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Cambridge University Press eBooks

Majorization

Gilad Gour

Published Apr 10, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Chapter 4 delves into the concept of majorization, an essential mathematical framework critical for understanding the intricate structures within quantum resource theories. At its core, majorization establishes a preorder relationship between probability vectors, revealing a structured approach to compare the dispersion or concentration of probabilistic distributions. The chapter systematically deconstructs majorization into comprehensible segments, incorporating axiomatic, constructive, and operational perspectives. It further explores the mathematical foundations of majorization through an in-depth look at doubly stochastic matrices and T-transforms. Additionally, the chapter examines various forms of majorization, including approximate, relative, trumping, catalytic, and conditional majorization. This exploration not only encompasses the theoretical facets but also offers practical insights derived from games of chance.

DOI
10.1017/9781009560870.004

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Chapter 4 delves into the concept of majorization, an essential mathematical framework critical for understanding the intricate structures within quantum resource theories. At its core, majorization establishes a preorder relationship between probability vectors, revealing a structured approach to compare the dispersion or concentration of probabilistic distributions. The chapter systematically deconstructs majorization into comprehensible segments, incorporating axiomatic, constructive, and operational perspectives. It further explores the mathematical foundations of majorization through an in-depth look at doubly stochastic matrices and T-transforms. Additionally, the chapter examines various forms of majorization, including approximate, relative, trumping, catalytic, and conditional majorization. This exploration not only encompasses the theoretical facets but also offers practical insights derived from games of chance.
Chapter 12 provides an in-depth exploration of pure-state entanglement. It begins with a clear definition of quantum entanglement for pure states, emphasizing its critical role in quantum computing and communication. The chapter highlights various strategies for entanglement manipulation, encompassing deterministic, stochastic, and approximate methods. Quantification of bipartite entanglement is a key focus, with emphasis on entropy of entanglement and the Ky Fan norm-based entanglement monotones. Additionally, the chapter delves into entanglement catalysis and embezzlement of entanglement, presenting them as a nuanced nonintuitive phenomena that underscore the challenges of entanglement preservation during quantum operations. A notable aspect of this chapter is its connection between entanglement theory and the theory of majorization discussed in Chapter 4. Through a comprehensive treatment of these topics, the chapter equips readers with a robust understanding of the intricacies of pure-state entanglement theory.
In these decades, it has been revealed that there is rich information-theoretic structure in thermodynamics of out-of-equilibrium systems in both the classical and quantum regimes. This has led to the fruitful interplay among statistical physics, quantum information theory, and mathematical theories including matrix analysis and asymptotic probability theory. The main purpose of this book is to clarify how information theory works behind thermodynamics and to shed modern light on it. We focus on both of purely information-theoretic concepts and their physical implications: We present self-contained and rigorous proofs of several fundamental properties of entropies, divergences, and majorization. We also discuss the modern formulations of thermodynamics, especially from the perspectives of stochastic thermodynamics and resource theory of thermodynamics. Resource theory is a recently-developed field as a branch of quantum information theory in order to quantify (energetically or information-theoretically) "useful resources." We show that resource theory has an intrinsic connection to various fundamental ideas of mathematics and information theory. This book is not intended to be a comprehensive review of the field, but would serve as a concise introduction to several important ingredients of the information-theoretic formulation of thermodynamics.
This book delves into the burgeoning field of quantum resource theories, a novel and vibrant area of research within quantum information science that seeks to unify diverse quantum phenomena under a single framework. By recognizing various attributes of physical systems as "resources," this approach offers a fresh perspective on quantum phenomena, transforming our understanding and application of concepts such as quantum entanglement, coherence, and more. With a focus on the pedagogical, the book aims to equip readers with the advanced mathematical tools and physical principles needed to navigate and contribute to this rapidly evolving field. It covers a wide range of topics, from the foundational aspects of quantum mechanics and quantum information to detailed explorations of specific resource theories, including entanglement, asymmetry, and thermodynamics. Through rigorous mathematical exposition and a unique axiomatic approach, the book provides deep insights into the operational and conceptual frameworks that underpin quantum resource theories, making it an invaluable resource for graduate students, early-career researchers, and anyone interested in the cutting-edge developments in quantum information science.
The crucial role of channels in physics and information theory motivates the task of characterizing the entropy, or uncertainty, of a channel. Games of chance become a natural candidate for this task, as a system's performance in a gambling game depends solely on the uncertainty of its output. In this work, we construct families of games that induce preorders corresponding to majorization, conditional majorization, and channel majorization. Finally, we provide operational interpretations for all preorders, show the relevance of these results to dynamical resource theories, and find the only asymptotically continuous classical channel entropy.
Given entropy's central role in multiple areas of physics and science, one important task is to develop a systematic and unifying approach to defining entropy. Games of chance become a natural candidate for characterising the uncertainty of a physical system, as a system's performance in gambling games depends solely on the uncertainty of its output. In this work, we construct families of games which induce pre-orders corresponding to majorization, conditional majorization, and channel majorization. Finally, we provide operational interpretations for all pre-orders, show the relevance of these results to dynamical resource theories, and find the only asymptotically continuous classical dynamic entropy.
In this thesis, I studied a mathematical development to define and quantify the uncertainty inherent in classical channels. This thesis starts with the introduction and background on how to formally think about uncertainty in the domain of classical states. The concept of probability vector majorization and its variants, relative majorization and conditional majorization, are reviewed. This thesis introduces three conceptually distinct approaches to formalize the notion of uncertainty inherent in classical channels. These three approaches define the same preordering on the domain of classical channels, leading to characterizations from many perspectives. With the solid foundation of uncertainty comparison, classical channel entropy is then defined to be an additive monotone with respect to the majorization relation. The well-known entropies in the domain of classical states are uniquely extended to the domain of channels via the optimal extensions, providing not only a solid foundation but also the quantifiers of uncertainty inherent in classical channels.