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arXiv:quant-ph/0603278

Accessible versus Holevo Information for a Binary Random Variable

Rahul Jain, Ashwin Nayak

Published Mar 30, 2006• 1 citation

Abstract

The accessible information acc(E) of an ensemble E is the maximum mutual information between a random variable encoded into quantum states, and the probabilistic outcome of a quantum measurement of the encoding. Accessible information is extremely difficult to characterize analytically; even bounds on it are hard to place. The celebrated Holevo bound states that accessible information cannot exceed chi(E), the quantum mutual information between the random variable and its encoding. However, for general ensembles, the gap between the acc(E) and chi(E) may be arbitrarily large. We consider the special case of a binary random variable, which often serves as a stepping stone towards other results in information theory and communication complexity. We give explicit lower bounds on the the accessible information acc(E) of an ensemble E = {(p, rho_0), (1-p, rho_1)}, with 0 <= p <= 1, as functions of p and chi(E). The bounds are incomparable in the sense that they surpass each other in different parameter regimes. Our bounds arise by measuring the ensemble according to a complete orthogonal measurement that preserves the fidelity of the states rho_0,rho_1. As an intermediate step, therefore, we give new relations between the two quantities acc(E), chi(E) and the fidelity B(rho_0,rho_1).

DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/0603278

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The accessible information acc(E) of an ensemble E is the maximum mutual information between a random variable encoded into quantum states, and the probabilistic outcome of a quantum measurement of the encoding. Accessible information is extremely difficult to characterize analytically; even bounds on it are hard to place. The celebrated Holevo bound states that accessible information cannot exceed chi(E), the quantum mutual information between the random variable and its encoding. However, for general ensembles, the gap between the acc(E) and chi(E) may be arbitrarily large. We consider the special case of a binary random variable, which often serves as a stepping stone towards other results in information theory and communication complexity. We give explicit lower bounds on the the accessible information acc(E) of an ensemble E = {(p, rho_0), (1-p, rho_1)}, with 0 <= p <= 1, as functions of p and chi(E). The bounds are incomparable in the sense that they surpass each other in different parameter regimes. Our bounds arise by measuring the ensemble according to a complete orthogonal measurement that preserves the fidelity of the states rho_0,rho_1. As an intermediate step, therefore, we give new relations between the two quantities acc(E), chi(E) and the fidelity B(rho_0,rho_1).

The accessible information quantifies the amount of classical information that can be extracted from an ensemble of quantum states. Analogously, the informational power quantifies the amount of classical information that can be extracted by a quantum measurement. For both quantities, we provide upper and lower bounds that depend only on the dimension of the system, and we prove their tightness. In the case of symmetric informationally complete (SIC) ensembles and measurements, stronger bounds are provided and their tightness proved for qubits and qutrits. From our upper bounds, we notice, perhaps surprisingly, that the statistics generated by SIC ensembles or measurements in arbitrary dimension, though optimal for tomographic purposes, in fact never contain more than just one bit of information, the rest being constituted by completely random bits. On the other hand, from our lower bounds, we obtain an explicit strategy beating the so-called pretty-good one for the extraction of mutual information in the case of SIC ensembles and measurements.

We present a family of easily computable upper bounds for the Holevo (information) quantity of an ensemble of quantum states depending on a reference state (as a free parameter). These upper bounds are obtained by combining probabilistic and metric characteristics of the ensemble. We show that an appropriate choice of the reference state gives tight upper bounds for the Holevo quantity which in many cases improve the estimates existing in the literature. We also present an upper bound for the Holevo quantity of a generalized ensemble of quantum states with finite average energy depending on the metric divergence of an ensemble. In the case of a multi-mode quantum oscillator, this upper bound is tight for large energy. Upper bounds for the Holevo capacity of finite-dimensional quantum channels depending on metric characteristics of the channel output are obtained.

The Holevo bound is a bound the mutual information for a given quantum encoding. In 1996 Schumacher, Westmoreland and Wootters [Schumacher, Westmoreland and Wootters, Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 3452 (1996)] derived a bound which reduces to the Holevo bound for complete measurements, but which is tighter for incomplete measurements. The most general quantum operations may be both incomplete and inefficient. Here we show that the bound derived by SWW can be further extended to obtain one which is yet again tighter for inefficient measurements. This allows us in addition to obtain a generalization of a bound derived by Hall, and to show that the average reduction in the von Neumann entropy during a quantum operation is concave in the initial state, for all quantum operations. This is a quantum version of the concavity of the mutual information. We also show that both this average entropy reduction, and the mutual information for pure state ensembles, are Schur-concave for unitarily covariant measurements; that is, for these measurements, information gain increases with initial uncertainty.

The Holevo bound is a bound on the mutual information for a given quantum encoding. In 1996 Schumacher, Westmoreland, and Wootters [Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 3452 (1996)] derived a bound that reduces to the Holevo bound for complete measurements, but that is tighter for incomplete measurements. The most general quantum operations may be both incomplete and inefficient. Here we show that the bound derived by SWW can be further extended to obtain one that is yet again tighter for inefficient measurements. This allows us, in addition, to obtain a generalization of a bound derived by Hall, and to show that the average reduction in the von Neumann entropy during a quantum operation is concave in the initial state, for all quantum operations. This is a quantum version of the concavity of the mutual information. We also show that both this average entropy reduction and the mutual information for pure state ensembles, are Schur concave for unitarily covariant measurements; that is, for these measurements, information gain increases with initial uncertainty.

We start with Fannes’ type and Winter’s type tight (uniform) continuity bounds for the quantum conditional mutual information and their specifications for states of special types. Then we analyse continuity of the Holevo quantity with respect to nonequivalent metrics on the set of discrete ensembles of quantum states. We show that the Holevo quantity is continuous on the set of all ensembles of m states with respect to all the metrics if either m or the dimension of underlying Hilbert space is finite and obtain Fannes’ type tight continuity bounds for the Holevo quantity in this case. In the general case, conditions for local continuity of the Holevo quantity for discrete and continuous ensembles are found. Winter’s type tight continuity bound for the Holevo quantity under constraint on the average energy of ensembles is obtained and applied to the system of quantum oscillators. The above results are used to obtain tight and close-to-tight continuity bounds for basic capacities of finite-dimensional channels (significantly refining the Leung-Smith continuity bounds).