Sandwiched (quantum) α-Rényi divergence has been recently defined in the independent works of Wilde et al. [“Strong converse for the classical capacity of entanglement-breaking channels,” preprint arXiv:1306.1586 (2013)] and Müller-Lennert et al. [“On quantum Rényi entropies: a new definition, some properties and several conjectures,” preprint arXiv:1306.3142v1 (2013)]. This new quantum divergence has already found applications in quantum information theory. Here we further investigate properties of this new quantum divergence. In particular, we show that sandwiched α-Rényi divergence satisfies the data processing inequality for all values of α > 1. Moreover we prove that α-Holevo information, a variant of Holevo information defined in terms of sandwiched α-Rényi divergence, is super-additive. Our results are based on Hölder's inequality, the Riesz-Thorin theorem and ideas from the theory of complex interpolation. We also employ Sion's minimax theorem.
We consider a two-parameter family of Rényi relative entropies Dα,z(ρ ∥ σ) that are quantum generalisations of the classical Rényi divergence Dα(p ∥ q). This family includes many known relative entropies (or divergences) such as the quantum relative entropy, the recently defined quantum Rényi divergences, as well as the quantum Rényi relative entropies. All its members satisfy the quantum generalizations of Rényi’s axioms for a divergence. We consider the range of the parameters α, z for which the data-processing inequality holds. We also investigate a variety of limiting cases for the two parameters, obtaining explicit formulas for each one of them.
The
α -sandwiched Rényi divergence satisfies the data processing inequality, i.e. monotonicity under quantum operations, for
α≥1/2 . In this article, we derive a necessary and sufficient algebraic condition for equality in the data processing inequality for the
α -sandwiched Rényi divergence for all
α≥1/2 . For the range
α∈[1/2,1) , our result provides the only condition for equality obtained thus far. To prove our result, we first consider the special case of partial trace and derive a condition for equality based on the original proof of the data processing inequality by Frank and Lieb (J Math Phys 54(12):122201, 2013) using a strict convexity/concavity argument. We then generalize to arbitrary quantum operations via the Stinespring Representation Theorem. As applications of our condition for equality in the data processing inequality, we deduce conditions for equality in various entropic inequalities. We formulate a Rényi version of the Araki–Lieb inequality and analyze the case of equality, generalizing a result by Carlen and Lieb (Lett Math Phys 101(1):1–11, 2012) about equality in the original Araki–Lieb inequality. Furthermore, we prove a general lower bound on a Rényi version of the entanglement of formation and observe that it is attained by states saturating the Rényi version of the Araki–Lieb inequality. Finally, we prove that the known upper bound on the entanglement fidelity in terms of the usual fidelity is saturated only by pure states.