Union bound for quantum information processing

Samad Khabbazi Oskouei1 Stefano Mancini2 Mark M. Wilde3

1
Department of Mathematics, Islamic Azad University, Varamin-Pishva Branch, 33817-7489, Iran
2
School of Science and Technology, University of Camerino, Via M. delle Carceri 9, I-62032 Camerino, Italy &
INFN–Sezione Perugia, Via A. Pascoli, I-06123 Perugia, Italy
3
Hearne Institute for Theoretical Phyiscs, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Center for Computation and Technology,
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA

July 24, 2018

Available as arXiv:1804.08144
Beyond i.i.d. in information theory, Cambridge, UK

Samad Khabbazi Oskouei, Stefano Mancini, Mark M. Wilde Union bound for QIP July 24, 2018 1/7
 Motivation

Given a finite set {Ai }Li=1 of events, the union bound is the following inequality:
(L ) L
[ X
Pr Ai ≤ Pr{Ai }.
i=1 i=1

We can equivalently write it as

(L ) L
\ X
1 − Pr Ai ≤ Pr{Aci },
i=1 i=1

and this is the form in which it is typically employed in applications.

Goal is to extend the union bound to the quantum setting, in which probability
distributions are replaced by density operators, and events are replaced by
projections onto subspaces.

Samad Khabbazi Oskouei, Stefano Mancini, Mark M. Wilde Union bound for QIP July 24, 2018 2/7
 Motivation

Let ρ be the density operator for a quantum system.

Suppose that there are L projective quantum measurements {Pi , I − Pi } for

i ∈ {1, . . . , L}, where Pi is a projector.

Suppose that the first measurement is performed, followed by the second

measurement, and so on. If P1 , . . . , PL commute, then the probability that the
outcomes P1 , . . . , PL do not occur can be bounded as
L
X
1 − Tr{PL PL−1 · · · P1 ρP1 · · · PL−1 } ≤ Tr{(I − Pi )ρ},
i=1

with the bound following essentially from an application of the union bound.

If the projectors P1 , . . . , PL do not commute, then classical reasoning does not

apply and alternative methods are required.

Samad Khabbazi Oskouei, Stefano Mancini, Mark M. Wilde Union bound for QIP July 24, 2018 3/7
 Prior work

Aaronson established a quantum union bound, with applications in complexity

theory [Aar06].
Giovannetti et al. analyzed the error probability of a sequential decoding strategy
and proved that it can achieve the Holevo information of a quantum channel for
classical communication [GLM12].
Sen established another quantum union bound of the following form [Sen11]:
v
u L
uX
1 − Tr{PL PL−1 · · · P1 ρP1 · · · PL−1 } ≤ 2t Tr{(I − Pi )ρ}.
i=1

Wilde generalized the result of [Sen11] beyond projectors, such that it would hold for
a set of operators {Λi }Li=1 , each of which satisfies 0 ≤ Λi ≤ I [Wil13].
Gao then proved the following quantum union bound [Gao15]:
L
X
1 − Tr{PL PL−1 · · · P1 ρP1 · · · PL−1 } ≤ 4 Tr{(I − Pi )ρ}.
i=1

Samad Khabbazi Oskouei, Stefano Mancini, Mark M. Wilde Union bound for QIP July 24, 2018 4/7
 Main result

Theorem (Quantum union bound)

Let ρ be a density operator acting on a separable Hilbert space H, let {Pi }Li=1 be an
arbitrary set of projectors, each acting on H, and let c > 0 be an arbitrary positive
constant. Then

1 − Tr{PL PL−1 · · · P1 ρP1 · · · PL−1 } ≤ (1 + c) Tr{(I − PL ) ρ}

 L−1
X  
+ 2 + c + c −1 Tr{(I − Pi )ρ} + 2 + c −1 Tr{(I − P1 ) ρ}.
i=2

Our proof of the above theorem is elementary, relying only on basic properties of
projectors, the Pythagorean theorem, and the Cauchy–Schwarz inequality.
Directly applies to states of infinite-dimensional quantum systems and can thus be
employed to analyze not only qubits but also bosonic quantum systems [Ser17].
The tunable parameter c > 0 is an advantage of our quantum union bound, and it is
essential in some applications. It can also be compared with the Hayashi–Nagaoka
inequality [HN03, Lemma 2].

Samad Khabbazi Oskouei, Stefano Mancini, Mark M. Wilde Union bound for QIP July 24, 2018 5/7
 Application

One application of our main result is in achieving the second-order coding rate for
classical communication using a sequential decoding strategy.

An advantage of our main result is that it applies directly to the case of states and
projectors that act on an infinite-dimensional, separable Hilbert space. Thus, the
theorem can be applied directly in order to achieve a lower bound on the
second-order coding rate for classical communication.

One result that follows is a lower bound on the second-order coding rate for
energy-constrained entanglement-assisted classical communication over a quantum
channel.

The proof method is arguably simpler than that from [Hol04], in which the
energy-constrained entanglement-assisted classical capacity was identified.

Samad Khabbazi Oskouei, Stefano Mancini, Mark M. Wilde Union bound for QIP July 24, 2018 6/7
 References I

[Aar06] Scott Aaronson. QMA/qpoly ⊆ PSPACE/poly: de-Merlinizing quantum protocols. In Twenty-First

Annual IEEE Conference on Computational Complexity, page 261–273, Prague, Czech Republic, July
2006. IEEE. arXiv:quant-ph/0510230.

[Gao15] Jingliang Gao. Quantum union bounds for sequential projective measurements. Physical Review A,
92(5):052331, November 2015. arXiv:1410.5688.

[GLM12] Vittorio Giovannetti, Seth Lloyd, and Lorenzo Maccone. Achieving the Holevo bound via sequential
measurements. Physical Review A, 85:012302, January 2012. arXiv:1012.0386.

[HN03] Masahito Hayashi and Hiroshi Nagaoka. General formulas for capacity of classical-quantum channels.
IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 49(7):1753–1768, July 2003. arXiv:quant-ph/0206186.

[Hol04] Alexander S. Holevo. Entanglement-assisted capacities of constrained quantum channels. Theory of

Probability & Its Applications, 48(2):243–255, July 2004. arXiv:quant-ph/0211170.

[Sen11] Pranab Sen. Achieving the Han-Kobayashi inner bound for the quantum interference channel by
sequential decoding. September 2011. arXiv:1109.0802.

[Ser17] Alessio Serafini. Quantum Continuous Variables. CRC Press, 2017.

[Wil13] Mark M. Wilde. Sequential decoding of a general classical-quantum channel. Proceedings of the
Royal Society of London A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 469(2157), September
2013. arXiv:1303.0808.

Samad Khabbazi Oskouei, Stefano Mancini, Mark M. Wilde Union bound for QIP July 24, 2018 7/7