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