Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2014 / iii / Paper 60 / 5 / i / Solution

Choose a Stinespring dilation $V:A⟶B_{1}E$ of the quantum channel. Applying it to the input purification gives the pure vectorIts $R{B}_1$ marginal is the output state in the definition of coherent information. Complementary subsystems of a pure state have the same nonzero eigenvalues, by the Schmidt decomposition. Thus $S(B_1)=S(RE)$ and $S(R{B}_1)=S(E)$. It follows thatHere $S(R\mid E)$ denotes quantum conditional entropy, evaluated on the complementary output $RE$. This is coherent information as an environment conditional entropy. Equivalently $I_c=-S(R\mid B_1)$; the environment expression has the positive sign, while the receiving-system expression has the negative sign.