arXiv subjects

Andreas Winter

Publications and source records attributed to Andreas Winter.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2025

Rate-reliability tradeoff for deterministic identification

We investigate deterministic identification over arbitrary memoryless channels under the constraint that the error probabilities of first and second kind are exponentially small in the block length $\mathbf{n}$, controlled by reliability exponents $\mathbf{E_1,E_2 \geq 0}$. In contrast to the regime of slowly vanishing errors, where the identifiable message length scales linearithmically as $\mathbf{Θ(n\log n)}$, here we find that for positive exponents linear scaling is restored, now with a rate that is a function of the reliability exponents. We give upper and lower bounds on the ensuing rate-reliability function in terms of (the logarithm of) the packing and covering numbers of the channel output set, which for small error exponents $\mathbf{E_1,E_2>0}$ can be expanded in leading order as the product of the Minkowski dimension of a certain parametrisation the channel output set and $\mathbf{\log\min\{E_1,E_2\}}$. These allow us to recover the previously observed slightly superlinear identification rates, and offer a different perspective for understanding them in more traditional information theory terms. We also show that even if only one of the two errors is required to be exponentially small, the linearithmic scaling is lost. We further illustrate our results with a discussion of the case of dimension zero, and extend them to classical-quantum channels and quantum channels with tensor product input restriction.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2025

Quantum Hypothesis Testing Lemma for Deterministic Identification over Quantum Channels

In our previous work, we presented the \emph{Hypothesis Testing Lemma}, a key tool that establishes sufficient conditions for the existence of good deterministic identification (DI) codes for memoryless channels with finite output, but arbitrary input alphabets. In this work, we provide a full quantum analogue of this lemma, which shows that the existence of a DI code in the quantum setting follows from a suitable packing in a modified space of output quantum states. Specifically, we demonstrate that such a code can be constructed using product states derived from this packing. This result enables us to tighten the capacity lower bound for DI over quantum channels beyond the simultaneous decoding approach. In particular, we can now express these bounds solely in terms of the Minkowski dimension of a certain state space, giving us new insights to better understand the nature of the protocol, and the separation between simultaneous and non-simultaneous codes. We extend the discussion with a particular channel example for which we can construct an optimum code.

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arXiv2025

A Rate-Distortion Perspective on Quantum State Redistribution

We consider a rate-distortion version of the quantum state redistribution task, where the error of the decoded state is judged via an additive distortion measure; it thus constitutes a quantum generalisation of the classical Wyner-Ziv problem. The quantum source is described by a tripartite pure state shared between Alice ($A$, encoder), Bob ($B$, decoder) and a reference ($R$). Both Alice and Bob are required to output a system ($\widetilde{A}$ and $\widetilde{B}$, respectively), and the distortion measure is encoded in an observable on $\widetilde{A}\widetilde{B}R$. It includes as special cases most quantum rate-distortion problems considered in the past, and in particular quantum data compression with the fidelity measured per copy; furthermore, it generalises the well-known state merging and quantum state redistribution tasks for a pure state source, with per-copy fidelity, and a variant recently considered by us, where the source is an ensemble of pure states [ZBK & AW, Proc. ISIT 2020, pp. 1858-1863 and ZBK, PhD thesis, UAB 2020, arXiv:2012.14143]. We derive a single-letter formula for the rate-distortion function of compression schemes assisted by free entanglement. A peculiarity of the formula is that in general it requires optimisation over an unbounded auxiliary register, so the rate-distortion function is not readily computable from our result, and there is a continuity issue at zero distortion. However, we show how to overcome these difficulties in certain situations.

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arXiv2025

Deterministic identification over channels with finite output: a dimensional perspective on superlinear rates

Following initial work by JaJa, Ahlswede and Cai, and inspired by a recent renewed surge in interest in deterministic identification (DI) via noisy channels, we consider the problem in its generality for memoryless channels with finite output, but arbitrary input alphabets. Such a channel is essentially given by its output distributions as a subset in the probability simplex. Our main findings are that the maximum length of messages thus identifiable scales superlinearly as $R\,n\log n$ with the block length $n$, and that the optimal rate $R$ is bounded in terms of the covering (aka Minkowski, or Kolmogorov, or entropy) dimension $d$ of a certain algebraic transformation of the output set: $\frac14 d \leq R \leq \frac12 d$. Remarkably, both the lower and upper Minkowski dimensions play a role in this result. Along the way, we present a "Hypothesis Testing Lemma" showing that it is sufficient to ensure pairwise reliable distinguishability of the output distributions to construct a DI code. Although we do not know the exact capacity formula, we can conclude that the DI capacity exhibits superactivation: there exist channels whose capacities individually are zero, but whose product has positive capacity. We also generalise these results to classical-quantum channels with finite-dimensional output quantum system, in particular to quantum channels on finite-dimensional quantum systems under the constraint that the identification code can only use tensor product inputs.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2025

Unification of observational entropy with maximum entropy principles

We introduce a definition of coarse-grained entropy that unifies measurement-based (observational entropy) and max-entropy-based (Jaynes) approaches to coarse-graining, by identifying physical constraints with information theoretic priors. The definition is shown to include as special cases most other entropies of interest in physics. We then consider second laws, showing that the definition admits new entropy increase theorems and connections to thermodynamics. We survey mathematical properties of the definition, and show it resolves some pathologies of the traditional observational entropy in infinite dimensions. Finally, we study the dynamics of this entropy in a quantum random matrix model and a classical hard sphere gas. Together the results suggest that this generalized observational entropy can form the basis of a highly general approach to statistical mechanics.

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arXiv2025

Learning finitely correlated states: stability of the spectral reconstruction

Matrix product operators allow efficient descriptions (or realizations) of states on a 1D lattice. We consider the task of learning a realization of minimal dimension from copies of an unknown state, such that the resulting operator is close to the density matrix in trace norm. For finitely correlated translation-invariant states on an infinite chain, a realization of minimal dimension can be exactly reconstructed via linear algebra operations from the marginals of a size depending on the representation dimension. We establish a bound on the trace norm error for an algorithm that estimates a candidate realization from estimates of these marginals and outputs a matrix product operator, estimating the state of a chain of arbitrary length $t$. This bound allows us to establish an $O(t^2)$ upper bound on the sample complexity of the learning task, with an explicit dependence on the site dimension, realization dimension and spectral properties of a certain map constructed from the state. A refined error bound can be proven for $C^*$-finitely correlated states, which have an operational interpretation in terms of sequential quantum channels applied to the memory system. We can also obtain an analogous error bound for a class of matrix product density operators on a finite chain reconstructible by local marginals. In this case, a linear number of marginals must be estimated, obtaining a sample complexity of $\tilde{O}(t^3)$. The learning algorithm also works for states that are sufficiently close to a finitely correlated state, with the potential of providing competitive algorithms for other interesting families of states.

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arXiv2025

New Protocols for Conference Key and Multipartite Entanglement Distillation

We approach two interconnected problems of quantum information processing in networks: Conference key agreement and entanglement distillation, both in the so-called source model where the given resource is a multipartite quantum state and the players interact over public classical channels to generate the desired correlation. The first problem is the distillation of a conference key when the source state is shared between a number of legal players and an eavesdropper; the eavesdropper, apart from starting off with this quantum side information, also observes the public communication between the players. The second is the distillation of Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states by means of local operations and classical communication (LOCC) from the given mixed state. These problem settings extend our previous paper [IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 68(2):976-988, 2022], and we generalise its results: using a quantum version of the task of communication for omniscience, we derive novel lower bounds on the distillable conference key from any multipartite quantum state by means of non-interacting communication protocols. Secondly, we establish novel lower bounds on the yield of GHZ states from multipartite mixed states. Namely, we present two methods to produce bipartite entanglement between sufficiently many nodes so as to produce GHZ states. Next, we show that the conference key agreement protocol can be made coherent under certain conditions, enabling the direct generation of multipartite GHZ states.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Zero-entropy encoders and simultaneous decoders in identification via quantum channels

Motivated by deterministic identification via classical channels, where the encoder is not allowed to use randomization, we revisit the problem of identification via quantum channels but now with the additional restriction that the message encoding must use pure quantum states, rather than general mixed states. Together with the previously considered distinction between simultaneous and general decoders, this suggests a two-dimensional spectrum of different identification capacities, whose behaviour could a priori be very different. We demonstrate two new results as our main findings: first, we show that all four combinations (pure/mixed encoder, simultaneous/general decoder) have a double-exponentially growing code size, and that indeed the corresponding identification capacities are lower bounded by the classical transmission capacity for a general quantum channel, which is given by the Holevo-Schumacher-Westmoreland Theorem. Secondly, we show that the simultaneous identification capacity of a quantum channel equals the simultaneous identification capacity with pure state encodings, thus leaving three linearly ordered identification capacities. By considering some simple examples, we finally show that these three are all different: general identification capacity can be larger than pure-state-encoded identification capacity, which in turn can be larger than pure-state-encoded simultaneous identification capacity.

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arXiv2024

Decoupling by local random unitaries without simultaneous smoothing, and applications to multi-user quantum information tasks

We show that a simple telescoping sum trick, together with the triangle inequality and a tensorisation property of expected-contractive coefficients of random channels, allow us to achieve general simultaneous decoupling for multiple users via local actions. Employing both old [Dupuis et al. Commun. Math. Phys. 328:251-284 (2014)] and new methods [Dupuis, arXiv:2105.05342], we obtain bounds on the expected deviation from ideal decoupling either in the one-shot setting in terms of smooth min-entropies, or the finite block length setting in terms of Rényi entropies. These bounds are essentially optimal without the need to address the simultaneous smoothing conjecture, which remains unresolved. This leads to one-shot, finite block length, and asymptotic achievability results for several tasks in quantum Shannon theory, including local randomness extraction of multiple parties, multi-party assisted entanglement concentration, multi-party quantum state merging, and quantum coding for the quantum multiple access channel. Because of the one-shot nature of our protocols, we obtain achievability results without the need for time-sharing, which at the same time leads to easy proofs of the asymptotic coding theorems. We show that our one-shot decoupling bounds furthermore yield achievable rates (so far only conjectured) for all four tasks in compound settings, that is for only partially known i.i.d. source or channel, which are furthermore optimal for entanglement of assistance and state merging.

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arXiv2024

Ning Cai: A Tribute to a Pioneering Scholar in Information Theory

It is with heavy hearts that we mourn the passing of Ning Cai, a luminary whose pioneering spirit illuminated the realms of network coding and beyond. On May 25, 2023, at the age of 75, Prof. Cai bid farewell, leaving behind a profound legacy that continues to resonate across generations of researchers. His contributions spanned a vast spectrum, from the groundbreaking explorations in network coding to the intricate realms of quantum information theory. Ning's indelible mark on the academic landscape is a testament to his unwavering dedication and relentless pursuit of knowledge. Among his many accolades, Ning's seminal works garnered widespread recognition, exemplified by the prestigious 2005 IEEE Information Theory Society Paper Award for his work "Linear Network Coding." Furthermore, his enduring impact was underscored by the 2018 ACM SIGMOBILE Test-of-Time Paper Award, bestowed upon his paper "Network Information Flow." In addition to his scholarly achievements, Ning's unwavering commitment to mentorship has left an indelible mark on countless aspiring scholars. His guidance and wisdom continue to inspire and guide future generations in their scholarly pursuits. As we bid farewell to a titan in the field, let us cherish the legacy of Ning Cai, whose brilliance and generosity of spirit will forever endure in the annals of academia.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2024

Quantum Keyless Private Communication with Decoy States for Space Channels

With the increasing demand for secure communication in optical space networks, it is essential to develop physical-layer scalable security solutions. In this context, we present the asymptotic security analysis of a keyless quantum private communication protocol that transmits classical information over quantum states. Different from the previous literature, our protocol sends dummy (decoy) states optimally obtained from the true information to deceive the eavesdropper. We analyze optical on-off keying (OOK) and binary phase shift keying (BPSK) for several detection scenarios. Our protocol significantly improves the protocol without decoy states whenever Bob is at a technological disadvantage with respect to Eve. Our protocol guarantees positive secrecy capacity when the eavesdropper gathers up to $90-99.9\%$ (depending on the detection scenario) of the photon energy that Bob detects, even when Eve is only limited by the laws of quantum mechanics. We apply our results to the design of an optical inter-satellite link (ISL) study case with pointing losses, and introduce a new design methodology whereby the link margin is guaranteed to be secure by our protocol. Hence, our design does not require knowing thr location of the eavesdropper and or channel state: the protocol aborts whenever the channel drops below the secured margin. Our protocol can be implemented with the state of the art space proof technology. Finally, we also show the potential secrecy advantage when using (not yet available) squeezed quantum states technology.

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arXiv2024

Geometry of entanglement and separability in Hilbert subspaces of dimension up to three

We present a complete classification of the geometry of the mutually complementary sets of entangled and separable states in three-dimensional Hilbert subspaces of bipartite and multipartite quantum systems. Our analysis begins by finding the geometric structure of the pure product states in a given three-dimensional Hilbert subspace, which determines all the possible separable and entangled mixed states over the same subspace. In bipartite systems, we characterise the 14 possible qualitatively different geometric shapes for the set of separable states in any three-dimensional Hilbert subspace (5 classes which also appear in two-dimensional subspaces and were found and analysed by Boyer, Liss and Mor [Phys. Rev. A 95:032308, 2017], and 9 novel classes which appear only in three-dimensional subspaces), describe their geometries, and provide figures illustrating them. We also generalise these results to characterise the sets of fully separable states (and hence the complementary sets of somewhat entangled states) in three-dimensional subspaces of multipartite systems. Our results show which geometrical forms quantum entanglement can and cannot take in low-dimensional subspaces.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Characterising the Haar measure on the $p$-adic rotation groups via inverse limits of measure spaces

We determine the Haar measure on the compact $p$-adic special orthogonal groups of rotations $\mathrm{SO}(d)_p$ in dimension $d=2,3$, by exploiting the machinery of inverse limits of measure spaces, for every prime $p>2$. We characterise $\mathrm{SO}(d)_p$ as inverse limits of finite groups, of which we provide parametrisations and orders, together with an equivalent description through a multivariable Hensel lifting. Supplying these finite groups with their normalised counting measures, we get an inverse family of Haar measure spaces for each $\mathrm{SO}(d)_p$. Finally, we constructively prove the existence of the so-called inverse limit measure of these inverse families, which is explicitly computable, and prove that it gives the Haar measure on $\mathrm{SO}(d)_p$. Our results pave the way towards the study of the irreducible projective unitary representations of the $p$-adic rotation groups, with potential applications to the recently proposed $p$-adic quantum information theory.

math-ph↗

arXiv2024

Invariant measures on p-adic Lie groups: the p-adic quaternion algebra and the Haar integral on the p-adic rotation groups

We provide a general expression of the Haar measure $-$ that is, the essentially unique translation-invariant measure $-$ on a $p$-adic Lie group. We then argue that this measure can be regarded as the measure naturally induced by the invariant volume form on the group, as it happens for a standard Lie group over the reals. As an important application, we next consider the problem of determining the Haar measure on the $p$-adic special orthogonal groups in dimension two, three and four (for every prime number $p$). In particular, the Haar measure on $\mathrm{SO}(2,\mathbb{Q}_p)$ is obtained by a direct application of our general formula. As for $\mathrm{SO}(3,\mathbb{Q}_p)$ and $\mathrm{SO}(4,\mathbb{Q}_p)$, instead, we show that Haar integrals on these two groups can conveniently be lifted to Haar integrals on certain $p$-adic Lie groups from which the special orthogonal groups are obtained as quotients. This construction involves a suitable quaternion algebra over the field $\mathbb{Q}_p$ and is reminiscent of the quaternionic realization of the real rotation groups. Our results should pave the way to the development of harmonic analysis on the $p$-adic special orthogonal groups, with potential applications in $p$-adic quantum mechanics and in the recently proposed $p$-adic quantum information theory.

math-ph↗

arXiv2024

Quantum Wiretap Channel Coding Assisted by Noisy Correlation

We consider the private classical capacity of a quantum wiretap channel, where the users (sender Alice, receiver Bob, and eavesdropper Eve) have access to the resource of a shared quantum state, additionally to their channel inputs and outputs. An extreme case is maximal entanglement or a secret key between Alice and Bob, both of which would allow for onetime padding the message. But here both the wiretap channel and the shared state are general. In the other extreme case that the state is trivial, we recover the wiretap channel and its private capacity [N. Cai, A. Winter and R. W. Yeung, Probl. Inform. Transm. 40(4):318-336, 2004]. We show how to use the given resource state to build a code for secret classical communication. Our main result is a lower bound on the assisted private capacity, which asymptotically meets the multi-letter converse and which encompasses all sorts of previous results as special cases.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Bounding the joint numerical range of Pauli strings by graph parameters

The interplay between the quantum state space and a specific set of measurements can be effectively captured by examining the set of jointly attainable expectation values. This set is commonly referred to as the (convex) joint numerical range. In this work, we explore geometric properties of this construct for measurements represented by tensor products of Pauli observables, also known as Pauli strings. The structure of pairwise commutation and anticommutation relations among a set of Pauli strings determines a graph $G$, sometimes also called the frustration graph. We investigate the connection between the parameters of this graph and the structure of minimal ellipsoids encompassing the joint numerical range. Such an outer approximation can be very practical since ellipsoids can be handled analytically even in high dimensions. We find counterexamples to a conjecture from [C. de Gois, K. Hansenne and O. Gühne, arXiv:2207.02197], and answer an open question in [M. B. Hastings and R. O'Donnell, Proc. STOC 2022, pp. 776-789], which implies a new graph parameter that we call $β(G)$. Besides, we develop this approach in different directions, such as comparison with graph-theoretic approaches in other fields, applications in quantum information theory, numerical methods, properties of the new graph parameter, etc. Our approach suggests many open questions that we discuss briefly at the end.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Quantum soft-covering lemma with applications to rate-distortion coding, resolvability and identification via quantum channels

We propose a quantum soft-covering problem for a given general quantum channel and one of its output states, which consists in finding the minimum rank of an input state needed to approximate the given channel output. We then prove a one-shot quantum covering lemma in terms of smooth min-entropies by leveraging decoupling techniques from quantum Shannon theory. This covering result is shown to be equivalent to a coding theorem for rate distortion under a posterior (reverse) channel distortion criterion by two of the present authors. Both one-shot results directly yield corollaries about the i.i.d. asymptotics, in terms of the coherent information of the channel. The power of our quantum covering lemma is demonstrated by two additional applications: first, we formulate a quantum channel resolvability problem, and provide one-shot as well as asymptotic upper and lower bounds. Secondly, we provide new upper bounds on the unrestricted and simultaneous identification capacities of quantum channels, in particular separating for the first time the simultaneous identification capacity from the unrestricted one, proving a long-standing conjecture of the last author.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Approximating quantum channels by completely positive maps with small Kraus rank

We study the problem of approximating a quantum channel by one with as few Kraus operators as possible (in the sense that, for any input state, the output states of the two channels should be close to one another). Our main result is that any quantum channel mapping states on some input Hilbert space $\mathrm{A}$ to states on some output Hilbert space $\mathrm{B}$ can be compressed into one with order $d\log d$ Kraus operators, where $d=\max(|\mathrm{A}|,|\mathrm{B}|)$, hence much less than $|\mathrm{A}||\mathrm{B}|$. In the case where the channel's outputs are all very mixed, this can be improved to order $d$. We discuss the optimality of this result as well as some consequences.

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