On contraction coefficients, partial orders and approximation of capacities for quantum channels
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The data processing inequality is the most basic requirement for any meaningful measure of information. It essentially states that distinguishability measures between states decrease if we apply a quantum channel. It is the centerpiece of many results in information theory and justifies the operational interpretation of most entropic quantities. In this work, we revisit the notion of contraction coefficients of quantum channels, which provide sharper and specialized versions of the data processing inequality. A concept closely related to data processing are partial orders on quantum channels. We discuss several quantum extensions of the well known less noisy ordering and then relate them to contraction coefficients. We further define approximate versions of the partial orders and show how they can give strengthened and conceptually simple proofs of several results on approximating capacities. Moreover, we investigate the relation to other partial orders in the literature and their properties, particularly with regards to tensorization. We then investigate further properties of contraction coefficients and their relation to other properties of quantum channels, such as hypercontractivity. Next, we extend the framework of contraction coefficients to general f-divergences and prove several structural results. Finally, we consider two important classes of quantum channels, namely Weyl-covariant and bosonic Gaussian channels. For those, we determine new contraction coefficients and relations for various partial orders.
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