Uncommon Paths in Quantum Physics

Donghwa Ji, Junseo Lee, Myeongjin Shin +2 more

Abstract In classical information theory, uncommon information refers to the amount of information that is not shared between two messages, and it admits an operational interpretation as the minimum communication cost required to exchange the messages. Extending this notion to the quantum setting, quantum uncommon information is defined as the amount of quantum information necessary to exchange two quantum states. While the value of uncommon information can be computed exactly in the classical case, no direct method is currently known for calculating its quantum analogue. Prior work has primarily focused on deriving upper and lower bounds for quantum uncommon information. In this work, we propose a new approach for estimating these bounds by utilizing the quantum Donsker–Varadhan representation and implementing a gradient-based optimization method. Our results suggest a pathway toward efficient approximation of quantum uncommon information using variational techniques grounded in quantum neural architectures.

Sungbin Lim, Roslan Abd-Shukor, K. H. Kwek

Yonghae Lee, Joonwoo Bae, Hayata Yamasaki +1 more

Abstract In classical information theory, channel capacity quantifies the maximum number of messages that can be reliably transmitted using shared information. An equivalent concept, termed uncommon information, represents the number of messages required to be exchanged to completely share all information in common. However, this equivalence does not extend to quantum information theory. Specifically, quantum uncommon information (QUI) is operationally defined as the minimal amount of entanglement required for the quantum communication task of quantum state exchange (QSE), where two parties exchange quantum states to share all quantum messages in common. Currently, an analytical closed-form expression for the QUI remains undetermined. In this work, by investigating underlying characterization of the QUI, we derive improved bounds on it. To obtain these bounds, we develop a subspace exchange strategy that leverages a common subspace of two parties to identify the unnecessary qubits for exchange. We also consider a referee-assisted exchange, wherein a referee aids two parties in efficiently performing the QSE. Our bounds provide more precise estimations for the QUI. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the subspace technique is a versatile tool for characterizing uncommon information not only in the bipartite scenario but also in various multi-partite ones.

Jonathan Oppenheim, Andreas Winter

If two parties share an unknown quantum state, one can ask how much quantum communication is needed for party A to send her share to party B. Recently, it was found that the number of qubits which should be sent is given by the conditional entropy. This quantifies the notion of partial information, and it can even be negative. Here, we not only demand that A send her state to B, but additionally, B should send his state to A. Paradoxically, we find that requiring that the parties perform this additional task can lower the amount of quantum communication required. This primitive, which we call quantum state exchange, can be used to quantify the notion of uncommon information, since the two parties only need to send each other the parts of their state they don't hold in common. In the classical case, the concept of uncommon information follows trivially from the concept of partial information. We find that for quantum states, this is not so. We prove upper and lower bounds for the uncommon information and find optimal protocols for several classes of states.

Josef Honerkamp