We present a general model for quantum channels with memory, and show that it is sufficiently general to encompass all causal automata: any quantum process in which outputs up to some time t do not depend on inputs at times t' > t can be decomposed into a concatenated memory channel. We then examine and present different physical setups in which channels with memory may be operated for the transfer of (private) classical and quantum information. These include setups in which either the receiver or a malicious third party have control of the initializing memory. We introduce classical and quantum channel capacities for these settings, and give several examples to show that they may or may not coincide. Entropic upper bounds on the various channel capacities are given. For forgetful quantum channels, in which the effect of the initializing memory dies out as time increases, coding theorems are presented to show that these bounds may be saturated. Forgetful quantum channels are shown to be open and dense in the set of quantum memory channels.
We consider quantum-memory assisted protocols for discriminating quantum channels. We show that for optimal discrimination of memory channels, memory assisted protocols are needed. This leads to a new notion of distance for channels with memory. For optimal discrimination and estimation of sets of unitary channels memory-assisted protocols are not required.
We discuss a Bosonic channel model with memory effects. It relies on a multi-mode squeezed (entangled) environment's state. The case of lossy Bosonic channels is analyzed in detail. We show that in the absence of input energy constraints the memory channels are equivalent to their memoryless counterparts. In the case of input energy constraint we provide lower and upper bounds for the memory channel capacity.
Within the framework of quantum memory channels we introduce the notion of repeatability of quantum channels. In particular, a quantum channel is called repeatable if there exist a memory device implementing the same channel on each individual input. We show that random unitary channels can be implemented in a repeatable fashion, whereas the nonunital channels cannot.
We analyze the depth of the memory of quantum memory channels generated by a fixed unitary transformation describing the interaction between the principal system and internal degrees of freedom of the process device. We investigate the simplest case of a qubit memory channel with a two-level memory system. In particular, we explicitly characterize all interactions for which the memory depth is finite. We show that the memory effects are either infinite, or they disappear after at most two uses of the channel. Memory channels of finite depth can be to some extent controlled and manipulated by s…
Using the axiomatic definition of the coherence measure, such as the $l_{1}$ norm and the relative entropy, we study the phenomena of two-qubit system quantum coherence through quantum channels where successive uses of the channels are memory. Different types of noisy channels with memory, such as amplitude damping, phase-damping, and depolarizing channels effect on quantum coherence have been discussed in detail. The results show that, quantum channels with memory can efficiently protect coherence from noisy channels. Particularly, as channels with perfect memory, quantum coherence is unaffec…
We prove that a general upper bound on the maximal mutual information of quantum channels is saturated in the case of Pauli channels with an arbitrary degree of memory. For a subset of such channels we explicitly identify the optimal signal states. We show analytically that for such a class of channels entangled states are indeed optimal above a given memory threshold. It is noteworthy that the resulting channel capacity is a non-differentiable function of the memory parameter.
In this paper we study quantum communication channels with correlated noise effects, i.e., quantum channels with memory. We derive a model for correlated noise channels that includes a channel memory state. We examine the case where the memory is finite, and derive bounds on the classical and quantum capacities. For the entanglement-assisted and unassisted classical capacities it is shown that these bounds are attainable for certain classes of channel. Also, we show that the structure of any finite memory state is unimportant in the asymptotic limit, and specifically, for a perfect finite-memo…
The maximum rates for information transmission through noisy quantum channels has primarily been developed for memoryless channels, where the noise on each transmitted state is treated as independent. Many real world communication channels experience noise which is modelled better by errors that are correlated between separate channel uses. In this paper, upper bounds on the classical information capacities of a class of quantum memory channels are derived. The class of channels consists of indecomposable quantum memory channels, a generalization of classical indecomposable finite-state channe…
We calculate the quantum capacity of an amplitude-damping channel with time correlated Markov noise, for two channel uses. Our results show that memory of the channel increases it's ability to transmit quantum information significantly. We analyze and compare our findings with earlier numerical results on amplitude-damping channel with memory. An upper bound on the amount of quantum information transmitted over the channel in presence of memory, for an arbitrary number of channel uses is also presented.
In this paper we evaluate the entanglement assisted classical capacity of a class of quantum channels with long-term memory, which are convex combinations of memoryless channels. The memory of such channels can be considered to be given by a Markov chain which is aperiodic but not irreducible.
We introduce a general model for a lossy bosonic memory channel and calculate the classical and the quantum capacity, proving that coherent state encoding is optimal. The use of a proper set of collective field variables allows to unravel the memory, showing that the n-fold concatenation of the memory channel is unitarily equivalent to the direct product of n single-mode lossy bosonic channels.
There exist memoryless zero-capacity quantum channels that when used jointly result in the channel with positive capacity. This phenomenon is called superactivation. Making use of Parrondo's paradox, we exhibit examples of superactivation-like effect for the capacity of classical communication channels as well as quantum and private capacity of quantum channels with memory. There are several ingredients necessary for superactivation of quantum capacity to occur in memoryless case. The first one is the requirement for the quantum channels which are amenable for superactivation to come from two …
We address the question of optimality of entangled input states in quantum Gaussian memory channels. For a class of such channels, that can be traced back to the memoryless setting, we state a criterion which relate the optimality of entangled inputs to the symmetry properties of the channels' action. Several examples of channel models belonging to this class are discussed.
We investigate the classical capacity of two quantum channels with memory: a periodic channel with depolarizing channel branches, and a convex combination of depolarizing channels. We prove that the capacity is additive in both cases. As a result, the channel capacity is achieved without the use of entangled input states. In the case of a convex combination of depolarizing channels the proof provided can be extended to other quantum channels whose classical capacity has been proved to be additive in the memoryless case.
We present a study of the achievable rates for classical information transmission via a lossy bosonic channel with memory, using homodyne detection. A comparison with the memoryless case shows that the presence of memory enhances the bit rate if information is encoded in collective states, i.e. states which are entangled over different uses of the channel.
The sufficient condition of entanglement enhanced classical capacity is given for Pauli memory channel with arbitrary channel parameters. In some special case the condition is also necessary but fail to be necessary in general. The theory of majorization and perturbation are used in the proving.
Memory effects play a fundamental role in the study of the dynamics of open quantum systems. There exist two conceptually distinct notions of memory discussed for quantum channels in the literature. In quantum information theory quantum channels with memory are characterised by the existence of correlations between successive applications of the channel on a sequence of quantum systems. In open quantum systems theory memory effects arise dynamically during the time evolution of quantum systems, and define non-Markovian dynamics. Here we relate and combine these two different concepts of memory…
The maximal amount of information which is reliably transmitted over two uses of general Pauli channels with memory is proven to be achieved by maximally entangled states beyond some memory threshold. In particular, this proves a conjecture on the depolarizing channel by Macchiavello and Palma [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 65}, 050301(R) (2002)]. Below the memory threshold, for arbitrary Pauli channels, the two-use classical capacity is only achieved by a particular type of product states.
The classical capacity of phase-invariant Gaussian channels has been recently determined under the assumption that such channels are memoryless. In this work we generalize this result by deriving the classical capacity of a model of quantum memory channel, in which the output states depend on the previous input states. In particular we extend the analysis of [C. Lupo, et al., PRL and PRA (2010)] from quantum limited channels to thermal attenuators and thermal amplifiers. Our result applies in many situations in which the physical communication channel is affected by nonzero memory and by therm…
The classical product state capacity of a noisy quantum channel with memory is investigated. A forgetful noise-memory channel is constructed by Markov switching between two depolarizing channels which introduces non-Markovian noise correlations between successive channel uses. The computation of the capacity is reduced to an entropy computation for a function of a Markov process. A reformulation in terms of algebraic measures then enables its calculation. The effects of the hidden-Markovian memory on the capacity are explored. An increase in noise-correlations is found to increase the capacity…
We consider a model of bosonic memory channel, which induces correlations among the transmitted signals. The application of suitable unitary transformations at encoding and decoding stages allows the complete removal of correlations, mapping the memory channel into a memoryless one. However, such transformations, being global over an arbitrary large number of bosonic modes, are not realistically implementable. We then introduce a family of efficiently realizable transformations which can be used to partially remove correlations among errors, and we quantify the reduction of the gap with memory…
We study the security of the information transmission between two honest parties realized through a lossy bosonic memory channel when losses are captured by a dishonest party. We then show that entangled inputs can enhance the private information of such a channel, which however does never overcome that of unentangled inputs in absence of memory.
In this paper we consider the transmission of classical information through a class of quantum channels with long-term memory, which are given by convex combinations of product channels. Hence, the memory of such channels is given by a Markov chain which is aperiodic but not irreducible. We prove the coding theorem and weak converse for this class of channels. The main techniques that we employ, are a quantum version of Feinstein's Fundamental Lemma and a generalization of Helstrom's Theorem.
Recently, Xu et al. [Phys. Rev. A 86, 012113(2012)] explored the behavior of the entropic uncertainty relation under the influence of local unital and nonunital noisy channels for a class of Bell-diagonal states. We here reform their results and investigate the entropic uncertainty relation under the influence of unital and nonunital noisy channels with memory. Different types of noisy channels with memory, such as amplitude damping channel(nonunitary), phase-damping and depolarizing channels(unitary) have been taken into account. Some analytical or numerical results are presented. The effect …
We study the classical capacity of a forgetful quantum memory channel that switches between two qubit depolarizing channels according to an ergodic Markov chain. The capacity of this quantum memory channel depends on the parameters of the two depolarizing channels and the memory of the ergodic Markov chain. When the number of input qubit's is two, we show that depending on channel parameters either the maximally entangled input states or product input states achieve the classical capacity. Our conjecture based on numerics is that as the number of input qubits are increased the classical capaci…
We study a dephasing channel with memory, modelled by a Markov chain. We show that even weak memory effects have a detrimental impact on the performance of quantum error correcting schemes designed for uncorrelated errors. We also discuss an alternative scheme that takes advantage of memory effects to protect quantum information.
We investigate the multiple use of a ferromagnetic spin chain for quantum and classical communications without resetting. We find that the memory of the state transmitted during the first use makes the spin chain a qualitatively different quantum channel during the second transmission, for which we find the relevant Kraus operators. We propose a parameter to quantify the amount of memory in the channel and find that it influences the quality of the channel, as reflected through fidelity and entanglement transmissible during the second use. For certain evolution times, the memory allows the cha…
We study a dephasing channel with memory, described by a Hamiltonian model in which the system-environment interaction is described by a stochastic process. We propose a useful way to describe the channel uses correlations. Moreover, we give a general expression for the coherences decay factors as a function of the number of channel uses and of the stochastic process power spectrum. We also study the impact of memory on the three qubit code, showing that correlations among channel uses affect very little the code performance.
A dynamical model for quantum channel is introduced which allows one to pass continuously from the memoryless case to the case in which memory effects are present. The quantum and classical communication rates of the model are defined and explicit expression are provided in some limiting case. In this context we introduce noise attenuation strategies where part of the signals are sacrificed to modify the channel environment. The case of qubit channel with phase damping noise is analyzed in details.
We study the capacity of a quantum channel where channel acts like controlled phase gate with the control being provided by a one-dimensional quantum spin chain environment. Due to the correlations in the spin chain, we get a quantum channel with memory. We derive formulas for the quantum capacity of this channel when the spin state is a matrix product state. Particularly, we derive exact formulas for the capacity of the quantum memory channel when the environment state is the ground state of the AKLT model and the Majumdar-Ghosh model. We find that the behavior of the capacity for the range o…
With increasing communication rates via quantum channels, memory effects become unavoidable whenever the use rate of the channel is comparable to the typical relaxation time of the channel environment. We introduce a model of a bosonic memory channel, describing correlated noise effects in quantum-optical processes via attenuating or amplifying media. To study such a channel model, we make use of a proper set of collective field variables, which allows us to unravel the memory effects, mapping the n-fold concatenation of the memory channel to a unitarily equivalent, direct product of n single-…
Quantum temporal correlations exhibited by violations of Leggett-Garg Inequality (LGI) and Temporal Steering Inequality (TSI) are in general found to be non-increasing under decoherence channels when probed on two-qubit pure entangled states. We study the action of decoherence channels, such as amplitude damping, phase-damping and depolarising channels when partial memory is introduced in a way such that two consecutive uses of the channels are time-correlated. We show that temporal correlations demonstrated by violations of the above temporal inequalities can be protected against decoherence …
Entanglement-breaking channels are a quantum memory resource
Technical University of Darmstadt（达姆施塔特工业大学）；Austrian Academy of Sciences（奥地利科学院）；University of Vienna（维也纳大学）；National Taiwan Normal University（台湾师范大学）；University of Pisa（比萨大学）
We provide a simple and realistic model to study memory effects in a lossy bosonic quantum channel over arbitrary number of uses. The noise correlation among different uses is introduced by contiguous modes interactions which results in an exponential decay of the correlations over channel uses (modes). This model allows us to characterize the asymptotic behavior of the channel for classical information transmission.
We study the information transmission through a quantum channel, defined over a continuous alphabet and losing its energy en route, in presence of correlated noise among different channel uses. We then show that entangled inputs improve the rate of transmission of such a channel.
Gaussian quantum channels have recently attracted a growing interest, since they may lead to a tractable approach to the generally hard problem of evaluating quantum channel capacities. However, the analysis performed so far has always been restricted to memoryless channels. Here, we consider the case of a bosonic Gaussian channel with memory, and show that the classical capacity can be significantly enhanced by employing entangled input symbols instead of product symbols.
Classical feedback is defined here as the knowledge by the transmitter of the quantum state of the qubit received by the receiver. Such classical feedback doubles capacities of certain memoryless quantum channels without preexisting entanglement between transmitter and receiver. The increase in capacity, which is absent on classical memoryless channels, occurs because we can transform an entangled qubit pair into any other entangled state by applying a unitary operator to only one of the qubits.
We study the super dense coding capacity in the presence of quantum channels with correlated noise. We investigate both the cases of unitary and non-unitary encoding. Pauli channels for arbitrary dimensions are treated explicitly. The super dense coding capacity for some special channels and resource states is derived for unitary encoding. We also provide an example of a memory channel where non-unitary encoding leads to an improvement in the super dense coding capacity.
We analyze the fidelity of the generalized Pauli channels governed by memory kernel master equations. It is shown that, by appropriate engineering of parameters of the corresponding memory kernel, the quantum evolution with non-local noise can have higher fidelity than the corresponding purely Markovian evolution governed by the Markovian semigroup. Similar engineering can substantially influence the evolution of quantum entanglement, entropy, and quantum coherence.
The bosonic quantum channels have recently attracted a growing interest, motivated by the hope that they open a tractable approach to the generally hard problem of evaluating quantum channel capacities. These studies, however, have always been restricted to memoryless channels. Here, it is shown that the classical capacity of a bosonic Gaussian channel with memory can be significantly enhanced if entangled symbols are used instead of product symbols. For example, the capacity of a photonic channel with 70%-correlated thermal noise of one third the shot noise is enhanced by about 11% when using…
We extend a low-rate improvement of the random coding bound on the reliability of a classical discrete memoryless channel to its quantum counterpart. The key observation that we make is that the problem of bounding below the error exponent for a quantum channel relying on the class of stabilizer codes is equivalent to the problem of deriving error exponents for a certain symmetric classical channel.
The notion of forgetfulness, used in discrete quantum memory channels, is slightly weakened in order to be applied to the case of continuous channels. This is done in the context of quantum memory channels with Markovian noise. As a case study, we apply the notion of weak-forgetfulness to a bosonic memory channel with additive noise. A suitable encoding and decoding unitary transformation allows us to unravel the effects of the memory, hence the channel capacities can be computed using known results from the memoryless setting.
Establishing the strong converse theorem for a communication channel confirms that the capacity of that channel, that is, the maximum achievable rate of reliable information communication, is the ultimate limit of communication over that channel. Indeed, the strong converse theorem for a channel states that coding at a rate above the capacity of the channel results in the convergence of the error to its maximum value 1 and that there is no trade-off between communication rate and decoding error. Here we prove that the strong converse theorem holds for the product-state capacity of quantum chan…
The study of memory effects in quantum channels helps in developing characterization methods for open quantum systems and strategies for quantum error correction. Two main sets of channels exist, corresponding to system dynamics with no memory (Markovian) and with memory (non-Markovian). Interestingly, these sets have a non-convex geometry, allowing one to form a channel with memory from the addition of memoryless channels and vice-versa. Here, we experimentally investigate this non-convexity in a photonic setup by subjecting a single qubit to a convex combination of Markovian and non-Markovia…
We study the performance of a partially correlated amplitude damping channel acting on two qubits. We derive lower bounds for the single-shot classical capacity by studying two kinds of quantum ensembles, one which allows to maximize the Holevo quantity for the memoryless channel and the other allowing the same task but for the full-memory channel. In these two cases, we also show the amount of entanglement which is involved in achieving the maximum of the Holevo quantity. For the single-shot quantum capacity we discuss both a lower and an upper bound, achieving a good estimate for high values…
This paper was presented in poster form at and in the proceedings of the QCMC 2008. It is a summary of a fuller paper to appear separately. The classical product state capacity of a noisy quantum channel with memory is investigated. A forgetful noise-memory channel is constructed by Markov switching between two depolarizing channels which introduces non-Markovian noise correlations between successive channel uses. This function of a Markov process can be reformulated as an algebraic measure. This framework provides an expression for the asymptotic entropy rate and thus enables the calculation …
We address the classical capacity of a quantum bosonic memory channel with additive noise, subject to an input energy constraint. The memory is modeled by correlated noise emerging from a Gauss-Markov process. Under reasonable assumptions, we show that the optimal modulation results from a "quantum water-filling" solution above a certain input energy threshold, similar to the optimal modulation for parallel classical Gaussian channels. We also derive analytically the optimal multimode input state above this threshold, which enables us to compute the capacity of this memory channel in the limit…
In this paper, we analyze the evolution of the generalized Pauli channels governed by the memory kernel master equation. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the memory kernel to give rise to the legitimate (completely positive and trace-preserving) quantum evolution. In particular, we analyze a class of kernels generating the quantum semi-Markov evolution, which is a natural generalization of the Markovian semigroup. Interestingly, the convex combination of Markovian semigroups goes beyond the semi-Markov case. Our analysis is illustrated with several examples.
We have proposed a scheme of the generation and preservation of two-qubit steady state quantum correlations through quantum channels where successive uses of the channels are correlated. Different types of noisy channels with memory, such as amplitude damping, phase-damping, and depolarizing channels have been taken into account. Some analytical or numerical results are presented. The effect of channels with memory on dynamics of quantum correlations has been discussed in detail. The results show that, steady state entanglement between two independent qubits without entanglement subject to amp…
We investigate the problem of enhancement of mutual information by encoding classical data into entangled input states of arbitrary length and show that while there is a threshold memory or correlation parameter beyond which entangled states outperform the separable states, resulting in a higher mutual information, this memory threshold increases toward unity as the length of the string increases. These observations imply that encoding classical data into entangled states may not enhance the classical capacity of quantum channels.
We calculate the information capacities of a time-correlated amplitude-damping channel, provided the sender and receiver share prior entanglement. Our analytical results show that the noisy channel with zero capacity can transmit information if it has finite memory. The capacities increase as the memory increases attaining maximum value for perfect memory channel.
We investigate the question of optimal input ensembles for memory channels and construct a rather large class of Pauli channels with correlated noise which can be studied analytically with regard to the entanglement of their optimal input ensembles. In a more detailed study of a subclass of these channels, the complete phase diagram of the two-qubit channel, which shows three distinct phases is obtained. While increasing the correlation generally changes the optimal state from separable to maximally entangled states, this is done via an intermediate region where both separable and maximally en…
Quantum memories are essential elements in long-distance quantum networks and quantum computation. Significant advances have been achieved in demonstrating relative long-lived single-channel memory at single-photon level in cold atomic media. However, the qubit memory corresponding to store two-channel spin-wave excitations (SWEs) still faces challenges, including the limitations resulting from Larmor procession, fluctuating ambient magnetic field, and manipulation/measurement of the relative phase between the two channels. Here, we demonstrate a two-channel memory scheme in an ideal tripod at…
Any repeated use of a fixed experimental instrument is subject to memory effects. We design an estimation method uncovering the details of the underlying interaction between the system and the internal memory without having any experimental access to memory degrees of freedom. In such case, by definition, any memoryless quantum process tomography (QPT) fails, because the observed data sequences do not satisfy the elementary condition of statistical independence. However, we show that the randomness implemented in certain QPT schemes is sufficient to guarantee the emergence of observable "stati…
We investigate quantum channels, which after a finite number $k$ of repeated applications erase all input information, i.e., channels whose $k$-th power (but no smaller power) is a completely depolarizing channel. We show that on a system with Hilbert space dimension $d$, the order is bounded by $k\leq d^2-1$, and give an explicit construction scheme for such channels. We also consider strictly forgetful memory channels, i.e., channels with an additional input and output in every step, which after exactly $k$ steps retain no information about the initial memory state. We establish an explicit …
We show that two qubits, initially in a fully classical state, can develop significant quantum correlations as measured by the quantum discord (QD) under the action of a local memoryless noise (specifically we consider the case of a Markovian amplitude-damping channel). This is analytically proven after deriving in a compact form the QD for the class of separable states involved in such a process. We provide a picture in the Bloch sphere that unambiguously highlights the physical mechanism behind the effect regardless of the specific measure of QCs adopted.
