Quantum Reverse Shannon Theorem

Dual to the usual noisy channel coding problem, where a noisy (classical or quantum) channel is used to simulate a noiseless one, reverse Shannon theorems concern the use of noiseless channels to simulate noisy ones, and more generally the use of one noisy channel to simulate another. For channels of nonzero capacity, this simulation is always possible, but for it to be efficient, auxiliary resources of the proper kind and amount are generally required. In the classical case, shared randomness between sender and receiver is a sufficient auxiliary resource, regardless of the nature of the source, but in the quantum case the requisite auxiliary resources for efficient simulation depend on both the channel being simulated, and the source from which the channel inputs are coming. For tensor power sources (the quantum generalization of classical IID sources), entanglement in the form of standard ebits (maximally entangled pairs of qubits) is sufficient, but for general sources, which may be arbitrarily correlated or entangled across channel inputs, additional resources, such as entanglement-embezzling states or backward communication, are generally needed. Combining existing and new results, we establish the amounts of communication and auxiliary resources needed in both the classical and quantum cases, the tradeoffs among them, and the loss of simulation efficiency when auxiliary resources are absent or insufficient. In particular we find a new single-letter expression for the excess forward communication cost of coherent feedback simulations of quantum channels (i.e. simulations in which the sender retains what would escape into the environment in an ordinary simulation), on non-tensor-power sources in the presence of unlimited ebits but no other auxiliary resource. Our results on tensor power sources establish a strong converse to the entanglement-assisted capacity theorem.Comment: 35 pages, to appear in IEEE-IT. v2 has a fixed proof of the Clueless Eve result, a new single-letter formula for the "spread deficit", better error scaling, and an improved strong converse. v3 and v4 each make small improvements to the presentation and add references. v5 fixes broken reference

On converse bounds for classical communication over quantum channels

We explore several new converse bounds for classical communication over quantum channels in both the one-shot and asymptotic regimes. First, we show that the Matthews-Wehner meta-converse bound for entanglement-assisted classical communication can be achieved by activated, no-signalling assisted codes, suitably generalizing a result for classical channels. Second, we derive a new efficiently computable meta-converse on the amount of classical information unassisted codes can transmit over a single use of a quantum channel. As applications, we provide a finite resource analysis of classical communication over quantum erasure channels, including the second-order and moderate deviation asymptotics. Third, we explore the asymptotic analogue of our new meta-converse, the $\Upsilon$-information of the channel. We show that its regularization is an upper bound on the classical capacity, which is generally tighter than the entanglement-assisted capacity and other known efficiently computable strong converse bounds. For covariant channels we show that the $\Upsilon$-information is a strong converse bound.Comment: v3: published version; v2: 18 pages, presentation and results improve

Quantum broadcast channels

We consider quantum channels with one sender and two receivers, used in several different ways for the simultaneous transmission of independent messages. We begin by extending the technique of superposition coding to quantum channels with a classical input to give a general achievable region. We also give outer bounds to the capacity regions for various special cases from the classical literature and prove that superposition coding is optimal for a class of channels. We then consider extensions of superposition coding for channels with a quantum input, where some of the messages transmitted are quantum instead of classical, in the sense that the parties establish bipartite or tripartite GHZ entanglement. We conclude by using state merging to give achievable rates for establishing bipartite entanglement between different pairs of parties with the assistance of free classical communication.Comment: 15 pages; IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, vol. 57, no. 10, October 201

Strong Converse and Second-Order Asymptotics of Channel Resolvability

We study the problem of channel resolvability for fixed i.i.d. input distributions and discrete memoryless channels (DMCs), and derive the strong converse theorem for any DMCs that are not necessarily full rank. We also derive the optimal second-order rate under a condition. Furthermore, under the condition that a DMC has the unique capacity achieving input distribution, we derive the optimal second-order rate of channel resolvability for the worst input distribution.Comment: 7 pages, a shorter version will appear in ISIT 2014, this version includes the proofs of technical lemmas in appendice

Quantum and Classical Message Identification via Quantum Channels

We discuss concepts of message identification in the sense of Ahlswede and Dueck via general quantum channels, extending investigations for classical channels, initial work for classical-quantum (cq) channels and "quantum fingerprinting". We show that the identification capacity of a discrete memoryless quantum channel for classical information can be larger than that for transmission; this is in contrast to all previously considered models, where it turns out to equal the common randomness capacity (equals transmission capacity in our case): in particular, for a noiseless qubit, we show the identification capacity to be 2, while transmission and common randomness capacity are 1. Then we turn to a natural concept of identification of quantum messages (i.e. a notion of "fingerprint" for quantum states). This is much closer to quantum information transmission than its classical counterpart (for one thing, the code length grows only exponentially, compared to double exponentially for classical identification). Indeed, we show how the problem exhibits a nice connection to visible quantum coding. Astonishingly, for the noiseless qubit channel this capacity turns out to be 2: in other words, one can compress two qubits into one and this is optimal. In general however, we conjecture quantum identification capacity to be different from classical identification capacity.Comment: 18 pages, requires Rinton-P9x6.cls. On the occasion of Alexander Holevo's 60th birthday. Version 2 has a few theorems knocked off: Y Steinberg has pointed out a crucial error in my statements on simultaneous ID codes. They are all gone and replaced by a speculative remark. The central results of the paper are all unharmed. In v3: proof of Proposition 17 corrected, without change of its statemen