English

Generalised entropy accumulation

Quantum Physics 2023-01-18 v2 Information Theory math.IT

Abstract

Consider a sequential process in which each step outputs a system AiA_i and updates a side information register EE. We prove that if this process satisfies a natural "non-signalling" condition between past outputs and future side information, the min-entropy of the outputs A1,,AnA_1, \dots, A_n conditioned on the side information EE at the end of the process can be bounded from below by a sum of von Neumann entropies associated with the individual steps. This is a generalisation of the entropy accumulation theorem (EAT), which deals with a more restrictive model of side information: there, past side information cannot be updated in subsequent rounds, and newly generated side information has to satisfy a Markov condition. Due to its more general model of side-information, our generalised EAT can be applied more easily and to a broader range of cryptographic protocols. As examples, we give the first multi-round security proof for blind randomness expansion and a simplified analysis of the E91 QKD protocol. The proof of our generalised EAT relies on a new variant of Uhlmann's theorem and new chain rules for the Renyi divergence and entropy, which might be of independent interest.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2203.04989,
  title  = {Generalised entropy accumulation},
  author = {Tony Metger and Omar Fawzi and David Sutter and Renato Renner},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.04989},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

42 pages; v2 expands introduction but does not change any results; in FOCS 2022

R2 v1 2026-06-24T10:07:52.162Z