Computing conditional entropies for quantum correlations.

H. S. Karthik, A. R. Usha Devi, J. Prabhu Tej +1 more

Álvaro Yángüez, Noam Avidan, Jan Kochanowski +1 more

Quantum systems may contain underlying correlations which are inaccessible to computationally bounded observers. We capture this distinction through a framework that analyses bipartite states only using efficiently implementable quantum channels. This leads to a complexity-constrained max-divergence and a corresponding computational min-entropy. The latter quantity recovers the standard operational meaning of the conditional min-entropy: in the fully quantum case, it quantifies the largest overlap with a maximally entangled state attainable via efficient operations on the conditional subsystem. For classical-quantum states, it further reduces to the optimal guessing probability of a computationally bounded observer with access to side information. Lastly, in the absence of side information, the computational min-entropy simplifies to a computational notion of the operator norm. We then establish strong separations between the information-theoretic and complexity-constrained notions of min-entropy. For pure states, there exist highly entangled families of states with extremal min-entropy whose efficiently accessible entanglement in terms of computational min-entropy is exponentially suppressed. For mixed states, the separation is even sharper: the information-theoretic conditional min-entropy can be highly negative while the complexity-constrained quantity remains nearly maximal. Under the cryptographic Learning with Errors hardness assumption, we construct efficiently preparable states exhibiting both separations, even when their preparation circuits are fully known. Overall, our results demonstrate that computational constraints can fundamentally limit the quantum correlations that are observable in practice.

Álvaro Yángüez, Noam Avidan, Jan Kochanowski +1 more

Quantum systems may contain underlying correlations which are inaccessible to computationally bounded observers. We capture this distinction through a framework that analyses bipartite states only using efficiently implementable quantum channels. This leads to a complexity-constrained max-divergence and a corresponding computational min-entropy. The latter quantity recovers the standard operational meaning of the conditional min-entropy: in the fully quantum case, it quantifies the largest overlap with a maximally entangled state attainable via efficient operations on the conditional subsystem. For classical-quantum states, it further reduces to the optimal guessing probability of a computationally bounded observer with access to side information. Lastly, in the absence of side information, the computational min-entropy simplifies to a computational notion of the operator norm. We then establish strong separations between the information-theoretic and complexity-constrained notions of min-entropy. For pure states, there exist highly entangled families of states with extremal min-entropy whose efficiently accessible entanglement in terms of computational min-entropy is exponentially suppressed. For mixed states, the separation is even sharper: the information-theoretic conditional min-entropy can be highly negative while the complexity-constrained quantity remains nearly maximal. Overall, our results demonstrate that computational constraints can fundamentally limit the quantum correlations that are observable in practice.

Sarah Chehade, Anna Vershynina

Aritra Kundu, V. Subrahmanyam

The quantum discord, which quantifies the amount of quantum correlation present between parts of a system, is investigated for spin systems. The discord for a pair of spins in the many-spin ground state, computed by minimizing the conditional entropy of the two spins, is related to the diagonal and off-diagonal spin–spin correlation functions and the local magnetization. We show that for isotropic and translationally invariant states, the discord depends only on the diagonal spin correlation function. Thus, near a thermal/quantum critical point, the pairwise discord exhibits long-range behavior, analogously to the correlation function. The discord exhibits a kink singularity as a function of the anisotropy parameter for the ground state of the anisotropic Heisenberg model, for both nearest-neighbor spins as well as for well-separated spins. The preferred measurement basis for the minimum conditional entropy, which determines the discord, changes discontinuously across the critical point. We also investigate, from exact numerical diagonalization, the distribution of conditional entropies as the measurement basis is varied. For the isotropic model, the conditional entropy distribution is a δ-function, whereas it has a twin-peak structure for the anisotropic model. It is shown that the average value and the mean-square fluctuation of the conditional entropy also show a signature of the critical-point behavior.

Fabio Benatti