arXiv subjects

Francesco Buscemi

Publications and source records attributed to Francesco Buscemi.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Maxwell's Demon walks into Wall Street: Stochastic Thermodynamics meets Expected Utility Theory

The interplay between thermodynamics and information theory has a long history, but its quantitative manifestations are still being explored. We import tools from expected utility theory from economics into stochastic thermodynamics. We prove that, in a process obeying Crooks' fluctuation relations, every $α$ Rényi divergence between the forward process and its reverse has the operational meaning of the ``certainty equivalent'' of dissipated work (or, more generally, of entropy production) for a player with risk aversion $r=α-1$. The two known cases $α=1$ and $α=\infty$ are recovered and receive the new interpretation of being associated to a risk-neutral and an extreme risk-averse player respectively. Among the new results, the condition for $α=0$ describes the behavior of a risk-seeking player willing to bet on the transient violations of the second law. Our approach further leads to a generalized Jarzynski equality, and generalizes to a broader class of statistical divergences.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2023

Virtual quantum broadcasting

The quantum no-broadcasting theorem states that it is impossible to produce perfect copies of an arbitrary quantum state, even if the copies are allowed to be correlated. Here we show that, although quantum broadcasting cannot be achieved by any physical process, it can be achieved by a virtual process, described by a Hermitian-preserving trace-preserving map. This virtual process is canonical: it is the only map that broadcasts all quantum states, is covariant under unitary evolution, is invariant under permutations of the copies, and reduces to the classical broadcasting map when subjected to decoherence. We show that the optimal physical approximation to the canonical broadcasting map is the optimal universal quantum cloning, and we also show that virtual broadcasting can be achieved by a virtual measure-and-prepare protocol, where a virtual measurement is performed, and, depending on the outcomes, two copies of a virtual quantum state are generated. Finally, we use canonical virtual broadcasting to prove a uniqueness result for quantum states over time.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Tight conic approximation of testing regions for quantum statistical models and measurements

Quantum statistical models (i.e., families of normalized density matrices) and quantum measurements (i.e., positive operator-valued measures) can be regarded as linear maps: the former, mapping the space of effects to the space of probability distributions; the latter, mapping the space of states to the space of probability distributions. The images of such linear maps are called the testing regions of the corresponding model or measurement. Testing regions are notoriously impractical to treat analytically in the quantum case. Our first result is to provide an implicit outer approximation of the testing region of any given quantum statistical model or measurement in any finite dimension: namely, a region in probability space that contains the desired image, but is defined implicitly, using a formula that depends only on the given model or measurement. The outer approximation that we construct is minimal among all such outer approximations, and close, in the sense that it becomes the maximal inner approximation up to a constant scaling factor. Finally, we apply our approximation formulas to characterize, in a semi-device independent way, the ability to transform one quantum statistical model or measurement into another.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Computing the quantum guesswork: a quadratic assignment problem

The quantum guesswork quantifies the minimum number of queries needed to guess the state of a quantum ensemble if one is allowed to query only one state at a time. Previous approaches to the computation of the guesswork were based on standard semi-definite programming techniques and therefore lead to approximated results. In contrast, we show that computing the quantum guesswork of qubit ensembles with uniform probability distribution corresponds to solving a quadratic assignment problem and we provide an algorithm that, upon the input of any qubit ensemble over a discrete ring, after finitely many steps outputs the exact closed-form expression of its guesswork. While in general the complexity of our guesswork-computing algorithm is factorial in the number of states, our main result consists of showing a more-than-quadratic speedup for symmetric ensembles, a scenario corresponding to the three-dimensional analog of the maximization version of the turbine-balancing problem. To find such symmetries, we provide an algorithm that, upon the input of any point set over a discrete ring, after finitely many steps outputs its exact symmetries. The complexity of our symmetries-finding algorithm is polynomial in the number of points. As examples, we compute the guesswork of regular and quasi-regular sets of qubit states.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Unifying different notions of quantum incompatibility into a strict hierarchy of resource theories of communication

While there is general consensus on the definition of incompatible POVMs, moving up to the level of instruments one finds a much less clear situation, with mathematically different and logically independent definitions of incompatibility. Here we close this gap by introducing the notion of q-compatibility, which unifies different notions of POVMs, channels, and instruments incompatibility into one hierarchy of resource theories of communication between separated parties. The resource theories that we obtain are complete, in the sense that they contain complete families of free operations and monotones providing necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a transformation. Furthermore, our framework is fully operational, in the sense that free transformations are characterized explicitly, in terms of local operations aided by causally-constrained directed classical communication, and all monotones possess a game-theoretic interpretation making them experimentally measurable in principle. We are thus able to pinpoint exactly what each notion of incompatibility consists of, in terms of information-theoretic resources.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Axioms for retrodiction: achieving time-reversal symmetry with a prior

We propose a category-theoretic definition of retrodiction and use it to exhibit a time-reversal symmetry for all quantum channels. We do this by introducing retrodiction families and functors, which capture many intuitive properties that retrodiction should satisfy and are general enough to encompass both classical and quantum theories alike. Classical Bayesian inversion and all rotated and averaged Petz recovery maps define retrodiction families in our sense. However, averaged rotated Petz recovery maps, including the universal recovery map of Junge-Renner-Sutter-Wilde-Winter, do not define retrodiction functors, since they fail to satisfy some compositionality properties. Among all the examples we found of retrodiction families, the original Petz recovery map is the only one that defines a retrodiction functor. In addition, retrodiction functors exhibit an inferential time-reversal symmetry consistent with the standard formulation of quantum theory. The existence of such a retrodiction functor seems to be in stark contrast to the many no-go results on time-reversal symmetry for quantum channels. One of the main reasons is because such works defined time-reversal symmetry on the category of quantum channels alone, whereas we define it on the category of quantum channels and quantum states. This fact further illustrates the importance of a prior in time-reversal symmetry.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Observational entropy, coarse quantum states, and Petz recovery: information-theoretic properties and bounds

Observational entropy provides a general notion of quantum entropy that appropriately interpolates between Boltzmann's and Gibbs' entropies, and has recently been argued to provide a useful measure of out-of-equilibrium thermodynamic entropy. Here we study the mathematical properties of observational entropy from an information-theoretic viewpoint, making use of recently strengthened forms of the monotonicity property of quantum relative entropy. We present new bounds on observational entropy applying in general, as well as bounds and identities related to sequential and post-processed measurements. A central role in this work is played by what we call the ``coarse-grained'' state, which emerges from the measurement's statistics by Bayesian retrodiction, without presuming any knowledge about the ``true'' underlying state being measured. The degree of distinguishability between such a coarse-grained state and the true (but generally unobservable) one is shown to provide upper and lower bounds on the difference between observational and von Neumann entropies.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

One-shot purity distillation with local noisy operations and one-way classical communication

Local pure states represent a fundamental resource in quantum information theory. In this work we obtain one-shot achievable bounds on the rates for local purity distillation, in the single-party and in the two-party cases. In both situations, local noisy operations are freely available, while in the two-party case also one-way classical communication can be used. In addition, in both situations local pure ancillas can be borrowed, as long as they are discounted from the final net rate of distillation. The one-shot rates that we obtain, written in terms of mutual information-like quantities, are shown to recover in the limit the asymptotic i.i.d. rates of Devetak [PRA, 2005], up to first order analysis.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Von Neumann's information engine without the spectral theorem

Von Neumann obtained the formula for the entropy of a quantum state by assuming the validity of the second law of thermodynamics in a thought experiment involving semipermeable membranes and an ideal gas of quantum-labeled particles. Despite being operational in the most part, von Neumann's argument crucially departs from an operational narrative in its use of the spectral theorem. In this work we show that the role of the spectral theorem in von Neumann's argument can be taken over by the operational assumptions of repeatability and reversibility, and using these we are able to explore the consequences of the second law also in theories that do not possess a unique spectral decomposition. As a byproduct, we obtain the Groenewold--Ozawa information gain as a natural monotone for a suitable ordering of instruments, providing it with an operational interpretation valid in quantum theory and beyond.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Guesswork of a quantum ensemble

The guesswork of a quantum ensemble quantifies the minimum number of guesses needed in average to correctly guess the state of the ensemble, when only one state can be queried at a time. Here, we derive analytical solutions of the guesswork problem subject to a finite set of conditions, including the analytical solution for any qubit ensemble with uniform probability distribution. As explicit examples, we compute the guesswork for any qubit regular polygonal and polyhedral ensemble.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Thermodynamic Constraints on Quantum Information Gain and Error Correction: A Triple Trade-Off

Quantum error correction (QEC) is a procedure by which the quantum state of a system is protected against a known type of noise, by preemptively adding redundancy to that state. Such a procedure is commonly used in quantum computing when thermal noise is present. Interestingly, thermal noise has also been known to play a central role in quantum thermodynamics (QTD). This fact hints at the applicability of certain QTD statements in the QEC of thermal noise, which has been discussed previously in the context of Maxwell's demon. In this article, we view QEC as a quantum heat engine with a feedback controller (i.e., a demon). We derive an upper bound on the measurement heat dissipated during the error-identification stage in terms of the Groenewold information gain, thereby providing the latter with a physical meaning also when it is negative. Further, we derive the second law of thermodynamics in the context of this QEC engine, operating with general quantum measurements. Finally, we show that, under a set of physically motivated assumptions, this leads to a fundamental triple trade-off relation, which implies a trade-off between the maximum achievable fidelity of QEC and the super-Carnot efficiency that heat engines with feedback controllers have been known to possess. A similar trade-off relation occurs for the thermodynamic efficiency of the QEC engine and the efficacy of the quantum measurement used for error identification.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Fluctuation Theorems with Retrodiction rather than Reverse Processes

Irreversibility is usually captured by a comparison between the process that happens and a corresponding "reverse process". In the last decades, this comparison has been extensively studied through fluctuation relations. Here we revisit fluctuation relations from the standpoint, suggested decades ago by Watanabe, that the comparison should involve the prediction and the retrodiction on the unique process, rather than two processes. We identify a necessary and sufficient condition for a retrodictive reading of a fluctuation relation. The retrodictive narrative also brings to the fore the possibility of deriving fluctuation relations based on various statistical divergences, and clarifies some of the traditional assumptions as arising from the choice of a reference prior.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2021

Type-independent Characterization of Spacelike Separated Resources

Quantum theory describes multipartite objects of various types: quantum states, nonlocal boxes, steering assemblages, teleportages, distributed measurements, channels, and so on. Such objects describe, for example, the resources shared in quantum networks. Not all such objects are useful, however. In the context of space-like separated parties, devices which can be simulated using local operations and shared randomness are useless, and it is of paramount importance to be able to practically distinguish useful from useless quantum resources. Accordingly, a body of literature has arisen to provide tools for witnessing and quantifying the nonclassicality of objects of each specific type. In the present work, we provide a framework which subsumes and generalizes all of these resources, as well as the tools for witnessing and quantifying their nonclassicality.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Explicit construction of optimal witnesses for input-output correlations attainable by quantum channels

Given a quantum channel -- that is, a completely positive trace-preserving linear map -- as the only communication resource available between two parties, we consider the problem of characterizing the set of classical noisy channels that can be obtained from it by means of suitable classical-quantum encodings and quantum-classical decodings, respectively, on the sender's and the receiver's side. We consider various classes of linear witnesses and compute their optimum values in closed form for several classes of quantum channels. The witnesses that we consider here are formulated as communication games, in which Alice's aim is to exploit a single use of a given quantum channel to help Bob guess some information she has received from an external referee.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Fluctuation theorems from Bayesian retrodiction

Quantitative studies of irreversibility in statistical mechanics often involve the consideration of a reverse process, whose definition has been the object of many discussions, in particular for quantum mechanical systems. Here we show that the reverse channel very naturally arises from Bayesian retrodiction, both in classical and quantum theories. Previous paradigmatic results, such as Jarzynski's equality, Crooks' fluctuation theorem, and Tasaki's two-measurement fluctuation theorem for closed driven quantum systems, are all shown to be consistent with retrodictive arguments. Also, various corrections that were introduced to deal with nonequilibrium steady states or open quantum systems are justified on general grounds as remnants of Bayesian retrodiction. More generally, with the reverse process constructed on consistent logical inference, fluctuation relations acquire a much broader form and scope.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Data-Driven Inference, Reconstruction, and Observational Completeness of Quantum Devices

The range of a quantum measurement is the set of outcome probability distributions that can be produced by varying the input state. We introduce data-driven inference as a protocol that, given a set of experimental data as a collection of outcome distributions, infers the quantum measurement which is, i) consistent with the data, in the sense that its range contains all the distributions observed, and, ii) maximally noncommittal, in the sense that its range is of minimum volume in the space of outcome distributions. We show that data-driven inference is able to return a unique measurement for any data set if and only if the inference adopts a (hyper)-spherical state space (for example, the classical or the quantum bit). In analogy to informational completeness for quantum tomography, we define observational completeness as the property of any set of states that, when fed into any given measurement, produces a set of outcome distributions allowing for the correct reconstruction of the measurement via data-driven inference. We show that observational completeness is strictly stronger than informational completeness, in the sense that not all informationally complete sets are also observationally complete. Moreover, we show that for systems with a (hyper)-spherical state space, the only observationally complete simplex is the regular one, namely, the symmetric informationally complete set.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

An information-theoretic treatment of quantum dichotomies

Given two pairs of quantum states, we want to decide if there exists a quantum channel that transforms one pair into the other. The theory of quantum statistical comparison and quantum relative majorization provides necessary and sufficient conditions for such a transformation to exist, but such conditions are typically difficult to check in practice. Here, by building upon work by Matsumoto, we relax the problem by allowing for small errors in one of the transformations. In this way, a simple sufficient condition can be formulated in terms of one-shot relative entropies of the two pairs. In the asymptotic setting where we consider sequences of state pairs, under some mild convergence conditions, this implies that the quantum relative entropy is the only relevant quantity deciding when a pairwise state transformation is possible. More precisely, if the relative entropy of the initial state pair is strictly larger compared to the relative entropy of the target state pair, then a transformation with exponentially vanishing error is possible. On the other hand, if the relative entropy of the target state is strictly larger, then any such transformation will have an error converging exponentially to one. As an immediate consequence, we show that the rate at which pairs of states can be transformed into each other is given by the ratio of their relative entropies. We discuss applications to the resource theories of athermality and coherence.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

General state transitions with exact resource morphisms: a unified resource-theoretic approach

Given a non-empty closed convex subset $\mathsf{F}$ of density matrices, we formulate conditions that guarantee the existence of an $\mathsf{F}$-morphism (namely, a completely positive trace-preserving linear map that maps $\mathsf{F}$ into itself) between two arbitrarily chosen density matrices. While we allow errors in the transition, the corresponding map is required to be an exact $\mathsf{F}$-morphism. Our findings, though purely geometrical, are formulated in a resource-theoretic language and provide a common framework that comprises various resource theories, including the resource theories of bipartite and multipartite entanglement, coherence, athermality, and asymmetric distinguishability. We show how, when specialized to some situations of physical interest, our general results are able to unify and extend previous analyses. We also study conditions for the existence of maximally resourceful states, defined here as density matrices from which any other one can be obtained by means of a suitable $\mathsf{F}$-morphism. Moreover, we quantitatively characterize the paradigmatic tasks of optimal resource dilution and distillation, as special transitions in which one of the two endpoints is maximally resourceful.

quant-ph↗