We analyze the role of nonlinear Hamiltonians in bosonic channels. We show that the information capacity as a function of the channel energy is increased with respect to the corresponding linear case, although only when the energy used for driving the nonlinearity is not considered as part of the energetic cost and when dispersive effects are negligible.
We analyze the role of nonlinear Hamiltonians in bosonic channels. We show that the information capacity as a function of the channel energy is increased with respect to the corresponding linear case, although only when the energy used for driving the nonlinearity is not considered as part of the energetic cost and when dispersive effects are negligible.
The classical capacity of quantum channels is the tight upper bound for the transmission rate of classical information. This is a quantum counterpart of the foundational notion of the channel capacity introduced by Shannon. Bosonic Gaussian quantum channels provide a good model for optical communications. In order to properly define the classical capacity for these quantum systems, an energy constraint at the channel input is necessary, as in the classical case. A further restriction to Gaussian input ensembles defines the Gaussian (classical) capacity, which can be studied analytically. It also provides a lower bound on the classical capacity and moreover, it is conjectured to coincide with the classical capacity. Therefore, the Gaussian capacity is a useful and important notion in quantum information theory. Recently, we have shown that the study of both the classical and Gaussian capacity of an arbitrary single mode Gaussian quantum channel can be reduced to the study of a particular fiducial channel. In this work we consider the Gaussian capacity of the fiducial channel, discuss its additivity and analyze its dependence on the channel parameters. In addition, we extend previously obtained results on the optimal channel environment to the single mode fiducial channel. In particular, we show that the optimal channel environment for the lossy, amplification, and phase conjugating channels is given by a pure quantum state if its energy is constrained.
The capacity C of a communication channel is the maximum rate at which information can be transmitted without error from the channel's input to its output. The authors review quantum limits on the capacity that can be achieved with linear bosonic communication channels that have input power P. The limits arise ultimately from the Einstein relation that a field quantum at frequency f has energy E=hf. A single linear bosonic channel corresponds to a single transverse mode of the bosonic field---i.e., to a particular spatial dependence in the plane orthogonal to the propagation direction and to a particular spin state or polarization. For a single channel the maximum communication rate is ${C}_{\mathrm{WB}}=(\frac{\ensuremath{\pi}}{\mathrm{ln}2})\sqrt{\frac{2P}{3h}}$ bits/s. This maximum rate can be achieved by a "number-state channel," in which information is encoded in the number of quanta in the bosonic field and in which this information is recovered at the output by counting quanta. Derivations of the optimum capacity CWB are reviewed. Until quite recently all derivations assumed, explicitly or implicitly, a number-state channel. They thus left open the possibility that other techniques for encoding information on the bosonic field, together with other ways of detecting the field at the output, might lead to a greater communication rate. The authors present their own general derivation of the single-channel capacity upper bound, which applies to any physically realizable technique for encoding information on the bosonic field and to any physically realizable detection scheme at the output. They also review the capacities of coherent communication channels that encode information in coherent states and in quadrature-squeezed states. A three-dimensional bosonic channel can employ many transverse modes as parallel single channels. An upper bound on the information flux that can be transferred down parallel bosonic channels is derived.
Quantum channels are functions that map density matrices to density matrices. They can be used to describe a vast array of system environment interactions for quantum mechanical systems. The focus in quantum information theory lies on the study of the information content -- the quantum entropy -- of input and output system. The property of how much information a channel can convey is called capacity. When two quantum channels are combined they act on a bigger, possibly entangled state in parallel. The effects of entanglement on the capacity of a pair of channels have been widely studied. Still, recent work showed unexpected behavior. Hastings found that the capacities of two channels to transmit classical information does not simply add, but can exceed the sum of the individual quantum capacities, a property called superadditivity. We study Hastings' work and find estimates for how large the dimensions of such channels would have to be. The question of capacity relates to the behavior of quantum channels in extremal cases, when the output entropy is minimized. It is natural to wonder about the "standard" behavior of quantum channels and consider their average output entropy. We have studied this behavior in particular in cases where many relatively simple quantum channels act in parallel. When combining quantum channels in parallel, the parts of the system evolve independently of each other -- up to entanglement -- and only interact with the environment. Expanding on this idea one can think of a system where the parts not only interact with the environment but also directly with each other, a quantum channel network. Interesting cases of such systems arise naturally in the study of large biological molecules. In this case, information is often transmitted via energy pulses. Thus, the study of entropy and the study of energy overlap. Of particular interest to us are antennas in photo-active systems, they absorb light energy and transports it to a chemical reaction site. Recently, it has been discovered in the FMO molecule that this process evolves coherently, i.e. shows quantum oscillatory behavior. We study such quantum channel networks and how they can be approximated by kinetic networks. When considering the transport efficiency, this helps separating possible coherent effects from incoherent hopping.
Communication over a noisy channel is often conducted in a setting in which different input symbols to the channel incur a certain cost. For example, for bosonic quantum channels, the cost associated with an input state is the number of photons, which is proportional to the energy consumed. In such a setting, it is often useful to know the maximum amount of information that can be reliably transmitted per cost incurred. This is known as the capacity per unit cost. In this paper, we generalize the capacity per unit cost to various communication tasks involving a quantum channel, such as classical communication, entanglement-assisted classical communication, private communication, and quantum communication. For each task, we define the corresponding capacity per unit cost and derive a formula for it analogous to that of the usual capacity. Furthermore, for the special and natural cases in which there is a zero-cost state, we obtain expressions in terms of an optimized relative entropy involving the zero-cost state. For each communication task, we construct an explicit pulse-position-modulation coding scheme that achieves the capacity per unit cost. Finally, we compute capacities per unit cost for various bosonic Gaussian channels and introduce the notion of a blocklength constraint as a proposed solution to the long-standing issue of infinite capacities per unit cost. This motivates the idea of a blocklength-cost duality on which we elaborate in depth.
In this paper, we develop an extension of the Central Limit Theorem (CLT) to the setting of bosonic quantum channels. This extension provides a deeper understanding of Gaussian bosonic channels as extremal objects. Using our CLT for bosonic quantum channels, we recover both the classical CLT and the CLT for bosonic quantum states, thereby offering a unified perspective that connects classical probability theory with continuous-variable quantum systems. Moreover, using our result, we can provide necessary uncertainty relations that every physical (possibly non-Gaussian) bosonic quantum channel must satisfy. As another application of our limit theorems, we derive tight lower bounds on the energy-constrained quantum capacity of linear bosonic channels by relating it to the capacity of their associated Gaussian bosonic channels, further reinforcing the role of Gaussian channels as extremal.