Quantum correlations beyond entanglement and their role in quantum information theory (Q405723)

The author introduces the reader and gives an overview of the fundamentals of quantum theory and quantum information used in the main part of the book in Chapters 1 through 3. Classical correlated and classical quantum states are defined in Section 4.1. In Section 4.2, measures of quantum correlations are considered. The transmission of the classical mutual information to quantum theory is ambiguous since quantum conditioning is linked to quantum measurement. The von Neumann entropy \(S\) suggests to use \(I(\rho^{AB}) = S(\rho^{A}) + (\rho^{B}) - S(\rho^{AB})\), where \(\rho^{A},\rho^{B}\) are the reductions of \(\rho^{AB}\). Otherwise, with \(\rho_i^{A} = \mathrm{Tr}_B (\frac{1}{p_i}\Pi_i^B\rho^{AB}\Pi_i^B),\; \Pi_i^B) = 1 \otimes P_i^B,\; p_i = \mathrm{Tr}(\Pi_i^B\rho^{AB})\), resulting from a von Neumann measurement, and \(S(A|\Pi^B) = \sum_ip_iS\rho_i^A)\) as the quantum conditional entropy the use of \(J(\rho^{AB})_{\{\Pi_i^B\}} = S(\rho^A) - S(A|\Pi^B)\) is suggested which differs from \(I(\rho^{AB})\). Quantum discord is defined by \(\delta^{B|A}(\rho^{AB}) = \mathrm{min}_{\{\Pi_i^B\}}\left[I(\rho^{AB}) - J(\rho^{AB})_{\{\Pi_i^B\}}\right]\). Alternatively, the conditional entropy can be based on general measurement operations replacing the projections \(P_i^B\) by Kraus operators \(K_i^B\), and \(\Pi_i^B\) by \(M_i^B = 1 \otimes K_i^B\). In this way, \textit{L. Henderson} and \textit{V. Vedral} [J. Phys. A, Math. Gen. 34, No. 35, 6899--6905 (2001; Zbl 0988.81023)] introduced a measure of classical correlations \(C_B(\rho^{AB}) = \mathrm{sup}_{\{M_i^B\}}J(\rho^{AB})_{\{M_i^B\}}\). The alternative expression for quantum discord is \(D^{B|A}(\rho^{AB}) = I(\rho^{AB}) - C_B(\rho^{AB})\) which equals to \(E_f(\rho^{AB}) - S(\rho^{AB}) + S(\rho^{B})\), where \(E_f(\rho^{AB})\) is the entanglement of formation. Two further measures of quantum correlations are considered: the relative entropy of discord \(\Delta^{B|A}(\rho^{AB}) = \mathrm{min}_{\sigma^{AB} \in CQ}S(\rho^{AB}\|\sigma^{AB})\), \(CQ\) being the set of classical quantum states, and the geometric measure of discord \(D_G^{A|B}(\rho^{AB}) = \mathrm{min}_{\sigma^{AB} \in CQ}\left\|\rho^{AB} - \sigma^{AB}\right\|^2\), where \(\|\cdot\|\) is the Hilbert Schmidt norm. In Section 5.1, the remote preparation of a pure qubit state is described. In case, the shared bipartite qubit state is a von Neumann mixture \(\rho\) an LOCC protocol yields random results. Let \(\mathbf{s}\) and \(\mathbf{r}\) denote the Bloch vectors of the desired and a yielded resulting state, respectively, the ``pay off function'' \(\mathcal{P} = (\mathbf{r} \cdot \mathbf{s})^2\) [\textit{B. Dakić} et al., ``Quantum discord as resource for remote state preparation'', Nat. Phys. 8, No. 9, 666--670 (2012; \url{doi:10.1038/nphys2377})] is considered and its maximal value \(\mathcal{P}_{\mathrm{max}} = (E\mathbf{s})^2\) is derived from the density matrix \(\rho\), \(E\) being the correlation tensor given by the coefficients of the \(\sigma_i \otimes \sigma_j\) components of \(\rho\). The average value \(\langle\mathcal{P}_{\mathrm{max}}\rangle\) over all qubit states lying on a great circle of the Bloch sphere with axial vector \(\mathbf{\beta}\), which plays a common role in the LOCC protocol, is calculated to be \(\langle\mathcal{P}_{\mathrm{max}}\rangle = \frac{1}{2}(E\mathbf{\beta})^2\). It is shown that \(\langle\mathcal{P}_{\mathrm{max}}\rangle \geq \mathrm{min}_{\mathbf{\beta}} \langle\mathcal{P}_{\mathrm{max}}\rangle \geq D_G(\rho)\), and that there are situations where shared entangled mixed states are outperformed by shared mixed states without entanglement. In Section 5.2, tripartite states \(\rho\) of particles \(A\), \(B\) and \(C\) are considered. Two associative situations are compared: Let \(E^{AC|B}(\rho)\) denote the entanglement of the system consisting in \(A\) and \(C\) on Alice's side and \(B\) on Bob's side and \(E^{A|CB}(\rho)\) denote the entanglement of \(A\) at Alice's side and the system consisting in \(C\) and \(B\) on Bob's side. The proof of \(E^{A|CB}(\rho) - E^{AC|B}(\rho) \leq \Delta^{C|AB}(\rho)\) the author, \textit{H. Kampermann} and \textit{D. Bruß} [``Quantum cost for sending entanglement'', Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, No. 25, Article No. 250501, 5 p. (2012; \url{doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.250501})] is reproduced. It is mentioned that the relative entropies arising in the terms of the inequality can be replaced by such norm distances \(D(\tau,\sigma)\) on state spaces which fulfil \(D(\Lambda\tau,\Lambda\sigma) \leq D(\tau,\sigma)\) for any quantum operation \(\Lambda\). In Section 5.3, also tripartite states \(\rho\) of particles \(A\), \(B\) and \(C\) are considered. Here the state is shared by three parties, Alice, Bob, and Charlie, and the initial state is \(\rho^{AB} \otimes \rho^C\). Approximate transmission of correlations from \(\rho^{AB}\) to \(\rho^{AC}\) can be managed by state manipulations on \(\rho^{BC}\) [the author and \textit{W. H. Zurek}, ``Quantum discord cannot be shared'', Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, No. 4, Article ID 040401, 5 p. (2013; \url{doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.040401})]. Let \(\rho^{AB} = \sum_i \rho_i \otimes |i\rangle\langle i|\). If the manipulations are due to LOCC protocols \(\Lambda_{B\leftrightarrow C}\) it is proven that the maximal achievable mutual information of the final state \(\rho_f^{AC}\) is \(I^C(\rho^{AB}) := \lim_{d_C \to \infty}\mathrm{sup}_{\Lambda_{B\leftrightarrow C}}I(\rho^{AC}) = I(\rho^{AB}) - D^{B|A}(\rho^{AB}) = C_B(\rho^{AB})\), \(d_C\) is the number of levels of \(C\). If the manipulations are due to general state operations \(\Lambda_{BC} = 1^A \otimes \Lambda^{BC}\) and on Charlie's side \(C\) is a system consisting in two or more \(d\)-level atoms \(\{C_k\}_{k=1, 2, 3, \dots , n}\), the final state is \(\rho_f^{ABC} = \Lambda_{BC}\rho^{ABC}\), and the maximal achievable mutual information is \(I_n^q(\rho^{AB}) := \lim_{d \to \infty}\mathrm{sup}_{\Lambda_{BC}} \frac{1}{n}\sum_{k=1}^nI(\rho_f^{AC_k})\). It is shown that for initial states \(|\psi\rangle\langle\psi|^{AB} \otimes \rho^C\) there holds true \(I^q_n(|\psi\rangle\langle\psi|^{AB}) = I^C(|\psi\rangle\langle\psi|^{AB})\; (n\geq 2)\). An outlook on further tasks and open questions on quantum correlations beyond entanglement is given in the final Chapter 6. This book introduces to the title problem and represents the present state of art in an instructive and mathematically rigorous manner. It can be well recommended to students, lecturers and researchers on the field of quantum information processing.