The set of all channels with fixed input and output is convex. We first give a convenient formulation of necessary and sufficient condition for a channel to be extreme point of this set in terms of complementary channel, a notion of big importance in quantum information theory. This formulation is based on the general approach to extremality of completely positive maps in an operator algebra due to Arveson. We then apply this formulation to prove the main result of this note: under certain nondegeneracy conditions, purity of the environment is necessary and sufficient for extremality of Bosonic linear (quasi-free) channel. It follows that Gaussian channel between finite-mode Bosonic systems is extreme if and only if it has minimal noise.
A generic quantum channel can be represented in terms of a unitary interaction between the information-carrying system and a noisy environment. Here, the minimal number of quantum Gaussian environmental modes required to provide a unitary dilation of a multi-mode bosonic Gaussian channel is analyzed both for mixed and pure environment corresponding to the Stinespring representation. In particular, for the case of pure environment we compute this quantity and present an explicit unitary dilation for arbitrary bosonic Gaussian channel. These results considerably simplify the characterization of …
A complete analysis of multi-mode bosonic Gaussian channels is proposed. We clarify the structure of unitary dilations of general Gaussian channels involving any number of bosonic modes and present a normal form. The maximum number of auxiliary modes that is needed is identified, including all rank deficient cases, and the specific role of additive classical noise is highlighted. By using this analysis, we derive a canonical matrix form of the noisy evolution of n-mode bosonic Gaussian channels and of their weak complementary counterparts, based on a recent generalization of the normal mode de…
Properties of Bosonic linear (quasi-free) channels, in particular, Bosonic Gaussian channels with two types of degeneracy are considered. The first type of degeneracy can be interpreted as existence of noise-free canonical variables (for Gaussian channels it means that $\detα=0$). It is shown that this degeneracy implies existence of (infinitely many) "direct sum decompositions" of Bosonic linear channel, which clarifies reversibility properties of this channel (described in arXiv:1212.2354) and provides explicit construction of reversing channels. The second type of degeneracy consists in ran…
In this paper, using the notion of nonlinear coherent states, we define a deformed bosonic dephasing channel modelling the impact of a Kerr medium on a quantum state, as it occurs, for instance, in quantum communication based on optical fibers. We show that, in certain regimes, the Kerr nonlinearity is able to compensate the dephasing. In addition, our studies reveal that the quantum capacity of the deformed bosonic dephasing channel can be greater than that of the undeformed, standard bosonic dephasing channel for certain nonlinearity parameters.
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 resoluti…
An ordering between the quantum states emerging from a single mode gauge-covariant bosonic Gaussian channel is proven. Specifically, we show that within the set of input density matrices with the same given spectrum, the element passive with respect to the Fock basis (i.e. diagonal with decreasing eigenvalues) produces an output which majorizes all the other outputs emerging from the same set. When applied to pure input states, our finding includes as a special case the result of A. Mari, et al., Nat. Comm. 5, 3826 (2014) which implies that the output associated to the vacuum majorizes the oth…
The method of complementary channel for analysis of reversibility (sufficiency) of a quantum channel with respect to families of input states (pure states for the most part) are considered and applied to Bosonic linear (quasi-free) channels, in particular, to Bosonic Gaussian channels. The obtained reversibility conditions for Bosonic linear channels have clear physical interpretation and their sufficiency is also shown by explicit construction of reversing channels. The method of complementary channel gives possibility to prove necessity of these conditions and to describe all reversed famili…
Quantum communication theory explores the implications of quantum mechanics to the tasks of information transmission. Many physical channels can be formally described as quantum Gaussian operations acting on bosonic quantum states. Depending on the input state and on the quality of the channel, the output suffers certain amount of noise. For a long time it has been conjectured, but never proved, that output states of Gaussian channels corresponding to coherent input signals are the less noisy ones (in the sense of a majorization criterion). In this work we prove this conjecture. Specifically w…
Recently, the longstanding Gaussian optimizer conjecture was proven for bosonic Gaussian gauge-covariant or contravariant channels in the work of Giovannetti, Holevo and Garcia-Patron [3]. In the paper of Mari, Giovannetti and Holevo [11] this result was strengthened for one-mode channels by establishing that the output for the vacuum or coherent input majorizes the output for any other input. In the present paper we give the multimode extension of the result of [11], including sufficient conditions under which the coherent states are the only optimizers. We also discuss direct implications of…
Recently, there has been focus on determining the conditions under which the data processing inequality for quantum relative entropy is satisfied with approximate equality. The solution of the exact equality case is due to Petz, who showed that the quantum relative entropy between two quantum states stays the same after the action of a quantum channel if and only if there is a \textit{reversal channel} that recovers the original states after the channel acts. Furthermore, this reversal channel can be constructed explicitly and is now called the \textit{Petz recovery map}. Recent developments h…
A general attenuator $Φ_{λ, σ}$ is a bosonic quantum channel that acts by combining the input with a fixed environment state $σ$ in a beam splitter of transmissivity $λ$. If $σ$ is a thermal state the resulting channel is a thermal attenuator, whose quantum capacity vanishes for $λ\leq 1/2$. We study the quantum capacity of these objects for generic $σ$, proving a number of unexpected results. Most notably, we show that for any arbitrary value of $λ>0$ there exists a suitable single-mode state $σ(λ)$ such that the quantum capacity of $Φ_{λ,σ(λ)}$ is larger than a universal constant $c>0$. Our …
We consider the Braunstein-Kimble protocol for continuous variable teleportation and its application for the simulation of bosonic channels. We discuss the convergence properties of this protocol under various topologies (strong, uniform, and bounded-uniform) clarifying some typical misinterpretations in the literature. We then show that the teleportation simulation of an arbitrary single-mode Gaussian channel is uniformly convergent to the channel if and only if its noise matrix has full rank. The various forms of convergence are then discussed within adaptive protocols, where the simulation …
In the literature on the continuous-variable bosonic teleportation protocol due to [Braunstein and Kimble, Phys. Rev. Lett., 80(4):869, 1998], it is often loosely stated that this protocol converges to a perfect teleportation of an input state in the limit of ideal squeezing and ideal detection, but the exact form of this convergence is typically not clarified. In this paper, I explicitly clarify that the convergence is in the strong sense, and not the uniform sense, and furthermore, that the convergence occurs for any input state to the protocol, including the infinite-energy Basel states def…
Let L(m,n) denote the convex set of completely positive trace preserving operators from C^{m x m} to C^{n x n}$, i.e quantum channels. We give a necessary condition for L in L(m,n) to be an extreme point. We show that generically, this condition is also sufficient. We characterize completely the extreme points of L_(2,2) and L(3,2), i.e. quantum channels from qubits to qubits and from qutrits to qubits.
Optical channels, such as fibers or free-space links, are ubiquitous in today's telecommunication networks. They rely on the electromagnetic field associated with photons to carry information from one point to another in space. As a result, a complete physical model of these channels must necessarily take quantum effects into account in order to determine their ultimate performances. Specifically, Gaussian photonic (or bosonic) quantum channels have been extensively studied over the past decades given their importance for practical purposes. In spite of this, a longstanding conjecture on the o…
Quantum channels, which are completely positive and trace preserving mappings, can alter the dimension of a system; e.g., a quantum channel from a qubit to a qutrit. We study the convex set properties of dimension-altering quantum channels, and particularly the channel decomposition problem in terms of convex sum of extreme channels. We provide various quantum circuit representations of extreme and generalized extreme channels, which can be employed in an optimization to approximately decompose an arbitrary channel. Numerical simulations of low-dimensional channels are performed to demonstrate…
