For the quantum switch of two commuting channels, we extend the commutator identities of Chen and Ma (arXiv:2609.21310). For arbitrary inputs, the difference between the switch and fixed-order outputs is a single off-diagonal operator built from Kraus commutators; it gives the overlap gap, trace distance and purity change exactly, and contains Eq. (11), Theorem 2 and Proposition 4 of that paper as special cases. For a pure control, Theorem 1 of that paper becomes quantitative, and for inputs of rank at most two the root-fidelity gap is exact. We also give bounds for mixed controls, a criterion for mixed aligned states, and a qubit counterexample. A seeded Python reproduction package is included. This is a working note and has not been peer reviewed.
For the quantum switch of two commuting channels, we extend the commutator identities of Chen and Ma (arXiv:2609.21310). For arbitrary inputs, the difference between the switch and fixed-order outputs is a single off-diagonal operator built from Kraus commutators; it gives the overlap gap, trace distance and purity change exactly, and contains Eq. (11), Theorem 2 and Proposition 4 of that paper as special cases. For a pure control, Theorem 1 of that paper becomes quantitative, and for inputs of rank at most two the root-fidelity gap is exact. We also give bounds for mixed controls, a criterion for mixed aligned states, and a qubit counterexample. A seeded Python reproduction package is included. This is a working note and has not been peer reviewed.
Two commuting channels yield the same composite channel in either fixed order, yet their quantum switch can alter information preservation. We study how this effect depends on the input state, retaining the joint output of the control and target. Exact Kraus commutator identities determine overlap and squared fidelity gaps. Fixed order preserves product inputs at least as well as the switch in fidelity. The reverse inequality holds for pure states of two qubits whose control Schmidt basis can be chosen to coincide with the order basis. A commutator matrix determines the target basis that maximizes the squared fidelity gap at fixed entanglement within this aligned family. For Pauli X and Y channels with equal error probabilities, the switch replaces a logical phase flip with an operator that stabilizes a joint code. At fixed noise, the switch preserves at least as much distinguishability and quantum Fisher information as fixed order for every state family in this code. For the pure encoded family studied here, exact formulas connect the phase information gain to the squared fidelity gap and quantify the reduction in information about the noise probability. Optimizing the probes yields equal maximal quantum Fisher information for noise estimation under both joint channels. These results connect commutator geometry and logical error structure to state preservation and the retention of encoded information.
Abstract The quantum switch is known to remove noise probabilistically, but whether this constitutes an advantage over causally ordered processing has remained contentious: postselection, weak classical benchmarks, and task-dependent comparisons have all drawn criticism. Here we give an exact analysis of the question for a qubit under Pauli noise. For any two qubit Pauli channels, measuring the switch’s control qubit implements a commutation syndrome : it sorts each noise realization by whether the two Kraus errors commuted, syndrome information that an unencoded qubit does not otherwise possess, and the optimal measure-and-feed-forward protocol has a closed form. The analytical results have two levels of generality. For the exactly solvable pair, an isotropic depolarizing channel and a flip channel along an arbitrary axis, we prove a complete ceiling theorem: every definite-order protocol using each channel once, with arbitrary memoryless intermediate operations and receiver-side post-processing, deterministic or heralded, has entanglement fidelity at most ma x P c P , and the switch exceeds this ceiling deterministically , by p q / 3 over most of parameter space. For arbitrary qubit Pauli pairs, the ceiling is proven against arbitrary receiver-side post-processing, and the gain is strictly positive if and only if the two syndrome branches call for different Pauli corrections, confining the exceptions to error-dominated noise. Side systems are covered whenever they are non-signaling about the message. Beyond these theorems the evidence is numerical: strict gain in 99.8 % of 5000 random Pauli pairs, and no case, within a 200 -pair sample, in which an optimized midpoint echo overturns the gain. The state-resolved gain obeys an exact geometric law, Δ F = 2 p q / 3 | r ^ ⋅ n ^ | 2 : alignment is the condition under which the degenerate two-error syndrome becomes perfectly correctable. The separation survives control dephasing down to a threshold visibility that falls with noise strength, and at strong noise it outperforms coherent control of the two orderings even with twice the channel uses.
A completely depolarising quantum channel always outputs a fully mixed state and thus cannot transmit any information. In a recent Letter\cite{ebler18}, it was however shown that if a quantum state passes through two such channels in a quantum superposition of different orders---a setup known as the ``quantum switch''---then information can nevertheless be transmitted through the channels. Here, we show that a similar effect can be obtained when one coherently controls between sending a target system through one of two identical depolarising channels. Whereas it is tempting to attribute this effect in the quantum switch to the indefinite causal order between the channels, causal indefiniteness plays no role in this new scenario. This raises questions about its role in the corresponding effect in the quantum switch. We study this new scenario in detail and we see that, when quantum channels are controlled coherently, information about their specific implementation is accessible in the output state of the joint control-target system. This allows two different implementations of what is usually considered to be the same channel to therefore be differentiated. More generally, we find that to completely describe the action of a coherently controlled quantum channel, one needs to specify not only a description of the channel (e.g., in terms of Kraus operators), but an additional ``transformation matrix'' depending on its implementation.
A nonzero commutator proves that two orderings differ as operators, but it does not ensure that a physical state can reveal the difference. We ask when non-Abelian ordering information becomes dynamically invisible. For Hermitian operators B and C, we compare the evolutions generated by the opposite-order products M=(B+iC)(B−iC) and M=(B−iC)(B+iC), and define their operational visibility from the minimum overlap of the output states over a normalized time window. This visibility bounds the difference produced by the two orderings in every observable on the chosen state. An exact one-qubit solution shows that the same fixed pair can be perfectly invisible in one state and visible in another. We then keep the ordered generators fixed and vary only the many-body ground state across a quantum phase transition. The same ordering difference is nearly invisible in one regime and clearly visible in the other. Moreover, states with identical leading quadratic decay can develop sharply different finite-time visibility because their first distinction appears at higher order. The effect persists across distinct operator pairs and coefficient perturbations. Thus dynamical Abelianization is a property of the state-dependent process, i.e., non-Abelian ordering information can become operationally inaccessible even though the underlying operators remain non-commuting.
A completely depolarising quantum channel always outputs a fully mixed state and thus cannot transmit any information. In a recent Letter\cite{ebler18}, it was however shown that if a quantum state passes through two such channels in a quantum superposition of different orders---a setup known as the ``quantum switch''---then information can nevertheless be transmitted through the channels. Here, we show that a similar effect can be obtained when one coherently controls between sending a target system through one of two identical depolarising channels. Whereas it is tempting to attribute this effect in the quantum switch to the indefinite causal order between the channels, causal indefiniteness plays no role in this new scenario. This raises questions about its role in the corresponding effect in the quantum switch. We study this new scenario in detail and we see that, when quantum channels are controlled coherently, information about their specific implementation is accessible in the output state of the joint control-target system. This allows two different implementations of what is usually considered to be the same channel to therefore be differentiated. More generally, we find that to completely describe the action of a coherently controlled quantum channel, one needs to specify not only a description of the channel (e.g., in terms of Kraus operators), but an additional ``transformation matrix'' depending on its implementation.
A quantum channel can always be implemented by a unitary interaction with an environment that starts in a pure state. With a finite, maximally mixed environment, the implementable channels are the noisy operations. A tracial von Neumann algebra as environment gives the factorizable channels, and by a theorem of Haagerup and Musat combined with MIP* = RE, some of these lie outside the closure of the noisy operations. Version 1.0 of this record wrote down explicit rational channels of this kind, with no value for their distance from the closure. This version gives explicit lower bounds. Using Wang and Zhi's dimension-uniform reflection estimate, it constructs a factorizable unital channel on twelve qubits with Kraus entries in {0, 1, ±3/5, 4/5}, whose normalized Choi and diamond distances from the closure are at least 2^-(2J+50), with J = 2^(2^1122000). The bound comes from a compiler theorem: group relations that are rigid uniformly in the matrix dimension give a rational channel with an explicit distance bound. For the channels of version 1.0, a new spectral certificate for the root groups of their presentation gives explicit gaps: 2^-(2J+41) for the fifteen-qubit channel and its two variants and, by the bound of version 1.0, 2^-(2J+36) in Choi distance and 2^-(2J+21) in diamond distance for the fully referenced channel. The numbers are tiny because Wang and Zhi's tolerance is 2^-J. The results depend on recent preprints of Wang and Zhi, Thom, and Alekseev, Liu and Thom, which are not yet refereed. This archive includes the paper, the channel data, the certificates, and programs that rebuild and check them; python verify_all.py ends with OK ALL.