Entropy in general physical theories

Information plays an important role in our understanding of the physical world. We hence propose an entropic measure of information for any physical theory that admits systems, states and measurements. In the quantum and classical world, our measure reduces to the von Neumann and Shannon entropy respectively. It can even be used in a quantum or classical setting where we are only allowed to perform a limited set of operations. In a world that admits superstrong correlations in the form of non-local boxes, our measure can be used to analyze protocols such as superstrong random access encodings and the violation of `information causality'. However, we also show that in such a world no entropic measure can exhibit all properties we commonly accept in a quantum setting. For example, there exists no`reasonable' measure of conditional entropy that is subadditive. Finally, we prove a coding theorem for some theories that is analogous to the quantum and classical setting, providing us with an appealing operational interpretation.Comment: 20 pages, revtex, 7 figures, v2: Coding theorem revised, published versio

Sampling of min-entropy relative to quantum knowledge

Let X_1, ..., X_n be a sequence of n classical random variables and consider a sample of r positions selected at random. Then, except with (exponentially in r) small probability, the min-entropy of the sample is not smaller than, roughly, a fraction r/n of the total min-entropy of all positions X_1, ..., X_n, which is optimal. Here, we show that this statement, originally proven by Vadhan [LNCS, vol. 2729, Springer, 2003] for the purely classical case, is still true if the min-entropy is measured relative to a quantum system. Because min-entropy quantifies the amount of randomness that can be extracted from a given random variable, our result can be used to prove the soundness of locally computable extractors in a context where side information might be quantum-mechanical. In particular, it implies that key agreement in the bounded-storage model (using a standard sample-and-hash protocol) is fully secure against quantum adversaries, thus solving a long-standing open problem.Comment: 48 pages, late

Mutual and coherent informations for infinite-dimensional quantum channels

The work is devoted to study of quantum mutual information and coherent information -- the two important characteristics of quantum communication channel. Appropriate definitions of these quantities in the infinite-dimensional case are given and their properties are studied in detail. Basic identities relating quantum mutual information and coherent information of a pair of complementary channels are proved. An unexpected continuity property of quantum mutual information and coherent information following from the above identities is observed. An upper bound for the coherent information is obtained.Comment: 27 pages, an alternative expression for the coherent information is added (Remark 2

Generalized Entropies

We study an entropy measure for quantum systems that generalizes the von Neumann entropy as well as its classical counterpart, the Gibbs or Shannon entropy. The entropy measure is based on hypothesis testing and has an elegant formulation as a semidefinite program, a type of convex optimization. After establishing a few basic properties, we prove upper and lower bounds in terms of the smooth entropies, a family of entropy measures that is used to characterize a wide range of operational quantities. From the formulation as a semidefinite program, we also prove a result on decomposition of hypothesis tests, which leads to a chain rule for the entropy.Comment: 21 page

Tests for quantum contextuality in terms of qq-entropies

The information-theoretic approach to Bell's theorem is developed with use of the conditional $q$-entropies. The $q$-entropic measures fulfill many similar properties to the standard Shannon entropy. In general, both the locality and noncontextuality notions are usually treated with use of the so-called marginal scenarios. These hypotheses lead to the existence of a joint probability distribution, which marginalizes to all particular ones. Assuming the existence of such a joint probability distribution, we derive the family of inequalities of Bell's type in terms of conditional $q$-entropies for all $q\geq1$. Quantum violations of the new inequalities are exemplified within the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) and Klyachko-Can-Binicio\v{g}lu-Shumovsky (KCBS) scenarios. An extension to the case of $n$-cycle scenario is briefly mentioned. The new inequalities with conditional $q$-entropies allow to expand a class of probability distributions, for which the nonlocality or contextuality can be detected within entropic formulation. The $q$-entropic inequalities can also be useful in analyzing cases with detection inefficiencies. Using two models of such a kind, we consider some potential advantages of the $q$-entropic formulation.Comment: 14 pages, two figures. The version 3 matches the journal versio

Quantum data compression, quantum information generation, and the density-matrix renormalization group method

We have studied quantum data compression for finite quantum systems where the site density matrices are not independent, i.e., the density matrix cannot be given as direct product of site density matrices and the von Neumann entropy is not equal to the sum of site entropies. Using the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method for the 1-d Hubbard model, we have shown that a simple relationship exists between the entropy of the left or right block and dimension of the Hilbert space of that block as well as of the superblock for any fixed accuracy. The information loss during the RG procedure has been investigated and a more rigorous control of the relative error has been proposed based on Kholevo's theory. Our results are also supported by the quantum chemistry version of DMRG applied to various molecules with system lengths up to 60 lattice sites. A sum rule which relates site entropies and the total information generated by the renormalization procedure has also been given which serves as an alternative test of convergence of the DMRG method.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Non-commutative calculus, optimal transport and functional inequalities in dissipative quantum systems

We study dynamical optimal transport metrics between density matrices associated to symmetric Dirichlet forms on finite-dimensional $C^*$-algebras. Our setting covers arbitrary skew-derivations and it provides a unified framework that simultaneously generalizes recently constructed transport metrics for Markov chains, Lindblad equations, and the Fermi Ornstein--Uhlenbeck semigroup. We develop a non-nommutative differential calculus that allows us to obtain non-commutative Ricci curvature bounds, logarithmic Sobolev inequalities, transport-entropy inequalities, and spectral gap estimates

R\'enyi and Tsallis formulations of noise-disturbance trade-off relations

We address an information-theoretic approach to noise and disturbance in quantum measurements. Properties of corresponding probability distributions are characterized by means of both the R\'{e}nyi and Tsallis entropies. Related information-theoretic measures of noise and disturbance are introduced. These definitions are based on the concept of conditional entropy. To motivate introduced measures, some important properties of the conditional R\'{e}nyi and Tsallis entropies are discussed. There exist several formulations of entropic uncertainty relations for a pair of observables. Trade-off relations for noise and disturbance are derived on the base of known formulations of such a kind.Comment: 14 pages, no figures. The version 3 corresponds to the journal versio

On quantum Renyi entropies: a new generalization and some properties

The Renyi entropies constitute a family of information measures that generalizes the well-known Shannon entropy, inheriting many of its properties. They appear in the form of unconditional and conditional entropies, relative entropies or mutual information, and have found many applications in information theory and beyond. Various generalizations of Renyi entropies to the quantum setting have been proposed, most notably Petz's quasi-entropies and Renner's conditional min-, max- and collision entropy. Here, we argue that previous quantum extensions are incompatible and thus unsatisfactory. We propose a new quantum generalization of the family of Renyi entropies that contains the von Neumann entropy, min-entropy, collision entropy and the max-entropy as special cases, thus encompassing most quantum entropies in use today. We show several natural properties for this definition, including data-processing inequalities, a duality relation, and an entropic uncertainty relation.Comment: v1: contains several conjectures; v2: conjectures are resolved - see also arXiv:1306.5358 and arXiv:1306.5920; v3: published versio

Towards an Entanglement Measure for Mixed States in CFTs Based on Relative Entropy

Relative entropy of entanglement (REE) is an entanglement measure of bipartite mixed states, defined by the minimum of the relative entropy $S(\rho_{AB}|| \sigma_{AB})$ between a given mixed state $\rho_{AB}$ and an arbitrary separable state $\sigma_{AB}$. The REE is always bounded by the mutual information $I_{AB}=S(\rho_{AB} || \rho_{A}\otimes \rho_{B})$ because the latter measures not only quantum entanglement but also classical correlations. In this paper we address the question of to what extent REE can be small compared to the mutual information in conformal field theories (CFTs). For this purpose, we perturbatively compute the relative entropy between the vacuum reduced density matrix $\rho^{0}_{AB}$ on disjoint subsystems $A \cup B$ and arbitrarily separable state $\sigma_{AB}$ in the limit where two subsystems A and B are well separated, then minimize the relative entropy with respect to the separable states. We argue that the result highly depends on the spectrum of CFT on the subsystems. When we have a few low energy spectrum of operators as in the case where the subsystems consist of a finite number of spins in spin chain models, the REE is considerably smaller than the mutual information. However in general our perturbative scheme breaks down, and the REE can be as large as the mutual information.Comment: 35 pages, 2 figure