We establish a sharp quantitative stability theorem for the von Neumann entropy under a natural class of convex constraints induced by orthogonal block decompositions of finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. Given a block–convex set of block-diagonal quantum states, we prove that any state whose entropy is within ε of the minimal value must lie within O(ε)O(\sqrt{\varepsilon})O(ε) in trace norm of the manifold of entropy minimizers. The stability exponent is shown to be optimal, and purely quadratic stability is characterized precisely in the confining (fixed-support) regime. The proof relies on a canonical decomposition of entropy into classical (Shannon) and conditional components, combined with sharp relative entropy estimates and geometric properties of the marginal polytope. As an application, we obtain quantitative non-concentration bounds for spectral measures associated with finite spectral decompositions of self-adjoint operators. The framework is entirely finite-dimensional, independent of arithmetic or dynamical assumptions, and provides a general geometric stability principle for entropy minimization under structured convex constraints.
For block-diagonal quantum states with prescribed block weights and dimensions, we determine the minimum von Neumann entropy excess at each trace-norm distance from the blockwise-pure states. The one-block extremal is the classical reverse-Fano profile; the new problem is its constrained assembly when the block weights and dimensions cannot be redistributed. The resulting value function
Φq,n(D) is attained on the full admissible interval and is the lower envelope of finitely many rank-lattice edges. Every minimizing distance allocation has at most one block between consecutive integer ranks, and the active edge can switch nonmonotonically with
D. We also determine the lower convex envelope of
Φq,n explicitly: it is the polygonal curve through synchronized rank vertices and admits a one-parameter dual representation. The exact nonconvex envelope differs from this convex surrogate by at most
q⋄log(5/4), with a sharper stage-dependent bound, and the constant is optimal. For binomial charge-sector weights the uniform gap is
O(L−1/2). The framework yields a symmetry-sector purity certificate; in a three-qubit phase-damping example the fixed-weight certificate remains nontrivial where the universal classical entropy-error envelope is already vacuous.
We investigate the geometric structure of the set of spectra of bipartite absolute separable states (
ASEPm,n) and absolute positive partial transpose states (
APPTm,n), \emph{i.e.}, bipartite quantum states that remain separable or PPT, respectively, under all global unitary transformations. First, we establish general geometric properties of absolute convex sets of matrices, their spectra and extreme points. Regarding absolute separability, we present a permutation-symmetric reformulation of the absolute PPT criterion and use it to demonstrate that
APPTm,n is a spectrahedron for all
m≤n: in particular, all its faces are exposed. While
ASEP2,n is a spectrahedron, too, for
ASEPm,n we can in general only show that it is a semialgebraic set for all
m,n≥3. Furthermore, we provide a complete characterization of the faces and extreme points of
APPTm,n and demonstrate that the dimension of a face is determined by the rank of a certain matrix, with maximal proper faces having dimension
mn−m−1.
In the quantitative setting, we provide a rigorous lower bound on the maximal attainable purity of
APPTm,n via an inscribed polytope
Pm,n and conjecture that the maximal purity of
APPTm,n (along with its spectra) coincides with the polytope for arbitrary dimensions except when
m=n=2. Additionally, we also provide a rigorous upper bound on the minimal von Neumann entropy of
APPTm,n and demonstrate numerically that the minimum entropy eventually coincides with the polytope
Pm,n as the local system dimension
n increases. Finally, we show that the relative spectral volume of
APPTm,n decays exponentially in
n by a constant multiplicative factor of the relative volume of the inscribed polytope
Pm,n.
The von Neumann entropy plays a vital role in quantum information theory. The von Neumann entropy determines, e.g., the capacities of quantum channels. Also, entropies of composite quantum systems are important for future quantum networks, and their characterization is related to the quantum marginal problem. Furthermore, they play a role in quantum thermodynamics. In this thesis the set of quantum entropies of multipartite quantum systems is studied. The problem of its characterization is not new -- however, progress has been sparse, indicating that the problem might be hard and that new methods might be needed. Here, a variety of different and complementary approaches are taken. First, I look at global properties. It is known that the von Neumann entropy region -- just like its classical counterpart -- forms a convex cone. I describe the symmetries of this cone and highlight geometric similarities and differences to the classical entropy cone. In a different approach, I utilize the local geometric properties of extremal rays of a cone. I show that quantum states whose entropy lies on such an extremal ray of the quantum entropy cone have a very simple structure. As the set of all quantum states is very complicated, I look at a simple subset called stabilizer states. I improve on previously known results by showing that under a technical condition on the local dimension, entropies of stabilizer states respect an additional class of information inequalities that is valid for random variables from linear codes. In a last approach I find a representation-theoretic formulation of the classical marginal problem simplifying the comparison with its quantum mechanical counterpart. This novel correspondence yields a simplified formulation of the group characterization of classical entropies (IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory, 48(7):1992-1995, 2002) in purely combinatorial terms.
Using techniques proposed in [Sason, IEEE Trans. Inf. Th. 59, 7118 (2013)] and [Becker, Datta and Jabbour, IEEE Trans. Inf. Th. 69, 4128 (2023)], and based on the results from the latter, we construct a globally optimal continuity bound for the von Neumann entropy. This bound applies to any state under energy constraints imposed by arbitrary Hamiltonians that satisfy the Gibbs hypothesis. This completely solves the problem of finding an optimal continuity bound for the von Neumann entropy in this setting, previously known only for pairs of states that are sufficiently close to each other. Our main technical result, a globally optimal semicontinuity bound for the von Neumann entropy under general energy constraints, leads to this continuity bound. To prove it, we also derive an optimal Fano-type inequality for random variables with a countably infinite alphabet and a general constraint, as well as optimal semicontinuity and continuity bounds for the Shannon entropy in the same setting. In doing so, we improve the results derived in [Becker, Datta and Jabbour, IEEE Trans. Inf. Th. 69, 4128 (2023)].
Given an arbitrary quantum state (σ), we obtain an explicit construction of a state ρε*(σ) [respectively, ρ*,ε(σ)] which has the maximum (respectively, minimum) entropy among all states which lie in a specified neighborhood (ε-ball) of σ. Computing the entropy of these states leads to a local strengthening of the continuity bound of the von Neumann entropy, i.e., the Audenaert-Fannes inequality. Our bound is local in the sense that it depends on the spectrum of σ. The states ρε*(σ) and ρ*,ε(σ) depend only on the geometry of the ε-ball and are in fact optimizers for a larger class of entropies. These include the Rényi entropy and the minimum- and maximum-entropies, providing explicit formulas for certain smoothed quantities. This allows us to obtain local continuity bounds for these quantities as well. In obtaining this bound, we first derive a more general result which may be of independent interest, namely, a necessary and sufficient condition under which a state maximizes a concave and Gâteaux-differentiable function in an ε-ball around a given state σ. Examples of such a function include the von Neumann entropy and the conditional entropy of bipartite states. Our proofs employ tools from the theory of convex optimization under non-differentiable constraints, in particular Fermat’s rule, and majorization theory.