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Output Side Information Changes the Entanglement-Breaking Threshold

Oliver Tuma

Published Sep 29, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Discarding an output subsystem is a local post-processing operation, so an entanglement-breaking channel remains entanglement breaking after output reduction. The converse need not hold: a reduced channel can be entanglement breaking even when a richer output still carries reference entanglement. This preprint gives an exactly solvable two-parameter benchmark that quantifies this asymmetry. On two qubits, let (\Pi_\pm=(I\pm Z\otimes I)/2), let (\mathcal L(X)=\sum_s\Pi_sX\Pi_s) be sector dephasing, let (\mathcal M(X)=\sum_s\operatorname{Tr}(\Pi_sX)\Pi_s/2) be measure-and-prepare within the two sectors, and let (\mathcal D_4(X)=\operatorname{Tr}(X)I_4/4). The channel family is [\Phi_{t,\eta}=(1-\eta)\big[(1-t)\mathcal L+t\mathcal M\big]+\eta\mathcal D_4,\qquad 0\le t,\eta\le1.] For the reduced task, a variable second-qubit input is embedded with an arbitrary fixed first-qubit state and the first output qubit is discarded. The induced qubit channel is depolarizing with parameter (q=(1-\eta)(1-t)), and is entanglement breaking exactly when (q\le1/3). For the full four-dimensional output, the partially transposed normalized Choi state has one potentially negative eigenvalue, [\lambda_- = \frac{-4(1-\eta)+6(1-\eta)t+\eta}{16},] with multiplicity two. The block structure makes PPT sufficient for separability in this family. Hence, for (\eta<1), [t_{\rm red}(\eta)=\max!\left{0,1-\frac{1}{3(1-\eta)}\right},\qquadt_{\rm full}(\eta)=\max!\left{0,\frac{4-5\eta}{6(1-\eta)}\right}.] The exact region in which the reduced channel is already entanglement breaking while the full channel is not is (t_{\rm red}(\eta)\le t<t_{\rm full}(\eta)). Its width is [w(\eta)=\begin{cases}\eta/[6(1-\eta)],&0\le\eta\le2/3,\(4-5\eta)/[6(1-\eta)],&2/3\le\eta<4/5,\0,&4/5\le\eta\le1,\end{cases}] and reaches the exact maximum (w_{\max}=1/3) at (\eta=2/3). The Choi negativities are [\mathcal N_{\rm red}=\frac{[3(1-\eta)(1-t)-1]+}{4},\qquad\mathcal N{\rm full}=\frac{[4-5\eta-6(1-\eta)t]_+}{8}.] Therefore the maximal full-output Choi negativity compatible with an already entanglement-breaking reduced output is (1/12), attained at ((\eta,t)=(2/3,0)). The result is a controlled benchmark for output-access dependence: the same physical channel family can cross the entanglement-breaking boundary at different noise values solely because an output subsystem is retained or discarded.

DOI
10.5281/zenodo.23045062

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Discarding an output subsystem is a local post-processing operation, so an entanglement-breaking channel remains entanglement breaking after output reduction. The converse need not hold: a reduced channel can be entanglement breaking even when a richer output still carries reference entanglement. This preprint gives an exactly solvable two-parameter benchmark that quantifies this asymmetry. On two qubits, let (\Pi_\pm=(I\pm Z\otimes I)/2), let (\mathcal L(X)=\sum_s\Pi_sX\Pi_s) be sector dephasing, let (\mathcal M(X)=\sum_s\operatorname{Tr}(\Pi_sX)\Pi_s/2) be measure-and-prepare within the two sectors, and let (\mathcal D_4(X)=\operatorname{Tr}(X)I_4/4). The channel family is [\Phi_{t,\eta}=(1-\eta)\big[(1-t)\mathcal L+t\mathcal M\big]+\eta\mathcal D_4,\qquad 0\le t,\eta\le1.] For the reduced task, a variable second-qubit input is embedded with an arbitrary fixed first-qubit state and the first output qubit is discarded. The induced qubit channel is depolarizing with parameter (q=(1-\eta)(1-t)), and is entanglement breaking exactly when (q\le1/3). For the full four-dimensional output, the partially transposed normalized Choi state has one potentially negative eigenvalue, [\lambda_- = \frac{-4(1-\eta)+6(1-\eta)t+\eta}{16},] with multiplicity two. The block structure makes PPT sufficient for separability in this family. Hence, for (\eta<1), [t_{\rm red}(\eta)=\max!\left{0,1-\frac{1}{3(1-\eta)}\right},\qquadt_{\rm full}(\eta)=\max!\left{0,\frac{4-5\eta}{6(1-\eta)}\right}.] The exact region in which the reduced channel is already entanglement breaking while the full channel is not is (t_{\rm red}(\eta)\le t<t_{\rm full}(\eta)). Its width is [w(\eta)=\begin{cases}\eta/[6(1-\eta)],&0\le\eta\le2/3,(4-5\eta)/[6(1-\eta)],&2/3\le\eta<4/5,\0,&4/5\le\eta\le1,\end{cases}] and reaches the exact maximum (w_{\max}=1/3) at (\eta=2/3). The Choi negativities are [\mathcal N_{\rm red}=\frac{[3(1-\eta)(1-t)-1]+}{4},\qquad\mathcal N{\rm full}=\frac{[4-5\eta-6(1-\eta)t]_+}{8}.] Therefore the maximal full-output Choi negativity compatible with an already entanglement-breaking reduced output is (1/12), attained at ((\eta,t)=(2/3,0)). The result is a controlled benchmark for output-access dependence: the same physical channel family can cross the entanglement-breaking boundary at different noise values solely because an output subsystem is retained or discarded.
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When modelling decoherence in a biological spin system it is tempting to seek a critical rate beyond which the channel is entanglement-breaking (EB) and quantum resources are gone. We show that for the two channel families in which such a model would be posed, no critical rate exists. For uniform dephasing at rate γγγ the partial transpose of the Choi state has eigenvalue −e−γ/d-e^{-γ}/d−e−γ/d, so the channel is non-PPT -- hence not EB -- at every finite γγγ. Adding amplitude damping changes nothing: the qubit map's partial transpose stays negative at all finite rates. What does vanish at a finite rate is the coherent information, exactly where the qubit map turns antidegradable: the root of c2=pc^{2}=pc2=p, $γ_{\Ic}=0.668$ at κ=0.1κ=0.1κ=0.1. Antidegradability survives tensor products, so the single-letter and regularised thresholds coincide: of the three properties usually conflated here, two share one finite boundary and the third has none. Our main object is the numerical mechanism that manufactures a threshold where there is none. A quantity that decays exponentially to zero without reaching it, tested against a fixed absolute cutoff, yields a "threshold" set by the cutoff: the PPT test gives γ=5.49γ=5.49γ=5.49 at ε=10−10ε=10^{-10}ε=10−10 and 6.586.586.58 at 10−1210^{-12}10−12, sliding by 0.550.550.55 per decade. We reported the first number in three now-retracted preprints. Preparing this paper we made the same error three more times -- most seriously in $γ_{\Ic}$ itself, which a bisection against a 10−710^{-7}10−7 cutoff placed at 0.620.620.62 -- and we document all four instances, with the closed forms and code that avoid them.
We introduce and investigate a family of entanglement-annihilating channels. These channels are capable of destroying any quantum entanglement within the system they act on. We show that they are not necessarily entanglement breaking. In order to achieve this result we analyze the subset of locally entanglement-annihilating channels. In this case, the same local noise applied on each subsystem individually is less entanglement annihilating (with respect to multi-partite entanglement) as the number of subsystems is increasing. Therefore, the bipartite case provides restrictions on the set of local entanglement-annihilating channels for the multipartite case. The introduced concepts are illustrated on the family of single-qubit depolarizing channels.
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