English

Preparation information and optimal decompositions for mixed quantum states

Quantum Physics 2015-06-26 v1

Abstract

Consider a joint quantum state of a system and its environment. A measurement on the environment induces a decomposition of the system state. Using algorithmic information theory, we define the preparation information of a pure or mixed state in a given decomposition. We then define an optimal decomposition as a decomposition for which the average preparation information is minimal. The average preparation information for an optimal decomposition characterizes the system-environment correlations. We discuss properties and applications of the concepts introduced above and give several examples.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0002027,
  title  = {Preparation information and optimal decompositions for mixed quantum states},
  author = {Andrei N. Soklakov and Ruediger Schack},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0002027},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

13 pages, latex, 2 postscript figures

R2 v1 2026-07-22T19:27:10.304Z