Communicating over adversarial quantum channels using quantum list codes

We study quantum communication in the presence of adversarial noise. In this setting, communicating with perfect fidelity requires using a quantum code of bounded minimum distance, for which the best known rates are given by the quantum Gilbert-Varshamov (QGV) bound. By asking only for arbitrarily high fidelity and allowing the sender and reciever to use a secret key with length logarithmic in the number of qubits sent, we achieve a dramatic improvement over the QGV rates. In fact, we find protocols that achieve arbitrarily high fidelity at noise levels for which perfect fidelity is impossible. To achieve such communication rates, we introduce fully quantum list codes, which may be of independent interest.Comment: 6 pages. Discussion expanded and more details provided in proofs. Far less unclear than previous versio

On the complementary quantum capacity of the depolarizing channel

The qubit depolarizing channel with noise parameter $\eta$ transmits an input qubit perfectly with probability $1-\eta$, and outputs the completely mixed state with probability $\eta$. We show that its complementary channel has positive quantum capacity for all $\eta>0$. Thus, we find that there exists a single parameter family of channels having the peculiar property of having positive quantum capacity even when the outputs of these channels approach a fixed state independent of the input. Comparisons with other related channels, and implications on the difficulty of studying the quantum capacity of the depolarizing channel are discussed.Comment: v4 corrects errors in equation (38

Quantum network communication -- the butterfly and beyond

We study the k-pair communication problem for quantum information in networks of quantum channels. We consider the asymptotic rates of high fidelity quantum communication between specific sender-receiver pairs. Four scenarios of classical communication assistance (none, forward, backward, and two-way) are considered. (i) We obtain outer and inner bounds of the achievable rate regions in the most general directed networks. (ii) For two particular networks (including the butterfly network) routing is proved optimal, and the free assisting classical communication can at best be used to modify the directions of quantum channels in the network. Consequently, the achievable rate regions are given by counting edge avoiding paths, and precise achievable rate regions in all four assisting scenarios can be obtained. (iii) Optimality of routing can also be proved in classes of networks. The first class consists of directed unassisted networks in which (1) the receivers are information sinks, (2) the maximum distance from senders to receivers is small, and (3) a certain type of 4-cycles are absent, but without further constraints (such as on the number of communicating and intermediate parties). The second class consists of arbitrary backward-assisted networks with 2 sender-receiver pairs. (iv) Beyond the k-pair communication problem, observations are made on quantum multicasting and a static version of network communication related to the entanglement of assistance.Comment: 15 pages, 17 figures. Final versio

Bidirectional coherent classical communication

A unitary interaction coupling two parties enables quantum communication in both the forward and backward directions. Each communication capacity can be thought of as a tradeoff between the achievable rates of specific types of forward and backward communication. Our first result shows that for any bipartite unitary gate, coherent classical communication is no more difficult than classical communication -- they have the same achievable rate regions. Previously this result was known only for the unidirectional capacities (i.e., the boundaries of the tradeoff). We then relate the tradeoff curve for two-way coherent communication to the tradeoff for two-way quantum communication and the tradeoff for coherent communiation in one direction and quantum communication in the other.Comment: 11 pages, v2 extensive modification and rewriting of the main proof, v3 published version with only a few more change