Von Neumann proposed two quantum entropies, one in 1927 and the other in 1929. He intended to define thermodynamic entropy for quantum states in both cases. The 1927 entropy is the well-known von Neumann entropy, which is zero for all pure states. The 1929 entropy, which is nonzero for almost all pure states, has largely been ignored. After reviewing the history and properties of both entropies, we argue that the 1927 entropy is not thermodynamic entropy and should be used simply as a measure of entanglement, whereas the 1929 entropy is the true thermodynamic entropy for quantum states.
Traditional measures of entropy, like the Von Neumann entropy, while fundamental in quantum information theory, are insufficient when interpreted as thermodynamic entropy due to their invariance under unitary transformations, which contradicts observed entropy increases in isolated systems. Recognizing this limitations of existing measures for thermodynamic entropy, recent research has focused on observational entropy (OE) as a promising alternative, offering practical applicability and theoretical insights. In this work, we extend the scope of observational entropy by generalizing it to a parameterized version called
α-Observational entropy (
α-OE).
α-OE is expressed in terms of the Petz-Rényi relative entropy between the states on which a quantum-to-classical channel is applied. The
α-OE reduces to OE under
α→1. We prove various properties of the
α-OE, which are the generalization of the properties of OE, including the monotonically increasing of
α-OE as a function of refinement of coarse-graining. We further explore the role of
α-OE in thermodynamic contexts, particularly for the entropy production in open and closed quantum systems and its relation with the Helmholtz free energy.
In classical information theory, one of the most important theorems are the coding theorems, which were discussed by calculating the mean entropy and the mean mutual entropy defined by the classical dynamical entropy (Kolmogorov-Sinai). The quantum dynamical entropy was first studied by Emch [13] and Connes-Stormer [11]. After that, several approaches for introducing the quantum dynamical entropy are done [10, 3, 8, 39, 15, 44, 9, 27, 28, 2, 19, 45]. The efficiency of information transmission for the quantum processes is investigated by using the von Neumann entropy [22] and the Ohya mutual entropy [24]. These entropies were extended to S- mixing entropy by Ohya [26, 27] in general quantum systems. The mean entropy and the mean mutual entropy for the quantum dynamical systems were introduced based on the S- mixing entropy. In this paper, we discuss the efficiency of information transmission to calculate the mean mutual entropy with respect to the modulated initial states and the connected channel for the quantum dynamical systems.