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Andreas Winter

Publications and source records attributed to Andreas Winter.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Sandwich theorems and capacity bounds for non-commutative graphs

We define non-commutative versions of the vertex packing polytope, the theta convex body and the fractional vertex packing polytope of a graph, and establish a quantum version of the Sandwich Theorem of Grötschel, Lovász and Schrijver. We define new non-commutative versions of the Lovász number of a graph which lead to an upper bound of the zero-error capacity of the corresponding quantum channel that can be genuinely better than the one established previously by Duan, Severini and Winter. We define non-commutative counterparts of widely used classical graph parameters and establish their interrelation.

math.CO↗

Stochastic thermodynamics with arbitrary interventions

We extend the theory of stochastic thermodynamics in three directions: (i) instead of a continuously monitored system we consider measurements only at an arbitrary set of discrete times, (ii) we allow for imperfect measurements and incomplete information in the description, and (iii) we treat arbitrary manipulations (e.g. feedback control operations) which are allowed to depend on the entire measurement record. For this purpose we define for a driven system in contact with a single heat bath the four key thermodynamic quantities: internal energy, heat, work and entropy along a single `trajectory' for a causal model. The first law at the trajectory level and the second law on average is verified. We highlight the special case of Bayesian or `bare' measurements (incomplete information, but no average disturbance) which allows us to compare our theory with the literature and to derive a general inequality for the estimated free energy difference in Jarzynksi-type experiments. An analysis of a recent Maxwell demon experiment using real-time feedback control is also given. As a mathematical tool, we prove a classical version of Stinespring's dilation theorem, which might be of independent interest.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Secure and Robust Identification via Classical-Quantum Channels

We study the identification capacity of classical-quantum channels ("cq-channels"), under channel uncertainty and privacy constraints. To be precise, we consider first compound memoryless cq-channels and determine their identification capacity; then we add an eavesdropper, considering compound memoryless wiretap cqq-channels, and determine their secret identification capacity. In the first case (without privacy), we find the identification capacity always equal to the transmission capacity. In the second case, we find a dichotomy: either the secrecy capacity (also known as private capacity) of the channel is zero, and then also the secrecy identification capacity is zero, or the secrecy capacity is positive and then the secrecy identification capacity equals the transmission capacity of the main channel without the wiretapper. We perform the same analysis for the case of arbitrarily varying wiretap cqq-channels (cqq-AVWC), with analogous findings, and make several observations regarding the continuity and super-additivity of the identification capacity in the latter case.

quant-ph↗

LOCC protocols with bounded width per round optimize convex functions

We start with the task of discriminating finitely many multipartite quantum states using LOCC protocols, with the goal to optimize the probability of correctly identifying the state. We provide two different methods to show that finitely many measurement outcomes in every step are sufficient for approaching the optimal probability of discrimination. In the first method, each measurement of an optimal LOCC protocol, applied to a $d_{\rm loc}$-dim local system, is replaced by one with at most $2d_{\rm loc}^2$ outcomes, without changing the probability of success. In the second method, we decompose any LOCC protocol into a convex combination of a number of "slim protocols" in which each measurement applied to a $d_{\rm loc}$-dim local system has at most $d_{\rm loc}^2$ outcomes. To maximize any convex functions in LOCC (including the probability of state discrimination or fidelity of state transformation), an optimal protocol can be replaced by the best slim protocol in the convex decomposition without using shared randomness. For either method, the bound on the number of outcomes per measurement is independent of the global dimension, the number of parties, the depth of the protocol, how deep the measurement is located, and applies to LOCC protocols with infinite rounds, and the "measurement compression" can be done "top-down" -- independent of later operations in the LOCC protocol. The second method can be generalized to implement LOCC instruments with finitely many outcomes: if the instrument has $n$ coarse-grained final measurement outcomes, global input dimension $D_0$ and global output dimension $D_i$ for $i=1,...,n$ conditioned on the $i$-th outcome, then one can obtain the instrument as a convex combination of no more than $R=\sum_{i=1}^n D_0^2 D_i^2 - D_0^2 + 1$ slim protocols; in other words, $\log_2 R$ bits of shared randomess suffice.

quant-ph↗

Resource theories of quantum channels and the universal role of resource erasure

We initiate the systematic study of resource theories of quantum channels, i.e. of the dynamics that quantum systems undergo by completely positive maps, in abstracto: Resources are in principle all maps from one quantum system to another, but some maps are deemed free. The free maps are supposed to satisfy certain axioms, among them closure under tensor products, under composition and freeness of the identity map (the latter two say that the free maps form a monoid). The free maps act on the resources simply by tensor product and composition. This generalizes the much-studied resource theories of quantum states, and abolishes the distinction between resources (states) and the free maps, which act on the former, leaving only maps, divided into resource-full and resource-free ones. We discuss the axiomatic framework of quantifying channel resources, and show two general methods of constructing resource monotones of channels. Furthermore, we show that under mild regularity conditions, each resource theory of quantum channels has a distinguished monotone, the robustness (and its smoothed version), generalizing the analogous concept in resource theories of states. We give an operational interpretation of the log-robustness as the amount of heat dissipation (randomness) required for resource erasure by random reversible free maps, valid in broad classes of resource theories of quantum channels. Technically, this is based on an abstract version of the recent convex-split lemma, extended from its original domain of quantum states to ordered vector spaces with sufficiently well-behaved base norms (which includes the case of quantum channels with diamond norm or variants thereof). Finally, we remark on several key issues concerning the asymptotic theory.

quant-ph↗

Indistinguishability-enabled coherence for quantum metrology

Quantum coherence plays a fundamental and operational role in different areas of physics. A resource theory has been developed to characterize the coherence of distinguishable particles systems. Here we show that indistinguishability of identical particles is a source of coherence, even when they are independently prepared. In particular, under spatially local operations, states that are incoherent for distinguishable particles, can be coherent for indistinguishable particles under the same procedure. We present a phase discrimination protocol, in which we demonstrate the operational advantage of using two indistinguishable particles rather than distinguishable ones. The coherence due to the quantum indistinguishability significantly reduces the error probability of guessing the phase using the most general measurements.

quant-ph↗

Convexity and Operational Interpretation of the Quantum Information Bottleneck Function

In classical information theory, the information bottleneck method (IBM) can be regarded as a method of lossy data compression which focusses on preserving meaningful (or relevant) information. As such it has recently gained a lot of attention, primarily for its applications in machine learning and neural networks. A quantum analogue of the IBM has recently been defined, and an attempt at providing an operational interpretation of the so-called quantum IB function as an optimal rate of an information-theoretic task, has recently been made by Salek et al. However, the interpretation given in that paper has a couple of drawbacks; firstly its proof is based on a conjecture that the quantum IB function is convex, and secondly, the expression for the rate function involves certain entropic quantities which occur explicitly in the very definition of the underlying information-theoretic task, thus making the latter somewhat contrived. We overcome both of these drawbacks by first proving the convexity of the quantum IB function, and then giving an alternative operational interpretation of it as the optimal rate of a bona fide information-theoretic task, namely that of quantum source coding with quantum side information at the decoder, and relate the quantum IB function to the rate region of this task. We similarly show that the related privacy funnel function is convex (both in the classical and quantum case). However, we comment that it is unlikely that the quantum privacy funnel function can characterize the optimal asymptotic rate of an information theoretic task, since even its classical version lacks a certain additivity property which turns out to be essential.

quant-ph↗

One-Shot Coherence Distillation: Towards Completing the Picture

The resource framework of quantum coherence was introduced by Baumgratz, Cramer and Plenio [PRL 113, 140401 (2014)] and further developed by Winter and Yang [PRL 116, 120404 (2016)]. We consider the one-shot problem of distilling pure coherence from a single instance of a given resource state. Specifically, we determine the distillable coherence with a given fidelity under incoherent operations (IO) through a generalisation of the Winter-Yang protocol. This is compared to the distillable coherence under maximal incoherent operations (MIO) and dephasing-covariant incoherent operations (DIO), which can be cast as a semidefinite programme, that has been presented previously by Regula et al. [PRL 121, 010401 (2018)]. Our results are given in terms of a smoothed min-relative entropy distance from the incoherent set of states, and a variant of the hypothesis-testing relative entropy distance, respectively. The one-shot distillable coherence is also related to one-shot randomness extraction. Moreover, from the one-shot formulas under IO, MIO, DIO, we can recover the optimal distillable rate in the many-copy asymptotics, yielding the relative entropy of coherence. These results can be compared with previous work by some of the present authors [Zhao et al., PRL 120, 070403 (2018)] on one-shot coherence formation under IO, MIO, DIO and also SIO. This shows that the amount of distillable coherence is essentially the same for IO, DIO, and MIO, despite the fact that the three classes of operations are very different. We also relate the distillable coherence under strictly incoherent operations (SIO) to a constrained hypothesis testing problem and explicitly show the existence of bound coherence under SIO in the asymptotic regime.

quant-ph↗

Entanglement-Assisted Quantum Data Compression

Ask how the quantum compression of ensembles of pure states is affected by the availability of entanglement, and in settings where the encoder has access to side information. We find the optimal asymptotic quantum rate and the optimal tradeoff (rate region) of quantum and entanglement rates. It turns out that the amount by which the quantum rate beats the Schumacher limit, the entropy of the source, is precisely half the entropy of classical information that can be extracted from the source and side information states without disturbing them at all ("reversible extraction of classical information"). In the special case that the encoder has no side information, or that she has access to the identity of the states, this problem reduces to the known settings of blind and visible Schumacher compression, respectively, albeit here additionally with entanglement assistance. We comment on connections to previously studied and further rate tradeoffs when also classical information is considered.

quant-ph↗

Intersection patterns of linear subspaces with the hypercube

Following a combinatorial observation made by one of us recently in relation to a problem in quantum information [Nakata et al., Phys. Rev. X 7:021006 (2017)], we study what are the possible intersection cardinalities of a $k$-dimensional subspace with the hypercube in $n$-dimensional Euclidean space. We also propose two natural variants of the problem by restricting the type of subspace allowed. We find that whereas every natural number eventually occurs as the intersection cardinality for some $k$ and $n$, on the other hand for each fixed k, the possible intersections sizes are governed by severe restrictions. To wit, while the largest intersection size is evidently $2^k$, there is always a large gap to the second largest intersection size, which we find to be $\frac34 2^k$ for $k \geq 2$ (and $2^{k-1}$ in the restricted version). We also present several constructions, and propose a number of open questions and conjectures for future investigation.

math.CO↗

Universal gaps for XOR games from estimates on tensor norm ratios

We define and study XOR games in the framework of general probabilistic theories, which encompasses all physical models whose predictive power obeys minimal requirements. The bias of an XOR game under local or global strategies is shown to be given by a certain injective or projective tensor norm, respectively. The intrinsic (i.e.\ model-independent) advantage of global over local strategies is thus connected to a universal function $r(n,m)$ called 'projective-injective ratio'. This is defined as the minimal constant $ρ$ such that $\|\cdot\|_{X\otimes_πY}\leqρ\,\|\cdot\|_{X\otimes_\varepsilon Y}$ holds for all Banach spaces of dimensions $\dim X=n$ and $\dim Y=m$, where $X\otimes_πY$ and $X \otimes_\varepsilon Y$ are the projective and injective tensor products. By requiring that $X=Y$, one obtains a symmetrised version of the above ratio, denoted by $r_s(n)$. We prove that $r(n,m)\geq 19/18$ for all $n,m\geq 2$, implying that injective and projective tensor products are never isometric. We then study the asymptotic behaviour of $r(n,m)$ and $r_s(n)$, showing that, up to log factors: $r_s(n)$ is of the order $\sqrt{n}$ (which is sharp); $r(n,n)$ is at least of the order $n^{1/6}$; and $r(n,m)$ grows at least as $\min\{n,m\}^{1/8}$. These results constitute our main contribution to the theory of tensor norms. In our proof, a crucial role is played by an '$\ell_1$/$\ell_2$/$\ell_{\infty}$ trichotomy theorem' based on ideas by Pisier, Rudelson, Szarek, and Tomczak-Jaegermann. The main operational consequence we draw is that there is a universal gap between local and global strategies in general XOR games, and that this grows as a power of the minimal local dimension. In the quantum case, we are able to determine this gap up to universal constants. As a corollary, we obtain an improved bound on the scaling of the maximal quantum data hiding efficiency against local measurements.

quant-ph↗

Thermodynamics as a Consequence of Information Conservation

Thermodynamics and information have intricate interrelations. Often thermodynamics is considered to be the logical premise to justify that information is physical - through Landauer's principle -, thereby also linking information and thermodynamics. This approach towards information has been instrumental to understand thermodynamics of logical and physical processes, both in the classical and quantum domain. In the present work, we formulate thermodynamics as an exclusive consequence of information conservation. The framework can be applied to the most general situations, beyond the traditional assumptions in thermodynamics: we allow systems and thermal baths to be quantum, of arbitrary sizes and possessing inter-system correlations. Here, systems and baths are not treated differently, rather both are considered on an equal footing. This leads us to introduce a "temperature"-independent formulation of thermodynamics. We rely on the fact that, for a fixed amount of information, measured by the von Neumann entropy, any system can be transformed to a state with the same entropy that possesses minimal energy. This state, known as a completely passive state, acquires Boltzmann-Gibbs canonical form with an intrinsic temperature. We introduce the notions of bound and free energy and use them to quantify heat and work, respectively. Guided by the principle of information conservation, we develop universal notions of equilibrium, heat and work, Landauer's principle and universal fundamental laws of thermodynamics. We demonstrate that the maximum efficiency of a quantum engine with a finite bath is in general lower than that of an ideal Carnot engine. We introduce a resource theoretic framework for our intrinsic temperature based thermodynamics, within which we address the problem of work extraction and state transformations. Finally, the framework is extended to multiple conserved quantities.

quant-ph↗

Distributed Compression of Correlated Classical-Quantum Sources or: The Price of Ignorance

We resume the investigation of the problem of independent local compression of correlated quantum sources, the classical case of which is covered by the celebrated Slepian-Wolf theorem. We focus specifically on classical-quantum (cq) sources, for which one edge of the rate region, corresponding to the compression of the classical part, using the quantum part as side information at the decoder, was previously determined by Devetak and Winter [Phys. Rev. A 68, 042301 (2003)]. Whereas the Devetak-Winter protocol attains a rate-sum equal to the von Neumann entropy of the joint source, here we show that the full rate region is much more complex, due to the partially quantum nature of the source. In particular, in the opposite case of compressing the quantum part of the source, using the classical part as side information at the decoder, typically the rate sum is strictly larger than the von Neumann entropy of the total source. We determine the full rate region in the generic case, showing that, apart from the Devetak-Winter point, all other points in the achievable region have a rate sum strictly larger than the joint entropy. We can interpret the difference as the price paid for the quantum encoder being ignorant of the classical side information. In the general case, we give an achievable rate region, via protocols that are built on the decoupling principle, and the principles of quantum state merging and quantum state redistribution. Our achievable region is matched almost by a single-letter converse, which however still involves asymptotic errors and an unbounded auxiliary system.

quant-ph↗

All phase-space linear bosonic channels are approximately Gaussian dilatable

We compare two sets of multimode quantum channels acting on a finite collection of harmonic oscillators: (a) the set of linear bosonic channels, whose action is described as a linear transformation at the phase space level; and (b) Gaussian dilatable channels, that admit a Stinespring dilation involving a Gaussian unitary. Our main result is that the set (a) coincides with the closure of (b) with respect to the strong operator topology. We also present an example of a channel in (a) which is not in (b), implying that taking the closure is in general necessary. This provides a complete resolution to the conjecture posed in Ref. [K.K. Sabapathy and A. Winter, Phys. Rev. A 95:062309, 2017]. Our proof technique is constructive, and yields an explicit procedure to approximate a given linear bosonic channel by means of Gaussian dilations. It turns out that all linear bosonic channels can be approximated by a Gaussian dilation using an ancilla with the same number of modes as the system. We also provide an alternative dilation where the unitary is fixed in the approximating procedure. Our results apply to a wide range of physically relevant channels, including all Gaussian channels such as amplifiers, attenuators, phase conjugators, and also non-Gaussian channels such as additive noise channels and photon-added Gaussian channels. The method also provides a clear demarcation of the role of Gaussian and non-Gaussian resources in the context of linear bosonic channels. Finally, we also obtain independent proofs of classical results such as the quantum Bochner theorem, and develop some tools to deal with convergence of sequences of quantum channels on continuous variable systems that may be of independent interest.

quant-ph↗

Every entangled state provides an advantage in classical communication

We investigate the use of noisy entanglement as a resource in classical communication via a quantum channel. In particular, we are interested in the question whether for any entangled state, including bound entangled states, there exists a quantum channel the classical capacity of which can be increased by providing the state as an additional resource. We partially answer this question by showing, for any entangled state, the existence of a quantum memory channel the feedback-assisted classical capacity with product encodings of which can be increased by using the state as a resource. Using a different (memoryless) channel construction, we also provide a sufficient entropic condition for an advantage in classical communication (without feedback and for general encodings) and thus provide an example of a state that is not distillable by means of one-way local operations and classical communication (LOCC), but can provide an advantage in the classical capacity of a number of quantum channels. As separable states cannot provide an advantage in classical communication, our condition also provides an entropic entanglement witness.

quant-ph↗

Using and reusing coherence to realize quantum processes

Coherent superposition is a key feature of quantum mechanics that underlies the advantage of quantum technologies over their classical counterparts. Recently, coherence has been recast as a resource theory in an attempt to identify and quantify it in an operationally well-defined manner. Here we study how the coherence present in a state can be used to implement a quantum channel via incoherent operations and, in turn, to assess its degree of coherence. We introduce the robustness of coherence of a quantum channel---which reduces to the homonymous measure for states when computed on constant-output channels---and prove that: i) it quantifies the minimal rank of a maximally coherent state required to implement the channel; ii) its logarithm quantifies the amortized cost of implementing the channel provided some coherence is recovered at the output; iii) its logarithm also quantifies the zero-error asymptotic cost of implementation of many independent copies of a channel. We also consider the generalized problem of imperfect implementation with arbitrary resource states. Using the robustness of coherence, we find that in general a quantum channel can be implemented without employing a maximally coherent resource state. In fact, we prove that \textit{every} pure coherent state in dimension larger than $2$, however weakly so, turns out to be a valuable resource to implement \textit{some} coherent unitary channel. We illustrate our findings for the case of single-qubit unitary channels.

quant-ph↗

Gaussian quantum resource theories

We develop a general framework to assess capabilities and limitations of the Gaussian toolbox in continuous variable quantum information theory. Our framework allows us to characterize the structure and properties of quantum resource theories specialized to Gaussian states and Gaussian operations, establishing rigorous methods for their description and yielding a unified approach to their quantification. We show in particular that, under a few intuitive and physically motivated assumptions on the set of free states, no Gaussian quantum resource can be distilled with free Gaussian operations, even when an unlimited supply of the resource state is available. This places fundamental constraints on state manipulations in all such Gaussian resource theories. We discuss in particular the applications to quantum entanglement, where we extend previously known results by showing that Gaussian entanglement cannot be distilled even with Gaussian operations preserving the positivity of the partial transpose, as well as to other Gaussian resources such as steering and optical nonclassicality. A comprehensive semidefinite programming representation of all these resources is explicitly provided.

quant-ph↗

Universal recovery maps and approximate sufficiency of quantum relative entropy

The data processing inequality states that the quantum relative entropy between two states $ρ$ and $σ$ can never increase by applying the same quantum channel $\mathcal{N}$ to both states. This inequality can be strengthened with a remainder term in the form of a distance between $ρ$ and the closest recovered state $(\mathcal{R} \circ \mathcal{N})(ρ)$, where $\mathcal{R}$ is a recovery map with the property that $σ= (\mathcal{R} \circ \mathcal{N})(σ)$. We show the existence of an explicit recovery map that is universal in the sense that it depends only on $σ$ and the quantum channel $\mathcal{N}$ to be reversed. This result gives an alternate, information-theoretic characterization of the conditions for approximate quantum error correction.

quant-ph↗