On the complementary quantum capacity of the depolarizing channel

The qubit depolarizing channel with noise parameter $\eta$ transmits an input qubit perfectly with probability $1-\eta$, and outputs the completely mixed state with probability $\eta$. We show that its complementary channel has positive quantum capacity for all $\eta\gt 0$. Thus, we find that there...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Debbie Leung, John Watrous
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Verein zur Förderung des Open Access Publizierens in den Quantenwissenschaften 2017-09-01
Series:Quantum
Online Access:https://quantum-journal.org/q-2017-09-19-28/pdf/
Description
Summary:The qubit depolarizing channel with noise parameter $\eta$ transmits an input qubit perfectly with probability $1-\eta$, and outputs the completely mixed state with probability $\eta$. We show that its complementary channel has positive quantum capacity for all $\eta\gt 0$. Thus, we find that there exists a single parameter family of channels having the peculiar property of having positive quantum capacity even when the outputs of these channels approach a fixed state independent of the input. Comparisons with other related channels, and implications on the difficulty of studying the quantum capacity of the depolarizing channel are discussed.
ISSN:2521-327X