Towards efficient decoding of classical-quantum polar codes

Known strategies for sending bits at the capacity rate over a general channel with classical input and quantum output (a cq channel) require the decoder to implement impractically complicated collective measurements. Here, we show that a fully collective strategy is not necessary in order to recover all of the information bits. In fact, when coding for a large number N uses of a cq channel W, N I(W_acc) of the bits can be recovered by a non-collective strategy which amounts to coherent quantum processing of the results of product measurements, where I(W_acc) is the accessible information of the channel W. In order to decode the other N (I(W) - I(W_acc)) bits, where I(W) is the Holevo rate, our conclusion is that the receiver should employ collective measurements. We also present two other results: 1) collective Fuchs-Caves measurements (quantum likelihood ratio measurements) can be used at the receiver to achieve the Holevo rate and 2) we give an explicit form of the Helstrom measurements used in small-size polar codes. The main approach used to demonstrate these results is a quantum extension of Arikan's polar codes.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures, submission to the 8th Conference on the Theory of Quantum Computation, Communication, and Cryptograph

Critical phenomena in the general spherically symmetric Einstein-Yang-Mills system

We study critical behavior in gravitational collapse of a general spherically symmetric Yang-Mills field coupled to the Einstein equations. Unlike the magnetic ansatz used in previous numerical work, the general Yang-Mills connection has two degrees of freedom in spherical symmetry. This fact changes the phenomenology of critical collapse dramatically. The magnetic sector features both type I and type II critical collapse, with universal critical solutions. In contrast, in the general system type I disappears and the critical behavior at the threshold between dispersal and black hole formation is always type II. We obtain values of the mass scaling and echoing exponents close to those observed in the magnetic sector, however we find some indications that the critical solution differs from the purely magnetic discretely self-similar attractor and exact self-similarity and universality might be lost. The additional "type III" critical phenomenon in the magnetic sector, where black holes form on both sides of the threshold but the Yang-Mills potential is in different vacuum states and there is a mass gap, also disappears in the general system. We support our dynamical numerical simulations with calculations in linear perturbation theory; for instance, we compute quasi-normal modes of the unstable attractor (the Bartnik-McKinnon soliton) in type I collapse in the magnetic sector.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures; v2: matches published versio

The Post-Quasistatic Approximation as a test bed for Numerical Relativity

It is shown that observers in the standard ADM 3+1 treatment of matter are the same as the observers used in the matter treatment of Bondi: they are comoving and local Minkowskian. Bondi's observers are the basis of the post--quasitatic approximation (PQSA) to study a contracting distribution of matter. This correspondence suggests the possibility of using the PQSA as a test bed for Numerical Relativity. The treatment of matter by the PQSA and its connection with the ADM 3+1 treatment are presented, for its practical use as a calibration tool and as a test bed for numerical relativistic hydrodynamic codes.Comment: 4 pages; to appear as a Brief Report in Physical Review