Multiplicativity of completely bounded p-norms implies a new additivity result

We prove additivity of the minimal conditional entropy associated with a quantum channel Phi, represented by a completely positive (CP), trace-preserving map, when the infimum of S(gamma_{12}) - S(gamma_1) is restricted to states of the form gamma_{12} = (I \ot Phi)(| psi >< psi |). We show that this follows from multiplicativity of the completely bounded norm of Phi considered as a map from L_1 -> L_p for L_p spaces defined by the Schatten p-norm on matrices; we also give an independent proof based on entropy inequalities. Several related multiplicativity results are discussed and proved. In particular, we show that both the usual L_1 -> L_p norm of a CP map and the corresponding completely bounded norm are achieved for positive semi-definite matrices. Physical interpretations are considered, and a new proof of strong subadditivity is presented.Comment: Final version for Commun. Math. Physics. Section 5.2 of previous version deleted in view of the results in quant-ph/0601071 Other changes mino

User-friendly tail bounds for sums of random matrices

This paper presents new probability inequalities for sums of independent, random, self-adjoint matrices. These results place simple and easily verifiable hypotheses on the summands, and they deliver strong conclusions about the large-deviation behavior of the maximum eigenvalue of the sum. Tail bounds for the norm of a sum of random rectangular matrices follow as an immediate corollary. The proof techniques also yield some information about matrix-valued martingales. In other words, this paper provides noncommutative generalizations of the classical bounds associated with the names Azuma, Bennett, Bernstein, Chernoff, Hoeffding, and McDiarmid. The matrix inequalities promise the same diversity of application, ease of use, and strength of conclusion that have made the scalar inequalities so valuable.Comment: Current paper is the version of record. The material on Freedman's inequality has been moved to a separate note; other martingale bounds are described in Caltech ACM Report 2011-0