A rigorous proof is presented of the boundedness of the entanglement entropy of a block of spins for the ground state of the one-dimensional quantum Ising model with sufficiently strong transverse field. This is proved by a refinement of the arguments in the earlier work by the same authors (J. Statist. Phys. 131 (2008) 305-339). The proof is geometrical, and utilises a transformation to a model of classical probability called the continuum random-cluster model. Our method of proof is fairly robust, and applies also to certain disordered systems.
We study the behavior of bipartite entanglement at fixed von Neumann entropy. We look at the distribution of the entanglement spectrum, that is the eigenvalues of the reduced density matrix of a quantum system in a pure state. We report the presence of two continuous phase transitions, characterized by different entanglement spectra, which are deformations of classical eigenvalue distributions.
The scattering amplitude in simple quantum graphs is a well-known process which may be highly complex. In this work, motivated by the Shannon entropy, we propose a methodology that associates to a graph a scattering entropy, which we call the average scattering entropy. It is defined by taking into account the period of the scattering amplitude which we calculate using the Greens function procedure. We first describe the methodology on general grounds, and then exemplify our findings considering several distinct groups of graphs. We go on and investigate other possibilities, one that contains groups of graphs with the same number of vertices, with the same degree, and the same number of edges, with the same length, but with distinct topologies and with different entropies. And the other, which contains graphs of the fishbone type, where the scattering entropy depends on the boundary conditions on the vertices of degree $1$, with the corresponding values decreasing and saturating very rapidly, as we increase the number of elementary structures in the graphs.
Distribution and distillation of entanglement over quantum networks is a basic task for Quantum Internet applications. A fundamental question is then to determine the ultimate performance of entanglement distribution over a given network. Although this question has been extensively explored for bipartite entanglement-distribution scenarios, less is known about multipartite entanglement distribution. Here we establish the fundamental limit of distributing multipartite entanglement, in the form of GHZ states, over a quantum network. In particular, we determine the multipartite entanglement distribution capacity of a quantum network, in which the nodes are connected through lossy bosonic quantum channels. This setting corresponds to a practical quantum network consisting of optical links. The result is also applicable to the distribution of multipartite secret key, known as common key, for both a fully quantum network and trusted-node based quantum key distribution network. Our results set a general benchmark for designing a network topology and network quantum repeaters (or key relay in trusted nodes) to realize efficient GHZ state/common key distribution in both fully quantum and trusted-node-based networks. We show an example of how to overcome this limit by introducing a network quantum repeater. Our result follows from an upper bound on distillable GHZ entanglement introduced here, called the recursive-cut-and-merge bound, which constitutes major progress on a longstanding fundamental problem in multipartite entanglement theory. This bound allows for determining the distillable GHZ entanglement for a class of states consisting of products of bipartite pure states.
We consider sequences of random quantum channels defined using the Stinespring formula with Haar-distributed random orthogonal matrices. For any fixed sequence of input states, we study the asymptotic eigenvalue distribution of the outputs through tensor powers of random channels. We show that the input states achieving minimum output entropy are tensor products of maximally entangled states (Bell states) when the tensor power is even. This phenomenon is completely different from the one for random quantum channels constructed from Haar-distributed random unitary matrices, which leads us to formulate some conjectures about the regularized minimum output entropy.
In finite dimensions, we provide characterizations of the quantum dynamical semigroups that do not decrease the von Neumann, the Tsallis and the Renyi entropies, as well as a family of functions of density operators strictly related to the Schatten norms. A few remarkable consequences --- in particular, a description of the associated infinitesimal generators --- are derived, and some significant examples are discussed. Extensions of these results to semigroups of trace-preserving positive (i.e., not necessarily completely positive) maps and to a more general class of quantum entropies are also considered.