Robustness of quantum Markov chains

If the conditional information of a classical probability distribution of three random variables is zero, then it obeys a Markov chain condition. If the conditional information is close to zero, then it is known that the distance (minimum relative entropy) of the distribution to the nearest Markov chain distribution is precisely the conditional information. We prove here that this simple situation does not obtain for quantum conditional information. We show that for tri-partite quantum states the quantum conditional information is always a lower bound for the minimum relative entropy distance to a quantum Markov chain state, but the distance can be much greater; indeed the two quantities can be of different asymptotic order and may even differ by a dimensional factor.Comment: 14 pages, no figures; not for the feeble-minde

On Quantum Markov Chains on Cayley tree II: Phase transitions for the associated chain with XY-model on the Cayley tree of order three

In the present paper we study forward Quantum Markov Chains (QMC) defined on a Cayley tree. Using the tree structure of graphs, we give a construction of quantum Markov chains on a Cayley tree. By means of such constructions we prove the existence of a phase transition for the XY-model on a Cayley tree of order three in QMC scheme. By the phase transition we mean the existence of two now quasi equivalent QMC for the given family of interaction operators $\{K_{}\}$.Comment: 34 pages, 1 figur

Faithful Squashed Entanglement

Squashed entanglement is a measure for the entanglement of bipartite quantum states. In this paper we present a lower bound for squashed entanglement in terms of a distance to the set of separable states. This implies that squashed entanglement is faithful, that is, strictly positive if and only if the state is entangled. We derive the bound on squashed entanglement from a bound on quantum conditional mutual information, which is used to define squashed entanglement and corresponds to the amount by which strong subadditivity of von Neumann entropy fails to be saturated. Our result therefore sheds light on the structure of states that almost satisfy strong subadditivity with equality. The proof is based on two recent results from quantum information theory: the operational interpretation of the quantum mutual information as the optimal rate for state redistribution and the interpretation of the regularised relative entropy of entanglement as an error exponent in hypothesis testing. The distance to the set of separable states is measured by the one-way LOCC norm, an operationally-motivated norm giving the optimal probability of distinguishing two bipartite quantum states, each shared by two parties, using any protocol formed by local quantum operations and one-directional classical communication between the parties. A similar result for the Frobenius or Euclidean norm follows immediately. The result has two applications in complexity theory. The first is a quasipolynomial-time algorithm solving the weak membership problem for the set of separable states in one-way LOCC or Euclidean norm. The second concerns quantum Merlin-Arthur games. Here we show that multiple provers are not more powerful than a single prover when the verifier is restricted to one-way LOCC operations thereby providing a new characterisation of the complexity class QMA.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure, 1 table. Due to an error in the published version, claims have been weakened from the LOCC norm to the one-way LOCC nor

Fault-tolerant logical gate networks for Calderbank-Shor-Steane codes

Fault-tolerant logical operations for qubits encoded by Calderbank-Shor-Steane codes are discussed, with emphasis on methods that apply to codes of high rate, encoding k qubits per block with k>1. It is shown that the logical qubits within a given block can be prepared by a single recovery operation in any state whose stabilizer generator separates into X and Z parts. Optimized methods to move logical qubits around and to achieve controlled-NOT and Toffoli gates are discussed. It is found that the number of time steps required to complete a fault-tolerant quantum computation is the same when k>1 as when k=1. © 2005 The American Physical Society