We formulate the notion of quantum channels in the framework of quantum tomography and address there the issue of whether such maps can be regarded as classical stochastic maps. In particular kernels of maps acting on probability representation of quantum states are derived for qubit and bosonic systems. In the latter case it results that a single mode Gaussian quantum channel corresponds to non-Gaussian classical channels.
Some non-linear generalizations of classical Radon tomography were recently introduced by M. Asorey et al [Phys. Rev. A 77, 042115 (2008), where the straight lines of the standard Radon map are replaced by quadratic curves (ellipses, hyperbolas, circles) or quadratic surfaces (ellipsoids, hyperboloids, spheres). We consider here the quantum version of this novel non-linear approach and obtain, by systematic use of the Weyl map, a tomographic encoding approach to quantum states. Non-linear quantum tomograms admit a simple formulation within the framework of the star-product quantization scheme and the reconstruction formulae of the density operators are explicitly given in a closed form, with an explicit construction of quantizers and dequantizers. The role of symmetry groups behind the generalized tomographic maps is analyzed in some detail. We also introduce new generalizations of the standard singular dequantizers of the symplectic tomographic schemes, where the Dirac delta-distributions of operator-valued arguments are replaced by smooth window functions, giving rise to the new concept of thick quantum tomography. Applications for quantum state measurements of photons and matter waves are discussed.
We investigate the coherence of quantum channels using the Choi-Jamiol{}kowski isomorphism. The relation between the coherence and the purity of the channel respects a duality relation. It characterizes the allowed values of coherence when the channel has certain purity. This duality has been depicted via the Coherence-Purity (Co-Pu) diagrams. In particular, we study the quantum coherence of the unital and non-unital qubit channels and find out the allowed region of coherence for a fixed purity. We also study coherence of different incoherent channels, namely, incoherent operation (IO), strictly incoherent operation (SIO), physical incoherent operation (PIO) etc. Interestingly, we find that the allowed region for different incoherent operations maintain the relation $PIOsubset SIO subset IO$. In fact, we find that if PIOs are coherence preserving operations (CPO), its coherence is zero otherwise it has unit coherence and unit purity. Interestingly, different kinds of qubit channels can be distinguished using the Co-Pu diagram. The unital channels generally do not create coherence whereas some nonunital can. All coherence breaking channels are shown to have zero coherence, whereas, this is not usually true for entanglement breaking channels. It turns out that the coherence preserving qubit channels have unit coherence. Although the coherence of the Choi matrix of the incoherent channels might have finite values, its subsystem contains no coherence. This indicates that the incoherent channels can either be unital or nonunital under some conditions.
A programmable quantum processor uses the states of a program register to specify one element of a set of quantum channels which is applied to an input register. It is well-known that such a device is impossible with a finite-dimensional program register for any set that contains infinitely many unitary quantum channels (Nielsen and Chuangs No-Programming Theorem), meaning that a universal programmable quantum processor does not exist. The situation changes if the system has symmetries. Indeed, here we consider group-covariant channels. If the group acts irreducibly on the channel input, these channels can be implemented exactly by a programmable quantum processor with finite program dimension (via teleportation simulation, which uses the Choi-Jamiolkowski state of the channel as a program). Moreover, by leveraging the representation theory of the symmetry group action, we show how to remove redundancy in the program and prove that the resulting program register has minimum Hilbert space dimension. Furthermore, we provide upper and lower bounds on the program register dimension of a processor implementing all group-covariant channels approximately.
We study a behavior of two-qubit states subject to tomographic measurement. We propose a novel approach to definition of asymmetry in quantum bipartite state based on its tomographic Shannon entropies. We consider two types of measurement bases: the first is one that diagonalizes density matrices of subsystems and is used in a definition of tomographic discord, and the second is one that maximizes Shannon mutual information and relates to symmetrical form quantum discord. We show how these approaches relate to each other and then implement them to the different classes of two-qubit states. Consequently, new subclasses of X-states are revealed.
Transmission and storage of quantum information are the fundamental building blocks for large-scale quantum communication networks. Reliable certification of quantum communication channels and quantum memories requires the estimation of their capacities to transmit and store quantum information. This problem is challenging for continuous variable systems, such as the radiation field, for which a complete characterization of processes via quantum tomography is practically unfeasible. Here we develop protocols for detecting lower bounds to the quantum capacity of continuous variable communication channels and memories. Our protocols work in the general scenario where the devices are used a finite number of times, can exhibit correlations across multiple uses, and can be under the control of an adversary. Our protocols are experimentally friendly and can be implemented using Gaussian input states (single-mode squeezed or coherent) and Gaussian quantum measurements (homodyne or heterodyne). These schemes can be used to certify the transmission and storage of continuous variable quantum information, and to detect communication paths in quantum networks.