Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 323 1 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
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 givesAll 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 . HenceTo bound the latter even for entangled states , exhibit the conditional input ensemble after a local measurement. Setwhen ; zero-weight outcomes can be omitted. The numerator is a positive operator, its trace is , and the sum to one. ThusThis is a classical-quantum state with an output ensemble for , so . Combining these bounds with yieldsThe 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.