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arXiv:quant-ph/0305056 · Physical Review A

Strong superadditivity of the entanglement of formation follows from its additivity

A. A. Pomeransky

Published Sep 29, 2003• 36 citations
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Abstract

The additivity of both the entanglement of formation and the classical channel capacity is known to be a consequence of the strong superadditivity conjecture. We show that, conversely, the strong superadditivity conjecture follows from the additivity of the entanglement of formation; this means that the two conjectures are equivalent and that the additivity of the classical channel capacity is a consequence of them.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.68.032317

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The additivity of both the entanglement of formation and the classical channel capacity is known to be a consequence of the strong superadditivity conjecture. We show that, conversely, the strong superadditivity conjecture follows from the additivity of the entanglement of formation; this means that the two conjectures are equivalent and that the additivity of the classical channel capacity is a consequence of them.
Recently Shor proved equivalence of several open (sub)additivity problems related to the Holevo capacity and the entanglement of formation [15]. In our previous note [6] equivalence of these to the additivity of the Holevo capacity for channels with arbitrary linear constraints was shown. This note is the development of the previous one in the direction of channels with general constraints. Introducing input constraints provides greater flexibility in the treatment of the additivity conjecture. The Holevo capacity of arbitrarily constrained channel is considered and the characteristic property of an optimal ensemble for such channel is derived, generalizing the maximal distance property of Schumacher and Westmoreland (proposition 1). It is shown that the additivity conjecture for two channels with single linear constraints is equivalent to the similar conjecture for two arbitrarily constrained channels and, hence, to an interesting subadditivity property of the χχχ-function for the tensor product of these channels (theorem 1). We also propose an alternative way of proving that the additivity conjecture for any two unconstrained channels implies strong superadditivity of the entanglement of formation. The arguments from the convex analysis provide another characterization of channels for which subadditivity of the χχχ-function holds (theorem 3). This characterization and some modification of Shor's channel extension provide a simple way of proving that global additivity of the minimum output entropy for unconstrained channels implies global subadditivity of the χχχ-function and strong superadditivity of the entanglement of formation.
We employ a basic formalism from convex analysis to show a simple relation between the entanglement of formation EFE_FEF​ and the conjugate function E∗E^*E∗ of the entanglement function E(rho)=S(traceArho)E(\\rho)=S(\\trace_A\\rho)E(rho)=S(traceA​rho). We then consider the conjectured strong superadditivity of the entanglement of formation EF(rho)geEF(rhoI)+EF(rhoII)E_F(\\rho) \\ge E_F(\\rho_I)+E_F(\\rho_{II})EF​(rho)geEF​(rhoI​)+EF​(rhoII​), where rhoI\\rho_IrhoI​ and rhoII\\rho_{II}rhoII​ are the reductions of rho\\rhorho to the different Hilbert space copies, and prove that it is equivalent with subadditivity of E∗E^*E∗. As an application, we show that strong superadditivity would follow from multiplicativity of the maximal channel output purity for all non-trace-preserving quantum channels, when purity is measured by Schatten ppp-norms for ppp tending to 1.
One of the central problems of quantum information theory [1] is the additivity conjecture for the channel capacity of quantum communication channels [2]–[4]. Recently Shor showed [5] that the validity of this conjecture for all quantum channels was equivalent to a whole series of (super)additivity properties for other important characteristics such as minimal output entropy and entanglementof formation. The present paper introduces the new property of strong additivity (additivity for channels with input constraints) with several equivalent formulations, establishes that it is satisfied for some nontrivial classes of channels and notes that the validity of the additivity conjecture for all channels implies strong additivity. Let H, H′ be finite-dimensional unitary spaces. By a quantum channel we mean a completely positive trace-preserving linear map Φ: B(H) → B(H′), where B(H) is the algebra of all operators on H. In particular, Φ generates an affine map of the convex set S(H) of states (density operators) on the space H into the set S(H′) of states on H′ [1]. The quantum analogue of Shannon’s theorem, established in [4], gives the following expression for the classical channel capacity:
Finding the optimal encoding strategies can be challenging for communication using quantum channels, as classical and quantum capacities may be superadditive. Entanglement assistance can often simplify this task, as the entanglement-assisted classical capacity for any channel is additive, making entanglement across channel uses unnecessary. If the entanglement assistance is limited, the picture is much more unclear. Suppose the classical capacity is superadditive, then the classical capacity with limited entanglement assistance could retain superadditivity by continuity arguments. If the classical capacity is additive, it is unknown if superadditivity can still be developed with limited entanglement assistance. We show this is possible, by providing an example. We construct a channel for which the classical capacity is additive, but that with limited entanglement assistance can be superadditive. This shows entanglement plays a weird role in communication, and we still understand very little about it.