Holevo bound 2026-09-28
The classical mutual information obtained by any measurement of a quantum ensemble is at most its Holevo quantity. This follows from the data-processing inequality for quantum relative entropy applied to the measurement channel.
The quantity is the one-use Holevo information of the channel: by the Holevo--Schumacher--Westmoreland theorem, its regularization gives the classical capacity, and without entangled inputs across uses it is the asymptotically achievable classical rate using collective output measurements.
If an ensemble contains a mixed , refine its label to with probability . The average channel output is unchanged, while Concavity of Von Neumann entropy gives
Thus refinement cannot decrease the Holevo quantity, so the maximum may be restricted to pure input states.