Every entanglement-breaking channel has additive Holevo capacity with every finite-dimensional quantum channel . A measure-and-prepare channel factorization exposes a classical measurement outcome. The quantum mutual information balance identity and data processing for quantum mutual information then bound the joint output Holevo quantity by the sum of the individual capacities, using the conditional input ensemble after a local measurement for the other channel. Independent product ensembles attain the reverse inequality.
Write and for the classical quantum registers and . By the quantum mutual information formula , expanding the right-hand side of the quantum mutual information balance identity gives
All Von Neumann entropies here are evaluated in .
We use three facts: quantum mutual information is nonnegative by nonnegativity of quantum relative entropy; a local quantum channel cannot increase it by data processing for quantum mutual information; and the quantum mutual information of a classical-quantum state is its ensemble's Holevo quantity. Write for the Holevo capacity, the supremum of the output Holevo quantity over finite input ensembles.
The marginal is an output ensemble for , with inputs . Consequently . Also is obtained from by a quantum channel on which retains and prepares from . Hence
To bound the latter even for entangled states , exhibit the conditional input ensemble after a local measurement. Set
when ; zero-weight outcomes can be omitted. The numerator is a positive operator, its trace is , and the sum to one. Thus
This is a classical-quantum state with an output ensemble for , so . Combining these bounds with yields
The last step takes the supremum over all input ensembles on . The left-hand channel direction is , as established in part (i); the printed in the last inequality is a typographical reversal. Independent product ensembles also give the reverse inequality, so this proves Holevo-capacity additivity for entanglement-breaking channels.