What should an optical memory retain when only a limited amount of source information can be kept? This paper gives the complete quantum information frontier for a fixed Gaussian source and relevance channel, and identifies when a single retained qubit preserves correlations that every classical record loses. It also turns that advantage into a concrete test of whether received light belongs to its stored source preparation. The physical experiment and the complete frontier A fixed Gaussian state on
A is prepared with its actual purifier
C. A normal encoder acts on
C to produce memory
M, while a prescribed Gaussian channel maps
A to the relevant optical output
B. The source-information cost and useful correlation are
r=I(A:M) and
v=I(B:M), respectively. All logarithms are natural. The paper determines
CQ(R)=supN:I(A:M)≤RI(B:M). For every fixed faithful finite-mode Gaussian source and finite-mode Gaussian relevance channel, optimization over arbitrary normal quantum encoders reduces to Gaussian supporting values and a mixture of at most two Gaussian branches. The branch flag is physically retained. The unrestricted frontier is a supremum with no imposed memory dimension or memory-energy cap; an explicit finite approximation gives an error uniform in the information budget. Hard finite-dimensional implementations are treated separately. Why one qubit can preserve the leading low-brightness information For a thermal source with mean photon number
n and a thermal attenuator with transmissivity
0<η<1, write the output occupation as
ηn+b, where
b≥0 is the environment's added thermal occupation. With
g(x)=(x+1)log(x+1)−xlogx, the exact optimum over all normal classical records is
Ccl(n,R)=g(ηn+b)−g(ηuR+b),uR=g−1(max{g(n)−R,0}). A legal encoder applies vacuum loss with transmissivity
λ to the purifier and then coherently retains two levels, resetting the entire higher-photon tail. For fixed
b>0 and
0<λ<1/2, at the common budget
Rn=g(n)+g(λn)−g((1−λ)n), its actual relevance satisfies
v2=1+bηλnlog(1/n)+O(n),Ccl(n,Rn)=2ληlog(1+1/b)n+O(log(1/n)n). The full optical tail is included in the resource accounting. At
n=0.01,
η=b=0.5,
λ=0.2 and
R=0.023875, the certified predictive-mutual-information advantage exceeds 85%. The leading correlation is quantified by memory-side discord and can survive when the final output–memory state is separable. The vacuum-environment endpoint is evaluated separately for the same encoder. A same-resource correlation decision The receiver distinguishes matched source pairs from independent systems with identical marginals. For
k uses, the retained predictive memory obeys
dimKk≤2k and
I(Ak:Kk)≤kR, including all retained flags. Both competitors may make arbitrary joint binary measurements on the received optical modes and their retained memory. The received modes are common observation access, outside the predictive-memory cap. Let
αk be the missed-correlation probability and
βk the false-match probability. For every classical block encoder, even with an unrestricted classical alphabet, the fixed-error converse is
αk≤ϵ⟹βk≥exp[−1−ϵkcnR+log2],cn=ηlog(1+1/n)log(1+1/(ηn+b)). At the finite parameters above and
ϵ=0.1, the product-qubit encoder achieves an asymptotic false-match exponent of 0.0049 nats per pair, whereas every classical block strategy has exponent below 0.003138386231. This uses one qubit per source pair and identical measurement permissions. It is an asymptotic discrimination guarantee, distinct from the 85% single-copy information comparison; it specifies neither a finite-sample threshold nor a laboratory receiver circuit. The integrated paper contains the complete proofs, resource accounting and figures. The exact thermal classical comparator, the finite-memory construction and the block-testing connection have explicit proof dependencies separate from the general Gaussian-frontier reduction.
Free classical communication can yield an unbounded single-shot saving in quantum compression, even though it leaves the asymptotic rate of an i.i.d. source unchanged. At every fixed error in
(0,1), we exhibit sources whose unassisted compression cost is arbitrarily large, yet a single qubit suffices with classical communication and no preshared entanglement. We establish this separation by determining the exact optimal source fidelity for compression through an
m-dimensional noiseless quantum channel, with and without free classical communication, while preserving correlations with an inaccessible reference. Without classical assistance, the optimal fidelity is exactly the Ky Fan norm
∥ρ∥(m), the sum of the
m largest eigenvalues of the source state. With classical assistance, we obtain an explicit spectral threshold formula and a protocol attaining it. Classical communication strictly improves fidelity whenever
m is smaller than the source rank. The corresponding compression costs are two smoothed versions of the log-rank entropy, also called max-entropy: trace-distance smoothing under local operations and quadratic smoothing under LOCC. For i.i.d. copies of a fixed source with positive entropy variance, however, the two costs have identical first-, second-, and third-order asymptotic terms. For nonlattice spectra, we determine the constant-order advantage: classical communication saves
log2(e)−1 bits per block asymptotically, and the ratio of assisted to unassisted minimum communication dimensions converges to
2/e.
Abstract Preparing additional quantum states while retaining a source requires information beyond an arbitrary unknown input. We formulate reconstruction from incom- plete classical preparation records as an identity channel on the source and two output preparations. For a short interval of QPE phase states, we derive the exact record-only minimax fidelity and an attaining endpoint superposition, closing the gap between center replay and an endpoint upper bound. An explicit one-ancilla circuit realizes the optimum with a known success probability, while deterministic synthesis provides a finite-circuit alternative. Shor and randomized-simulation examples expose different obstructions from discrete ambiguity and missing ran- dom choices. In one randomized-simulation setting, optimal conditional fidelity averaged over records was 0.925, although robust fidelity above five sixths was impossible for eight of ten records. Session calibration and resource-controlled comparisons distinguish average performance from worst-case guarantees. Hard- ware diagnostics test operational phase models, source waiting and preparation costs. They do not certify intrinsic gate angles, reconstruction fidelity or physical source preservation. The analysis identifies information and operational conditions without changing universal cloning bounds.
A quantum record can have locally accessible populations while its distinguishing phase remains correlated with a distant source. We study this access boundary in a specified finite recording apparatus with a returning, vacuum/one-excitation source. Source-position weights give finite-time cutoff bounds without removing any physical hopping or return coupling. For an initially far-tagged record and its incoherent mixture, every reader in a declared position-preserving local-control class obeys a phase-visibility envelope and a necessary access-time inequality. A separate finite local probe shows why that state-discrimination limit is not an unrestricted limit on distinguishing two dynamical laws: fresh local coherence can reveal a stipulated added dephaser without recovering the old record phase. We construct a bounded, degree-three reader accessing only source positions 1–32. With the initial tag fixed at position 65, exact finite-source arrival certificates and an analytical tail comparison yield recovery uniformly over every finite total source length at least 65. Accessible control faults are charged against the arrived signed-phase norm, while source-moving drift is charged against the full norm. At the fixed deadline 25.02/J, the matched phase-dependent difference between coherent and archive-gated dynamics exceeds 0.005, including the stated simultaneous control faults and four additional absolute response allowances of 0.008 each. Complementary results cover a vacuum-ready source and a stronger endpoint-prepared finite example. The conclusions are conditional on the supplied model, preparations, common realized controls and calibration bounds. They are not a switchable-fundamental-law experiment, a nuisance-independent classifier, an optimal-speed theorem or an end-to-end formal verification. The supporting Lean companion contains 59 declarations in eight modules with accepted returned Mac compilation, type and axiom evidence; physical analytical interfaces remain explicit hypotheses or outside that subset. The deposit files include the main manuscript, technical supplement and full research/reproduction package.
In this work, we study the problem of single-shot discrimination of von Neumann measurements, which we associate with measure-and-prepare channels. There are two possible approaches to this problem. The first one is simple and does not utilize entanglement. We focus only on the discrimination of classical probability distributions, which are outputs of the channels. We find necessary and sufficient criterion for perfect discrimination in this case. A more advanced approach requires the usage of entanglement. We quantify the distance between two measurements in terms of the diamond norm (called sometimes the completely bounded trace norm). We provide an exact expression for the optimal probability of correct distinction and relate it to the discrimination of unitary channels. We also state a necessary and sufficient condition for perfect discrimination and a semidefinite program which checks this condition. Our main result, however, is a cone program which calculates the distance between the measurements and hence provides an upper bound on the probability of their correct distinction. As a by-product, the program finds a strategy (input state) which achieves this bound. Finally, we provide a full description for the cases of Fourier matrices and mirror isometries.
How much internal quantum memory is needed to reproduce a stationary stochastic process, and how does reducing that memory change the environmental resources required when output records are retained? This paper establishes exact quantum-source constructions and resource bounds under explicitly specified readout and retained-output conditions. A general completion theorem identifies the minimum Hilbert-space dimension for stationary triple data in the orthogonal-current-symbol source class: it equals the sum of the complex positive-semidefinite ranks of the middle-symbol slices. An attaining construction reproduces the entire canonical stationary order-two process. For the delayed trine process, the minimum classical hidden Markov model requires nine states at every non-independent parameter value. Quantum instruments reproduce the same complete output law using four-dimensional memory throughout the parameter range, with four dimensions proved necessary in a certified low-noise regime and three dimensions both sufficient and necessary on an explicit high-noise interval. The paper then separates reusable memory dimension from environmental dilation cost. On the certified high-noise interval, the exact one-step Pareto frontier consists of a three-dimensional source with recorded-channel Choi rank nine and a four-dimensional source with rank three. Here, Choi rank measures the minimum initially pure environmental remainder dimension for the channel retaining both the emitted classical symbol and final quantum memory. A separate mixed-support qutrit construction at noise parameter 0.99 improves complete-history costs and gives upper bounds close to universal lower bounds. These results show why optimizing a single step need not optimize a retained multi-step history. The analysis also distinguishes complete channels, fixed-input states and archive-only outputs, and demonstrates how access to a retained reference can distinguish generators with identical passive output statistics. Full-word proofs, algebraic complete-positivity certificates, a technical companion and reproducibility materials accompany the results. The exact intermediate memory boundary and complete-history optimum remain open. All results use standard quantum probabilities and apply to the stated operational resource models; they do not establish total hardware, energy or thermodynamic minima.