Classical capacity of a quantum channel ($C(\Lambda )$)

The unassisted classical capacity is the supremum of classical bit rates achievable with asymptotically vanishing message error. It allows entanglement among different channel inputs, but no preshared sender-receiver entanglement. The Holevo-Schumacher-Westmoreland theorem gives its regularized entropy expression.

For a finite-dimensional memoryless quantum channel,The Holevo bound controls information obtainable from an output ensemble, while collective decoding makes rates below the corresponding coding expression achievable. The Holevo capacity needs regularization because input states can be entangled across channel uses. Watrous's channel-coding chapter states and develops the classical-capacity theorem.