Strong Converse to the Quantum Channel Coding Theorem

A lower bound on the probability of decoding error of quantum communication channel is presented. The strong converse to the quantum channel coding theorem is shown immediately from the lower bound. It is the same as Arimoto's method exept for the difficulty due to non-commutativity.Comment: LaTeX, 11 pages, submitted to IEEE Trans. Inform. Theor

A Fundamental Inequality for Lower-bounding the Error Probability for Classical and Quantum Multiple Access Channels and Its Applications

In the study of the capacity problem for multiple access channels (MACs), a lower bound on the error probability obtained by Han plays a crucial role in the converse parts of several kinds of channel coding theorems in the information-spectrum framework. Recently, Yagi and Oohama showed a tighter bound than the Han bound by means of Polyanskiy's converse. In this paper, we give a new bound which generalizes and strengthens the Yagi-Oohama bound, and demonstrate that the bound plays a fundamental role in deriving extensions of several known bounds. In particular, the Yagi-Oohama bound is generalized to two different directions; i.e, to general input distributions and to general encoders. In addition we extend these bounds to the quantum MACs and apply them to the converse problems for several information-spectrum settings.Comment: under submissio

Autoparallelity of Quantum Statistical Manifolds in The Light of Quantum Estimation Theory

In this paper we study the autoparallelity w.r.t. the e-connection for an information-geometric structure called the SLD structure, which consists of a Riemannian metric and mutually dual e- and m-connections, induced on the manifold of strictly positive density operators. Unlike the classical information geometry, the e-connection has non-vanishing torsion, which brings various mathematical difficulties. The notion of e-autoparallel submanifolds is regarded as a quantum version of exponential families in classical statistics, which is known to be characterized as statistical models having efficient estimators (unbiased estimators uniformly achieving the equality in the Cramer-Rao inequality). As quantum extensions of this classical result, we present two different forms of estimation-theoretical characterizations of the e-autoparallel submanifolds. We also give several results on the e-autoparallelity, some of which are valid for the autoparallelity w.r.t. an affine connection in a more general geometrical situation

Macroscopic thermodynamic reversibility in quantum many-body systems

The resource theory of thermal operations, an established model for small-scale thermodynamics, provides an extension of equilibrium thermodynamics to nonequilibrium situations. On a lattice of any dimension with any translation-invariant local Hamiltonian, we identify a large set of translation-invariant states that can be reversibly converted to and from the thermal state with thermal operations and a small amount of coherence. These are the spatially ergodic states, i.e., states that have sharp statistics for any translation-invariant observable, and mixtures of such states with the same thermodynamic potential. As an intermediate result, we show for a general state that if the gap between the min- and the max-relative entropies to the thermal state is small, then the state can be approximately reversibly converted to and from the thermal state with thermal operations and a small source of coherence. Our proof provides a quantum version of the Shannon-McMillan-Breiman theorem for the relative entropy and a quantum Stein’s lemma for ergodic states and local Gibbs states. Our results provide a strong link between the abstract resource theory of thermodynamics and more realistic physical systems as we achieve a robust and operational characterization of the emergence of a thermodynamic potential in translation-invariant lattice systems

Hydrogen Production from Methane in Atmospheric Non-Equilibrium Plasma

The instability of supplied power is a serious problem for chemical plants in developing countries. An easy start-up/shut-down system is important in this situation. The present report describes a hydrocarbon decomposition system using nonequilibrium plasma for hydrogen production. A microwave oven was used as a preliminary microwave reactor, which contained a quartz glass tube that passed through the top panel to the bottom panel of the microwave oven. Argon and methane flow were directed into the reactor, where the argon gas became plasma in the tube. A carbon stick was set in the tube as the excitation material of argon to plasma. Initially, the reaction was conducted under a methane partial pressure of 200 hPa. The main products were hydrogen and acetylene, with a small amount of ethylene also produced. Conversion and yields decreased with increasing methane partial pressure. Hydrogen production rate initially increased with methane partial pressure, but then decreased. The optimum methane partial pressure was determined. Gas flow rate had no effect on conversion or yield. The reactant and products reached an equilibrium state as soon as the reactant was introduced to the plasma. Pure hydrogen, 95%, was obtained by adjusting the experimental conditions

Expression of kininogen, kallikrein and kinin receptor genes by rat cardiomyocytes

AbstractTo ascertain the existence of the kallikrein-kinin system in the heart, we have studied in vivo and in vitro whether rat cardiac tissue expresses kininogen, kallikrein and kinin receptor mRNAs. The reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction demonstrated that the ventricular myocardium of adult male rats expressed mRNAs for T- and low-molecular-weight (L-) kininogens, tissue kallikreins such as true kallikrein and T-kininogenase, and bradykinin B2 receptor, but not those for high-molecular-weight kininogen and B1 receptor. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 0.5 mg/kg, i.v.) increased the levels of mRNA for T-kininogen at 12 h and the bradykinin B1 receptor at 24 h without affecting that for other components. All of these mRNAs for the kallikrein-kinin system were also detected in cultured cardiomyocytes derived from neonatal rat ventricles; dibutyryl cyclic AMP, LPS or inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-1 and tumor necrosis factor, up-regulated mRNA expression of T-kininogen, T-kininogenase, or B1 receptor in these cells in vitro. These results suggest that there are two kinin-generating systems in rat myocardium comprising T-kininogen/T-kininogenase and L-kininogen/true kallikrein respectively, and that the former may be relatively important in inflammatory diseases or conditions in which cAMP levels increase in cardiomyocytes