Josza’s definition of fidelity [R. Jozsa, J. Mod. Opt. 41(12), 2315–2323 (1994)] for a pair of (mixed) quantum states is studied in the context of two types of operator algebras. The first setting is mainly algebraic in that it involves unital C∗-algebras A that possess a faithful trace functional τ. In this context, the role of quantum states (that is, density operators) in the classical quantum-mechanical framework is assumed by positive elements ρ ∈ A for which τ(ρ) = 1. The second setting is more operator theoretic: by fixing a faithful normal semifinite trace τ on a semifinite von Neumann algebra M, we define and consider the fidelity of pairs of positive operators in M of unit trace. The main results of this paper address monotonicity and preservation of fidelity under the action of certain trace-preserving positive linear maps of A or of the predual M∗. Our results in the von Neumann algebra setting are novel in that we focus on the Schrödinger picture rather than the Heisenberg picture, and they also yield a new proof of a theorem of Molnár [Rep. Math. Phys. 48(3), 299–303 (2001)] on the structure of fidelity-preserving quantum channels on the trace-class operators.
Entanglement fidelity quantifies how well a quantum channel preserves the correlations between a transmitted system and an inaccessible reference system. We derive closed-form expressions for the entanglement fidelity associated with several standard quantum noise models, including the random Pauli-X, dephasing, depolarizing, Werner-Holevo, generalized Pauli (Weyl), and amplitude-damping channels. For each model, we express the entanglement fidelity in terms of a general input density operator
ρ, using Schumacher's Kraus-operator approach, which provides a channel-agnostic recipe applicable to any completely positive trace-preserving (CPTP) map with a finite Kraus representation. We then specialize to a communication scenario in which the source emits a two-letter parametric alphabet, thereby making explicit the dependence of entanglement preservation on both channel and source parameters. The resulting expressions enable direct comparisons of channel performance and rankings for representative families of input states, including common qubit states.
The problem of an optimal mapping between Hilbert spaces IN and OUT, based on a series of density matrix mapping measurements ${\ensuremath{\rho}}^{(l)}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\varrho}}^{(l)}$, $l=1\ensuremath{\cdots}M$, is formulated as an optimization problem maximizing the total fidelity $\mathcal{F}={\ensuremath{\sum}}_{l=1}^{M}{\ensuremath{\omega}}^{(l)}F({\ensuremath{\varrho}}^{(l)},{\ensuremath{\sum}}_{s}{B}_{s}{\ensuremath{\rho}}^{(l)}{B}_{s}^{\ifmmode\dagger\else\textdagger\fi{}})$ subject to probability preservation constraints on Kraus operators
Bs. For $F(\ensuremath{\varrho},\ensuremath{\sigma})$ in the form that total fidelity can be represented as a quadratic form with superoperator $\mathcal{F}={\ensuremath{\sum}}_{s}\ensuremath{\langle}{B}_{s}|S|{B}_{s}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ (either exactly or as an approximation) an iterative algorithm is developed. The work introduces two important generalizations of unitary learning: (1) IN/OUT states are represented as density matrices; (2) the mapping itself is formulated as a mixed unitary quantum channel ${A}^{OUT}={\ensuremath{\sum}}_{s}{|{w}_{s}|}^{2}{\mathcal{U}}_{s}{A}^{IN}{\mathcal{U}}_{s}^{\ifmmode\dagger\else\textdagger\fi{}}$ (no general quantum channel yet). This marks a crucial advancement from the commonly studied unitary mapping of pure states ${\ensuremath{\phi}}_{l}=\mathcal{U}{\ensuremath{\psi}}_{l}$ to a quantum channel, which allows us to distinguish probabilistic mixture of states and their superposition. An application of the approach is demonstrated on unitary learning of density matrix mapping ${\ensuremath{\varrho}}^{(l)}=\mathcal{U}{\ensuremath{\rho}}^{(l)}{\mathcal{U}}^{\ifmmode\dagger\else\textdagger\fi{}}$, in this case a quadratic on
U fidelity can be constructed by considering $\sqrt{{\ensuremath{\rho}}^{(l)}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\sqrt{{\ensuremath{\varrho}}^{(l)}}$ mapping, and on a quantum channel, where quadratic on
Bs fidelity is an approximation---a quantum channel is then obtained as a hierarchy of unitary mappings, a mixed unitary channel. The approach can be applied to studying quantum inverse problems, variational quantum algorithms, quantum tomography, and more. A software product implementing the algorithm is available from the authors.