English

Can non-private channels transmit quantum information?

Quantum Physics 2009-02-20 v2

Abstract

We study the power of quantum channels with little or no capacity for private communication. Because privacy is a necessary condition for quantum communication, one might expect that such channels would be of little use for transmitting quantum states. Nevertheless, we find strong evidence that there are pairs of such channels that, when used together, can transmit far more quantum information than the sum of their individual private capacities. Because quantum transmissions are necessarily private, this would imply a large violation of additivity for the private capacity. Specifically, we present channels which display either (1) A large joint quantum capacity but very small individual private capacities or (2) a severe violation of additivity for the Holevo information.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0810.0276,
  title  = {Can non-private channels transmit quantum information?},
  author = {Graeme Smith and John Smolin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0810.0276},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

We both think so. 4 pages and 3 figures explain why

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:26:25.329Z