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arXiv:quant-ph/0012127 · IEEE Transactions on Information Theory

Strong converse for identification via quantum channels

Rudolf Ahlswede, Andreas Winter

Published Mar 1, 2002• 423 citations
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Abstract

We present a simple proof of the strong converse for identification via discrete memoryless quantum channels, based on a novel covering lemma. The new method is a generalization to quantum communication channels of Ahlswede's (1979, 1992) approach to classical channels. It involves a development of explicit large deviation estimates to the case of random variables taking values in self-adjoint operators on a Hilbert space. This theory is presented separately in an appendix, and we illustrate it by showing its application to quantum generalizations of classical hypergraph covering problems.

DOI
10.1109/18.985947

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Addendum to "Strong converse for identification via quantum channels"

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The paper discusses Conjecture 21 formulated by Ahlswede and Winter (see ibid., vol.48, p.569-79, Mar. 2002) about finite families of self-adjoint operators A/sub i/ and B/sub i/ noting that for commuting operators equality holds. It adds that the other statements made in connection with this conjecture, though not logically disproved, should be regarded with caution.

IEEE Transactions on Information Theory•Jan 1, 2003•14 citations
We present a simple proof of the strong converse for identification via discrete memoryless quantum channels, based on a novel covering lemma. The new method is a generalization to quantum communication channels of Ahlswede's (1979, 1992) approach to classical channels. It involves a development of explicit large deviation estimates to the case of random variables taking values in self-adjoint operators on a Hilbert space. This theory is presented separately in an appendix, and we illustrate it by showing its application to quantum generalizations of classical hypergraph covering problems.
We establish a single-letter and efficiently computable strong converse bound on the classical identification capacity of quantum channels. By equipping the nnn-fold channel output space with a product state-weighted σσσ-Euclidean geometry, we allow trace-distance separation constraints for identification codes to be controlled by Euclidean covering estimates. Using Sudakov's inequality, we bound the covering numbers of the nnn-fold channel outputs via their Gaussian mean widths in the weighted geometry, whose exponential growth in nnn is governed by the operator norm of a single-letter positive operator. Upon optimizing over all weighing states σσσ, this yields a strong converse bound on the identification capacity of the channel, which also admits a semidefinite representation. Our method improves the best known converse bounds on the identification capacity of several important examples, such as depolarizing, Pauli, erasure, and amplitude damping channels. We also discuss extensions of this method to more general Euclidean geometries on the output space.
We discuss concepts of message identification in the sense of Ahlswede and Dueck via general quantum channels, extending investigations for classical channels, initial work for classical-quantum (cq) channels and "quantum fingerprinting". We show that the identification capacity of a discrete memoryless quantum channel for classical information can be larger than that for transmission; this is in contrast to all previously considered models, where it turns out to equal the common randomness capacity (equals transmission capacity in our case): in particular, for a noiseless qubit, we show the identification capacity to be 2, while transmission and common randomness capacity are 1. Then we turn to a natural concept of identification of quantum messages (i.e. a notion of "fingerprint" for quantum states). This is much closer to quantum information transmission than its classical counterpart (for one thing, the code length grows only exponentially, compared to double exponentially for classical identification). Indeed, we show how the problem exhibits a nice connection to visible quantum coding. Astonishingly, for the noiseless qubit channel this capacity turns out to be 2: in other words, one can compress two qubits into one and this is optimal. In general however, we conjecture quantum identification capacity to be different from classical identification capacity.
Continuing our earlier work (quant-ph/0401060), we give two alternative proofs of the result that a noiseless qubit channel has identification capacity 2: the first is direct by a "maximal code with random extension" argument, the second is by showing that 1 bit of entanglement (which can be generated by transmitting 1 qubit) and negligible (quantum) communication has identification capacity 2. This generalises a random hashing construction of Ahlswede and Dueck: that 1 shared random bit together with negligible communication has identification capacity 1. We then apply these results to prove capacity formulas for various quantum feedback channels: passive classical feedback for quantum-classical channels, a feedback model for classical-quantum channels, and "coherent feedback" for general channels.
We prove a strong converse for quantum communication over Pauli channels within the class of stabilizer codes. If a code whose code space is a full joint eigenspace of a stabilizer group transmits above the coherent information of its own input state, its entanglement fidelity decays exponentially in the block length; the encoder may be any isometry onto that space and the decoder any channel. For memoryless channels this determines the ε\varepsilonε-quantum capacity of the class for every ε<1\varepsilon < 1ε<1, so that tolerating a constant error buys no rate; for antidegradable channels, such as the depolarizing channel with error probability p∈[1/4,3/4]p \in [1/4, 3/4]p∈[1/4,3/4], that capacity is zero, while for p∈[1/4,1/2)p \in [1/4,1/2)p∈[1/4,1/2) partial-transposition bounds provably cannot certify a strong converse. The proof uses neither additivity assumptions nor semidefinite relaxations: optimal decoding succeeds precisely on an event in a product probability space, so the blowing-up lemma of Ahlswede, Gács and Körner applies, and the side information it produces is charged against the coherent information. The argument also constrains near-deterministic decoding for codes of any kind, and we isolate the encoder-side statement that would extend it to all of them.
We discuss concepts of message identification in the sense of Ahlswede and Dueck via general quantum channels, extending investigations for classical channels, initial work for classical--quantum (cq) channels and ``quantum fingerprinting''. We show that the identification capacity of a discrete memoryless quantum channel for classical information can be larger than that for transmission; this is in contrast to all previously considered models, where it turns out to equal the common randomness capacity (equals transmission capacity in our case): in particular, for a noiseless qubit, we show the identification capacity to be 2, while transmission and common randomness capacity are 1. Then we turn to a natural concept of identification of quantum messages (i.e. a notion of ``fingerprint'' for quantum states). This is much closer to quantum information transmission than its classical counterpart (for one thing, the code length grows only exponentially, compared to double exponentially for classical identification). Indeed, we show how the problem exhibits a nice connection to visible quantum coding. Astonishingly, for the noiseless qubit channel this capacity turns out to be 2: in other words, one can compress two qubits into one and this is optimal. In general however, we conjecture quantum identification capacity to be different from classical identification capacity.