Algorithmic complexity of quantum capacity

Recently the theory of communication developed by Shannon has been extended to the quantum realm by exploiting the rules of quantum theory. This latter stems on complex vector spaces. However complex (as well as real) numbers are just idealizations and they are not available in practice where we can only deal with rational numbers. This fact naturally leads to the question of whether the developed notions of capacities for quantum channels truly catch their ability to transmit information. Here we answer this question for the quantum capacity. To this end we resort to the notion of semi-computability in order to approximately (by rational numbers) describe quantum states and quantum channel maps. Then we introduce algorithmic entropies (like algorithmic quantum coherent information) and derive relevant properties for them. Finally we define algorithmic quantum capacity and prove that it equals the standard one

Profitable entanglement for channel discrimination

We investigate the usefulness of side entanglement in discriminating between two generic qubit channels and determine exact conditions under which it does enhance (as well as conditions under which it does not) the success probability. This is done in a constructive way by first analyzing the problem for channels that are extremal in the set of completely positive and trace-preserving qubit linear maps and then for channels that are inside such a set

Quantum reading of quantum information

We extend the notion of quantum reading to the case where the information to be retrieved, which is encoded into a set of quantum channels, is of quantum nature. We use two qubit unitaries describing the system environment interaction, with the initial environment state determining the system's input output channel and hence the encoded information. The performance of the most relevant two-qubit unitaries is determined with two different approaches: i) one-shot quantum capacity of the channel arising between environment and system's output; ii) estimation of parameters characterizing the initial quantum state of the environment. The obtained results are mostly in (qualitative) agreement, with some distinguishing features that include the CNOT unitary.Comment: Relations/differences with respect to previous works are better explained, and new references are adde

Union bound for quantum information processing

In this paper, we prove a quantum union bound that is relevant when performing a sequence of binary-outcome quantum measurements on a quantum state. The quantum union bound proved here involves a tunable parameter that can be optimized, and this tunable parameter plays a similar role to a parameter involved in the Hayashi-Nagaoka inequality [IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory, 49(7):1753 (2003)], used often in quantum information theory when analyzing the error probability of a square-root measurement. An advantage of the proof delivered here is that it is elementary, relying only on basic properties of projectors, the Pythagorean theorem, and the Cauchy--Schwarz inequality. As a non-trivial application of our quantum union bound, we prove that a sequential decoding strategy for classical communication over a quantum channel achieves a lower bound on the channel's second-order coding rate. This demonstrates the advantage of our quantum union bound in the non-asymptotic regime, in which a communication channel is called a finite number of times. We expect that the bound will find a range of applications in quantum communication theory, quantum algorithms, and quantum complexity theory.Comment: v2: 23 pages, includes proof, based on arXiv:1208.1400 and arXiv:1510.04682, for a lower bound on the second-order asymptotics of hypothesis testing for i.i.d. quantum states acting on a separable Hilbert spac

Optimal input states for quantifying the performance of continuous-variable unidirectional and bidirectional teleportation

Continuous-variable (CV) teleportation is a foundational protocol in quantum information science. A number of experiments have been designed to simulate ideal teleportation under realistic conditions. In this paper, we detail an analytical approach for determining optimal input states for quantifying the performance of CV unidirectional and bidirectional teleportation. The metric that we consider for quantifying performance is the energy-constrained channel fidelity between ideal teleportation and its experimental implementation, and along with this, our focus is on determining optimal input states for distinguishing the ideal process from the experimental one. We prove that, under certain energy constraints, the optimal input state in unidirectional, as well as bidirectional, teleportation is a finite entangled superposition of twin-Fock states saturating the energy constraint. Moreover, we also prove that, under the same constraints, the optimal states are unique; that is, there is no other optimal finite entangled superposition of twin-Fock states.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review

Quantum Entropy and Complexity

3siWe argue that in the case of identical particles the most natural identification of separability, that is of absence of non-classical correlations, is via the factorization of mean values of commuting observables. It thus follows that separability and entanglement depend both on the state and on the choice of observables and are not absolute notions. We compare this point of view with a recent novel approach to the entanglement of identical particles, which allows for the definition of an entanglement entropy from a suitably defined reduced particle density matrix, without the need of labelling the system constituents. We contrast this figure of merit with the aforementioned lack of an absolute notion of entanglement by considering few paradigmatic examples.reservedmixedBenatti, Fabio; Oskouei, S. Khabbazi; Abad, A. Shafiei DehBenatti, F.; Oskouei, S. Khabbazi; Abad, A. Shafiei De