 〉, we also find that the memory parameters play a significant role in the suppression of entanglement sudden death and the initial entanglement can be drastically amplified. Another more important result is that the relationship between the concurrence, the memory parameter, the weak measurement strength, and quantum measurement reversal strength is found through calculation and discussion. It provides a strong basis for the system to maintain maximum entanglement in the nosie channel.
In quantum technologies, quantum channels are essential for transmitting quantum states. Quantum channels usually introduce noise, thereby reducing the information in a state. These are mathematically described by completely positive trace-preserving linear maps that represent the generic evolution of quantum systems and are also special cases of Hermitian-preserving trace-preserving (HPTP) linear maps. Concatenating a quantum channel with another quantum channel makes it noisier and degrades its information and resource preservability. In this work, we demonstrate a physically meaningful way to compare a pair of quantum channels using Hermitian-preserving trace-preserving linear maps. Precisely, given a pair of quantum channels
Λ1,Λ2 and an arbitrary unknown input state, we show that the output state of the quantum channel
Λ2 from the pair can be uniquely identified from the output statistics of the other channel
Λ1 from the pair, using some POVM, iff
Λ2 can be obtained from
Λ1 by concatenating it with a Hermitian-preserving trace-preserving linear map that is not necessarily positive. In such cases,
Λ2 may not always be obtained from
Λ1 through post-processing. The relation between these channels is a preorder, and we study its characterization in this work. In other words, we provide an operational interpretation of this preorder induced by HPTP linear maps in a communication scenario. Furthermore, we characterize the difficulty of implementing
Λ2 given that
Λ1 has already been implemented via a quantifier, namely, physical implementability. We also illustrate the implications of our results for the incompatibility of quantum devices through an example. In short, we provide valuable insights about the relevance of Hermitian-preserving trace-preserving linear maps in physically motivated settings.
Abstract Quantum teleportation is the fundamental communication unit in quantum communication. Here, a three-level system is selected for storing and transmitting quantum information, due to its unique advantages, such as lower cost than a higher-level system and higher capacity and security than a two-level system. It is known that the key procedure for perfect teleportation is the distribution of entanglement through quantum channel. However, amounts of noise existing in the quantum channel may interfere the entangled state, causing the degradation of quantum entanglement. In the physical implementations of quantum communication schemes, noise acting on the carriers of successive transmissions often exhibits some correlations, which is the so called quantum memory channel. In this paper, a memory channel model during the entanglement distribution phase is constructed and the uniform expression of the evolution of a two-qutrit entangled state under different kinds of correlated noise is derived. Finally, Pauli noise and amplitude damping noise as the typical noise source are considered to analyze the influence of memory effects of noise on qutrit teleportation. It is expected to show that three-level teleportation under these two types of channels can generally enhance the robustness to noise if the Markovian correlations of quantum channel are taken into consideration.
Entanglement fidelity quantifies how well a quantum channel preserves the correlations between a transmitted system and an inaccessible reference system. We derive closed-form expressions for the entanglement fidelity associated with several standard quantum noise models, including the random Pauli-X, dephasing, depolarizing, Werner-Holevo, generalized Pauli (Weyl), and amplitude-damping channels. For each model, we express the entanglement fidelity in terms of a general input density operator
ρ, using Schumacher's Kraus-operator approach, which provides a channel-agnostic recipe applicable to any completely positive trace-preserving (CPTP) map with a finite Kraus representation. We then specialize to a communication scenario in which the source emits a two-letter parametric alphabet, thereby making explicit the dependence of entanglement preservation on both channel and source parameters. The resulting expressions enable direct comparisons of channel performance and rankings for representative families of input states, including common qubit states.