For bipartite pure source and target states with positive target entanglement entropy, the optimal rate of LOCC conversion with vanishing output error is the ratio of their entanglement entropies. Here vanishing error means that the trace distance between the output and tends to zero; a recorded failure probability must also tend to zero. Entanglement concentration first provides Bell pairs, and entanglement dilution needs such pairs. This achieves the ratio. Conversely, refine the output into pure branches. Average monotonicity of pure-state entanglement entropy bounds their average entropy by the input entropy; continuity bound for quantum conditional entropy, with trivial conditioning, makes the output entropy loss per target tend to zero. This forbids a larger rate. The convention permits approximations for finite blocks: exact deterministic conversion of every finite block can obey stricter majorization constraints. The reversible concentration construction is given in the original concentration paper.
For nonnegative with , Alice applies Kraus operators and to one half of a Bell state. Their squared effects sum to the identity, and both outcomes have probability one half. The first branch is the target; the second becomes the target after both parties apply Pauli X gates. Sending the outcome by classical communication makes this exact deterministic entanglement dilution, rather than a postselected conversion.
Exact dilution obstruction from Schmidt rank 2026-10-14
For , every bipartition of has Schmidt rank , while copies of a GHZ state have Schmidt rank . Schmidt-rank contraction under product operators therefore forbids any exact successful LOCC branch when . Approximate entanglement dilution avoids this obstruction by retaining only a high-weight quantum typical subspace, whose dimension has logarithm . Exact finite-block conversion and asymptotically faithful conversion are different tasks.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 51 3 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the usual asymptotic convention: the output approaches the desired -copy pure target in trace distance, and any recorded failure probability tends to zero. Define the binary entropyThe entanglement entropies per source and target are and . The asymptotic pure-state entanglement conversion rate isBoth achievability and the upper bound matter here.
For entanglement concentration, expand sources in their correlated computational basis. Every pair of strings of Hamming weight has the same amplitude . Alice measures only this weight, without resolving the individual string. Bob's string has the same weight automatically. Conditional on , the normalized state is maximally entangled on correlated strings. Its outcome probability is , a binomial distribution. By the weak law of large numbers, in probability; Stirling's formula then gives . A uniform Schmidt vector on entries is majorized by a uniform vector on entries padded with zeros. Thus Nielsen's pure-state conversion theorem converts the conditional state into that many Bell pairs exactly. For any fixed , one obtains at least Bell pairs with probability tending to one.
For entanglement dilution, consider the Schmidt strings of targets with probabilities . The quantum typical subspace retains strings satisfyingThe retained probability tends to one by the weak law applied to the independent variables . The number of retained strings is at most , because their probabilities sum to at most one. Normalize the target after truncation to those strings. Its squared overlap with the full target is . A uniform Schmidt vector of dimension , with , is majorized by the truncated target's Schmidt vector padded with zeros: the sum of its largest entries is at least . Hence Bell pairs prepare the truncated target exactly by LOCC. Its trace distance from the true target is . Combining concentration and dilution achieves any rate . Choosing margins tending sufficiently slowly to zero attains the ratio as a limiting rate.
For the converse, average monotonicity of pure-state entanglement entropy follows from Concavity of Von Neumann entropy: a measurement by one party leaves the other party's reduction unchanged on average, so its average conditional entropy cannot increase. Refine local measurement records, including local discarded systems, to obtain pure output branches on the output qubits of each party. Iterating the concavity argument givesLet and let the squared-overlap error of the average output be . Define , the pure-state trace distance. Concavity of the square root gives . Partial trace cannot increase trace distance, so the reduced states are also within . The continuity bound for quantum conditional entropy, with trivial conditioning and local dimension , impliesConsequentlywhich excludes a limiting rate exceeding .
The vanishing-error convention is essential. If exact deterministic conversion were required for every finite block, majorization would also require the largest squared Schmidt coefficient to satisfy , henceThis can be strictly smaller than the entropy ratio: at , the two bounds are approximately and . Thus the boxed rate answers the standard asymptotic task, rather than imposing unmentioned exact zero-error conditions on every finite block.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 51 3 e Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Applying the optimal single-copy filter independently gives a random number of exact successful targets with binomial distributionThe weak law of large numbers gives in probability. In contrast, collective entanglement concentration and entanglement dilution yield asymptotically targets with vanishing output error. The improvement is strict, not just nonnegative. Differentiating binary entropy givesSince , it follows thatThis is collective advantage over independent two-qubit filtering. Independent filtering discards the entanglement in product-state failure branches; the collective reversible asymptotic procedure avoids that extensive loss. The separately filtered targets are exact conditional on success, whereas the collective statement uses the vanishing-error convention from the previous part. Here the counted outputs are target states ; that is also the notation in the original printed question.