New methods for studying positivity and non-additivity of quantum capacities

Wednesday, November 6, 2019 2:30 pm - 2:30 pm EST (GMT -05:00)

Seminar featuring Vikesh Siddhu

A long standing issue in quantum information theory is to understand the quantum capacity. One main reason for our lack of understanding is the non-additivity of the one-shot quantum capacity. Another reason is the absence of clarity about noisy quantum channels that have positive quantum capacity.

We introduce a complementary pair of channels, each of which generalizes the quantum erasure channel. One channel in this pair produces simple instances of non-additivity of the one-shot quantum capacity. The other channel shows surprising behaviour concerning the positivity of the one-shot quantum capacity.

We also present a new method based on logarithmic singularities of the von-Neumann entropy. Using this log singularity method, we find a new type of non-additivity where using two very simple channels in parallel, one that doesn't have quantum capacity and a second that has positive one-shot quantum capacity, produces a channel whose one-shot quantum capacity exceeds that of the second channel. Another application of this method extends results of Leung and Watrous'17 concerning the positivity of the one-shot quantum capacity of qubit input channels.