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arXiv:quant-ph/0205064 · Journal of Mathematical Physics

Inequalities for quantum entropy: A review with conditions for equality

Mary Beth Ruskai

Published Sep 1, 2002• 185 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

This article presents self-contained proofs of the strong subadditivity inequality for von Neumann’s quantum entropy, S(ρ), and some related inequalities for the quantum relative entropy, most notably its convexity and its monotonicity under stochastic maps. Moreover, the approach presented here, which is based on Klein’s inequality and Lieb’s theorem that the function A→Tr eK+log A is concave, allows one to obtain conditions for equality. In the case of strong subadditivity, which states that S(ρ123)+S(ρ2)⩽S(ρ12)+S(ρ23) where the subscripts denote subsystems of a composite system, equality holds if and only if log ρ123=log ρ12−log ρ2+log ρ23. Using the fact that the Holevo bound on the accessible information in a quantum ensemble can be obtained as a consequence of the monotonicity of relative entropy, we show that equality can be attained for that bound only when the states in the ensemble commute. The article concludes with an Appendix giving a short description of Epstein’s elegant proof of Lieb’s theorem.

DOI
10.1063/1.1497701

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IEEE Transactions on Information Theory•Apr 1, 2003•106 citations
This article presents self-contained proofs of the strong subadditivity inequality for von Neumann’s quantum entropy, S(ρ), and some related inequalities for the quantum relative entropy, most notably its convexity and its monotonicity under stochastic maps. Moreover, the approach presented here, which is based on Klein’s inequality and Lieb’s theorem that the function A→Tr eK+log A is concave, allows one to obtain conditions for equality. In the case of strong subadditivity, which states that S(ρ123)+S(ρ2)⩽S(ρ12)+S(ρ23) where the subscripts denote subsystems of a composite system, equality holds if and only if log ρ123=log ρ12−log ρ2+log ρ23. Using the fact that the Holevo bound on the accessible information in a quantum ensemble can be obtained as a consequence of the monotonicity of relative entropy, we show that equality can be attained for that bound only when the states in the ensemble commute. The article concludes with an Appendix giving a short description of Epstein’s elegant proof of Lieb’s theorem.
This paper presents self-contained proofs of the strong subadditivity inequality for quantum entropy and some related inequalities for the quantum relative entropy, most notably its convexity and its monotonicity under stochastic maps. Moreover, the approach presented here, which is based on Klein's inequality and one of Lieb's less well-known concave trace functions, allows one to obtain conditions for equality. Using the fact that the Holevo bound on the accessible information in a quantum ensemble can be obtained as a consequence of the monotonicity of relative entropy, we show that equality can be attained for that bound only when the states in the ensemble commute. The paper concludes with an Appendix giving a short description of Epstein's elegant proof of the relevant concavity theorem of Lieb.
We derive the monotonicity of the quantum relative entropy by an elementary operational argument based on Stein's lemma in quantum hypothesis testing. For the latter we present an elementary and short proof that requires the law of large numbers only. Joint convexity of the quantum relative entropy is proven too, resulting in a self-contained elementary version of Tropp's approach to Lieb's concavity theorem, according to which the map tr(exp(h+log a)) is concave in a on positive operators for self-adjoint h.
Abstract Chapter 20 provides a discussion of entropies and entropic quantities in quantum information theory, briefly considering the generalizations of the Rényi entropy to the quantum regime, but mainly focusing on the von Neumann entropy and its properties such as concavity, the Araki-Lieb inequality, and subadditivity. We introduce the quantum relative entropy, quantum joint entropy, quantum conditional entropy, and quantum mutual information, and prove key properties and results for these quantities, including Klein’s inequality, joint convexity, additivity, and monotonicity under completely positive and trace-preserving maps of the relative entropy, as well as weak monotonicity and strong subadditivity of the von Neumann entropy. We then analyse the relation of (negative) conditional entropy and entanglement. In this context we discuss the conditional amplitude operator and the mutual amplitude operator, as well as conditional Rényi entropies and their role for entanglement detection.
We give an explicit characterisation of the quantum states which saturate the strong subadditivity inequality for the von Neumann entropy. By combining a result of Petz characterising the equality case for the monotonicity of relative entropy with a recent theorem by Koashi and Imoto, we show that such states will have the form of a so-called short quantum Markov chain, which in turn implies that two of the systems are independent conditioned on the third, in a physically meaningful sense. This characterisation simultaneously generalises known necessary and sufficient entropic conditions for quantum error correction as well as the conditions for the achievability of the Holevo bound on accessible information.
The strong subadditivity inequality of von Neumann entropy relates the entropy of subsystems of a tripartite state ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{ABC}$ to that of the composite system. Here, we define ${\mathbit{T}}^{(a)}({\ensuremath{\rho}}_{ABC})$ as the extent to which ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{ABC}$ fails to satisfy the strong subadditivity inequality $S({\ensuremath{\rho}}_{B})+S({\ensuremath{\rho}}_{C})\ensuremath{\le}S({\ensuremath{\rho}}_{AB})+S({\ensuremath{\rho}}_{AC})$ with equality and investigate its properties. In particular, by introducing auxiliary subsystem EEE, we consider any purification $|{\ensuremath{\psi}}_{ABCE}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ of ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{ABC}$ and formulate ${\mathbit{T}}^{(a)}({\ensuremath{\rho}}_{ABC})$ as the extent to which the bipartite quantum correlations of ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{AB}$ and ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{AC}$, measured by entanglement of formation and quantum discord, change under the transformation $B\ensuremath{\rightarrow}BE$ and $C\ensuremath{\rightarrow}CE$. Invariance of quantum correlations of ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{AB}$ and ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{AC}$ under such transformation is shown to be a necessary and sufficient condition for vanishing ${\mathbit{T}}^{(a)}({\ensuremath{\rho}}_{ABC})$. Our approach allows one to characterize, intuitively, the structure of states for which the strong subadditivity is saturated. Moreover, along with providing a conservation law for quantum correlations of states for which the strong subadditivity inequality is satisfied with equality, we find that such states coincide with those that the Koashi-Winter monogamy relation is saturated.
Let /spl rho/ denote the density matrix of a quantum state having n parts 1, ..., n. For I/spl sube/N={1, ..., n}, let /spl rho//sub I/=Tr/sub N/spl bsol/I/(/spl rho/) denote the density matrix of the state comprising those parts i such that i/spl isin/I, and let S(/spl rho//sub I/) denote the von Neumann (1927) entropy of the state /spl rho//sub I/. The collection of /spl nu/=2/sup n/ numbers {S(/spl rho//sub I/)}/sub I/spl sube/N/ may be regarded as a point, called the allocation of entropy for /spl rho/, in the vector space R/sup /spl nu//. Let A/sub n/ denote the set of points in R/sup /spl nu// that are allocations of entropy for n-part quantum states. We show that A~/sub n/~ (the topological closure of A/sub n/) is a closed convex cone in R/sup /spl nu//. This implies that the approximate achievability of a point as an allocation of entropy is determined by the linear inequalities that it satisfies. Lieb and Ruskai (1973) have established a number of inequalities for multipartite quantum states (strong subadditivity and weak monotonicity). We give a finite set of instances of these inequalities that is complete (in the sense that any valid linear inequality for allocations of entropy can be deduced from them by taking positive linear combinations) and independent (in the sense that none of them can be deduced from the others by taking positive linear combinations). Let B/sub n/ denote the polyhedral cone in R/sup /spl nu// determined by these inequalities. We show that A~/sub n/~=B/sub n/ for n/spl les/3. The status of this equality is open for n/spl ges/4. We also consider a symmetric version of this situation, in which S(/spl rho//sub I/) depends on I only through the number i=/spl ne/I of indexes in I and can thus be denoted S(/spl rho//sub i/). In this case, we give for each n a finite complete and independent set of inequalities governing the symmetric allocations of entropy {S(/spl rho//sub i/)}/sub 0/spl les/i/spl les/n/ in R/sup n+1/.