Quantum communications (Q2350208)

In light of progress of the past decades in quantum communication theory and experiments, it is widely expected that the laws of quantum mechanics will sooner or later find fruitful application in communcation technologies. With his book ``Quantum communications'', the author provides a textbook for teaching the basics of quantum optics, quantum signal theory and quantum information theory to students of electrical engineering and communication sciences. ``The comprehensive consideration of quantum communication concepts presented in this book serves to establish this missing conceptual link between the formal quantum mechanics \dots and quantum optical information manipulation utilizing quantum mechanics along with optics and telecommunications tools'', as the author states in his preface to the text. The main part of the text is divided into three parts ``Fundamentals'', ``Quantum communications'', and ``Quantum information''. In the following, a detailed description of the contents is given. Part I covers a standard overview of the mathematical and conceptual fundamentals of quantum mechanics in finite dimensions at a level suitable for comprehension of the following chapters. Basic notions of Hilbert spaces, operators, eigen- and polar decompositions, and tensor product spaces are discussed, as well as the structure of quantum mechanics including the postulates, density matrices, measurements. The description of two-level systems (``qubit systems'') is carried out as an example. In Part II, the most extensive of the book, the author introduces the reader into quantum-optical signal theory. The first introductory chapter of this part introduces the basic concepts of quantum communication theory. The description of, e.g., free space and optical fiber transmission systems and the description of message transmission by means of poisson stochastic processes are carried out. As it is done in the whole text, classical counterparts of the models introduced (as long as there are such) are also discussed. This seems suitable for comparation and to enlighten the way in which quantum mechanics offers a richer structure than classical theories. Two chapters are devoted to quantum decision theory. Within the first chapter, the mathematical setting of quantum decision theory (i.e., the decision between different possible states of a quantum systems by means of measurements) is discussed, and the reader is introduced into Helstrom's theory of binary decision, together with treatment of optimality conditions. Holevo's theorem (on decision constraints) and Kennedy's theorem are stated and proven in an appendix. The theory is applied to the special case of systems having geometrically uniform symmetry (GUS). A second chapter on decision theory is devoted to the so-called square-root measurement, which is a widely used (suboptimal) scheme for deciding between quantum states. The remaining two chapters of Part II, filling approximately two hundred pages of the book, discuss the application of decision theory to prominent examples of quantum-optical systems. A focus lies on detailed discussion of binary optical communication systems of classical as well as quantum nature. For coherent states, explicitly detection of systems under on-of-keying (OOK) modulation, binary phase key shifting (BPSK), quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), pulse position modulation (PPM) are introduced and compared to their classical counterparts. Also modulations of squeezed states are discussed. The last chapter of Part II is on signals under presence of thermal noise, and different modulation and receiver models are applied. Together with the theoretical models, also some experimental setups with (coloured) figures and diagrams, as well as numerical studies are presented. Part III, entitled ``Quantum information'', basically covers two topics. First, there is a chapter on continuous variables quantum mechanics, where the fundamentals of quantum mechanics given at the beginning are extended to systems having infinite degrees of freedom, this is a bit ad-hoc, mathematically, (``Replace summations by integrals'', (p. 467) and so on). Other topics covered, are, e.g., single- and N-mode phase space representations, coherent states. The preparations at the beginning of the chapter are mainly served, to supply the reader with the necessary knowledge for the main topic of the chapter, the description of Gaussian states, which are covered extensively, in single and multipartite systems (with even some pages on entanglement in continuous variable systems). Second, there is an introduction of the basics and some prominent results in quantum Shannon theory. Topics are properties of von Neumann entropic functions, completely positive maps, Kraus decomposition, source coding and channel coding results for channels with classical input and quantum mechanical output. The results of quantum information theory, are presented together with their counterparts from classical Shannon theory. The book is concluded with a chapter on ``Applications of quantum information'', which is devoted for detailed descriptions of prominent standard protocols like quantum key distribution (QKD) in finite and continuous variables, and quantum teleportation. The mathematical level of the book seems conceivable for students, albeit most proofs are omitted (usually there is a reference to other sources covering the proofs). Coloured figures and diagrams are provided throughout the book, and each chapter comes with some problems for self-study and up-to-date references. In summary, the present book appears as a very nice introduction to quantum communication theories for students of electrical engineering and communication sciences. It also may serve researchers as starting reference to head into new fields of communication theory.