In order to compress quantum messages without loss of information it is necessary to allow the length of the encoded messages to vary. We develop a general framework for variable-length quantum messages in close analogy to the classical case and show that lossless compression is only possible if the message to be compressed is known to the sender. The lossless compression of an ensemble of messages is bounded from below by its von-Neumann entropy. We show that it is possible to reduce the number of qbits passing through a quantum channel even below the von Neumann entropy by adding a classical side channel. We give an explicit communication protocol that realizes lossless and instantaneous quantum data compression and apply it to a simple example. This protocol can be used for both online quantum communication and storage of quantum data.
In order to compress quantum messages without loss of information it is necessary to allow the length of the encoded messages to vary. We develop a general framework for variable-length quantum messages in close analogy to the classical case and show that lossless compression is only possible if the message to be compressed is known to the sender. The lossless compression of an ensemble of messages is bounded from below by its von-Neumann entropy. We show that it is possible to reduce the number of qbits passing through a quantum channel even below the von Neumann entropy by adding a classical side channel. We give an explicit communication protocol that realizes lossless and instantaneous quantum data compression and apply it to a simple example. This protocol can be used for both online quantum communication and storage of quantum data.
After K. Bostro/spl uml/m and T. Felbinger observed that lossless quantum data compression does not exist unless decoders know the lengths of codewords, they introduced a classical noiseless channel to inform the decoder of a quantum source about the lengths of codewords. In this paper we analyze their codes and present: 1) a sufficient and necessary condition for the existence of such codes for given lists of lengths of codes; 2) a characterization of the optimal compression rate for their codes. However our main contribution is a more efficient way to use the classical channel. We propose a more general coding scheme. It turned out that the optimal compression can always be achieved by a code obtained by this scheme. A von Neumann entropy lower bound to rates of our codes and a necessary and sufficient condition to achieve the bound are obtained. The gap between this lower bound and the compression rates is also well analyzed. For a special family of quantum sources we provide a sharper lower bound in terms of Shannon entropy. Finally, we propose some problems for further research.
Based on the concept of many-letter theory a general characterization of quantum codes using the Kraus representation is given. Compression codes are defined by their property of decreasing the average information content of a given a priori message ensemble. Lossless quantum codes, in contrast to lossy codes, provide the retrieval of the original input states with perfect fidelity. A general lossless coding scheme is given that translates between two quantum alphabets. It is shown that this scheme is never compressive. Furthermore, a lossless quantum coding scheme, analog to the classical Huffman scheme but different from the Braunstein scheme, is implemented, which provides optimal compression. Motivated by the concept of lossless quantum compression, an observable is defined that measures the amount of compressible quantum information contained in a particular message with respect to a given \\emph{a priori} message ensemble. The average of this observable yields the von Neumann entropy, which is finally established as the amount of compressible quantum information of any message ensemble, confirming its commonly assigned meaning.
Data compression is a fundamental problem in quantum and classical information theory. A typical version of the problem is that the sender Alice receives a (classical or quantum) state from some known ensemble and needs to transmit them to the receiver Bob with average error below some specified bound. We consider the case in which the message can have a variable length and the goal is to minimize its expected length. For classical messages this problem has a well-known solution given by Huffman coding. In this scheme, the expected length of the message is equal to the Shannon entropy of the source (with a constant additive factor) and the scheme succeeds with zero error. This is a single-shot result which implies the asymptotic result, viz. Shannon's source coding theorem, by encoding each state sequentially. For the quantum case, the asymptotic compression rate is given by the von-Neumann entropy. However, we show that there is no one-shot scheme which is able to match this rate, even if interactive communication is allowed. This is a relatively rare case in quantum information theory when the cost of a quantum task is significantly different than the classical analogue. Our result has implications for direct sum theorems in quantum communication complexity and one-shot formulations of Quantum Reverse Shannon theorem.
This chapter describes the principle of compression in quantum communication channels. The underlying concept is that it is possible to convey “faithfully” a quantum message with a large number of qubits, while transmitting a compressed version of this message with a reduced number of qubits through the channel. Beyond the mere notion of fidelity , which characterizes the quality of quantum message transmission, the description brings the new concept of typicality in the space defined by all possible “quantum codewords.” The theorem of Schumacher's quantum compression states that for a qubit source with von Neumann entropy S , the message compression factor R has S − ε for the lower bound, where ε is any nonnegative parameter that can be made arbitrarily small for sufficiently long messages (hence, R ≈ S is the best possible compression factor). An original graphical and numerical illustration of the effect of Schumacher's quantum compression and the evolution of the typical quantum-codeword subspace with increasing message length is provided. Quantum data compression and fidelity In this chapter, we have reached the stage where it is possible to start addressing the issues that are central to information theory, namely, “How efficiently can we code information in a quantum communication channel?” both in terms of economy of means – the concept of data compression – and accuracy of transmission – the concept of message integrity or minimal data error , referred to here as fidelity .
We describe a method for lossless quantum compression if the output of the information source is not known. We compute the best possible compression rate, minimizing the expected base length of the output quantum bit string (the base length of a quantum string is the maximal length in the superposition). This complements work by Schumacher and Westmoreland who calculated the corresponding rate for minimizing the output's average length. Our compressed code words are prefix-free indeterminate-length quantum bit strings which can be concatenated in the case of multiple sources. Therefore, we generalize the known theory of prefix-free quantum codes to the case where strings have indeterminate length. Moreover, we describe a communication model which allows the lossless transmission of the compressed code words. The benefit of compression is then the reduction of transmission errors in the presence of noise.
By looking at quantum data compression in the second quantization, we present a model for the efficient generation and use of variable length codes. In this picture, lossless data compression can be seen as the minimum energy required to faithfully represent or transmit classical information contained within a quantum state. In order to represent information, we create quanta in some predefined modes (i.e., frequencies) prepared in one of the two possible internal states (the information carrying degrees of freedom). Data compression is now seen as the selective annihilation of these quanta, the energy of which is effectively dissipated into the environment. As any increase in the energy of the environment is intricately linked to any information loss and is subject to Landauer's erasure principle, we use this principle to distinguish lossless and lossy schemes and to suggest bounds on the efficiency of our lossless compression protocol. In line with the work of Bostroem and Felbinger [Phys. Rev. A 65, 032313 (2002)], we also show that when using variable length codes the classical notions of prefix or uniquely decipherable codes are unnecessarily restrictive given the structure of quantum mechanics and that a 1-1 mapping is sufficient. In the absence of this restraint, we translate existing classical results on 1-1 coding to the quantum domain to derive a new upper bound on the compression of quantum information. Finally, we present a simple quantum circuit to implement our scheme.