32 research outputs found
Quantum thermodynamics with missing reference frames: Decompositions of free energy into non-increasing components
If an absolute reference frame with respect to time, position, or orientation
is missing one can only implement quantum operations which are covariant with
respect to the corresponding unitary symmetry group G. Extending observations
of Vaccaro et al., I argue that the free energy of a quantum system with
G-invariant Hamiltonian then splits up into the Holevo information of the orbit
of the state under the action of G and the free energy of its orbit average.
These two kinds of free energy cannot be converted into each other. The first
component is subadditive and the second superadditive; in the limit of
infinitely many copies only the usual free energy matters.
Refined splittings of free energy into more than two independent
(non-increasing) terms can be defined by averaging over probability measures on
G that differ from the Haar measure.
Even in the presence of a reference frame, these results provide lower bounds
on the amount of free energy that is lost after applying a covariant channel.
If the channel properly decreases one of these quantities, it decreases the
free energy necessarily at least by the same amount, since it is unable to
convert the different forms of free energies into each other.Comment: 17 pages, latex, 1 figur
A Quantum Broadcasting Problem in Classical Low Power Signal Processing
We pose a problem called ``broadcasting Holevo-information'': given an
unknown state taken from an ensemble, the task is to generate a bipartite state
transfering as much Holevo-information to each copy as possible.
We argue that upper bounds on the average information over both copies imply
lower bounds on the quantum capacity required to send the ensemble without
information loss. This is because a channel with zero quantum capacity has a
unitary extension transfering at least as much information to its environment
as it transfers to the output.
For an ensemble being the time orbit of a pure state under a Hamiltonian
evolution, we derive such a bound on the required quantum capacity in terms of
properties of the input and output energy distribution. Moreover, we discuss
relations between the broadcasting problem and entropy power inequalities.
The broadcasting problem arises when a signal should be transmitted by a
time-invariant device such that the outgoing signal has the same timing
information as the incoming signal had. Based on previous results we argue that
this establishes a link between quantum information theory and the theory of
low power computing because the loss of timing information implies loss of free
energy.Comment: 28 pages, late
How much is a quantum controller controlled by the controlled system?
We consider unitary transformations on a bipartite system A x B. To what
extent entails the ability to transmit information from A to B the ability to
transfer information in the converse direction? We prove a dimension-dependent
lower bound on the classical channel capacity C(A<--B) in terms of the capacity
C(A-->B) for the case that the bipartite unitary operation consists of
controlled local unitaries on B conditioned on basis states on A. This can be
interpreted as a statement on the strength of the inevitable backaction of a
quantum system on its controller.
If the local operations are given by the regular representation of a finite
group G we have C(A-->B)=log |G| and C(A<--B)=log N where N is the sum over the
degrees of all inequivalent representations. Hence the information deficit
C(A-->B)-C(A<--B) between the forward and the backward capacity depends on the
"non-abelianness" of the control group. For regular representations, the ratio
between backward and forward capacities cannot be smaller than 1/2. The
symmetric group S_n reaches this bound asymptotically. However, for the general
case (without group structure) all bounds must depend on the dimensions since
it is known that the ratio can tend to zero.Comment: 17 pages, references added, results slightly improve
Decomposition of time-covariant operations on quantum systems with continuous and/or discrete energy spectrum
Every completely positive map G that commutes which the Hamiltonian time
evolution is an integral or sum over (densely defined) CP-maps G_\sigma where
\sigma is the energy that is transferred to or taken from the environment. If
the spectrum is non-degenerated each G_\sigma is a dephasing channel followed
by an energy shift. The dephasing is given by the Hadamard product of the
density operator with a (formally defined) positive operator. The Kraus
operator of the energy shift is a partial isometry which defines a translation
on R with respect to a non-translation-invariant measure.
As an example, I calculate this decomposition explicitly for the rotation
invariant gaussian channel on a single mode.
I address the question under what conditions a covariant channel destroys
superpositions between mutually orthogonal states on the same orbit. For
channels which allow mutually orthogonal output states on the same orbit, a
lower bound on the quantum capacity is derived using the Fourier transform of
the CP-map-valued measure (G_\sigma).Comment: latex, 33 pages, domains of unbounded operators are now explicitly
specified. Presentation more detailed. Implementing the shift after the
dephasing is sometimes more convenien