We introduce and analyze an information theoretical task that we call the quantum multiple-access one-time pad. Here, a number of senders initially share a correlated quantum state with a receiver and an eavesdropper. Each sender performs a local operation to encode a classical message and sends their system to the receiver, who subsequently performs a measurement to decode the messages. The receiver will be able to decode the messages almost perfectly, while the eavesdropper must not be able to extract information about the messages even if they have access to the quantum systems transmitted. We consider a “conditional” scenario in which a portion of the receiver’s side information is also accessible to the eavesdropper. We investigate the maximum amount of classical information that can be encoded by each of the senders. We derive a single-letter characterization for the achievable rate region in an asymptotic limit of infinitely many copies and vanishingly small error.

We analyze a task in which classical and quantum messages are simultaneously communicated via a noisy quantum channel, assisted with a limited amount of shared entanglement. We derive direct and converse bounds for the one-shot capacity region, represented by the smooth conditional entropies and the error tolerance. The proof is based on the randomized partial decoupling theorem, which is a generalization of the decoupling theorem. The two bounds match in the asymptotic limit of infinitely many uses of a memoryless channel and coincide with the previous result obtained by Hsieh and Wilde. Direct and converse bounds for various communication tasks are obtained as corollaries, both for the one-shot and asymptotic scenarios.

To quantify non-Markovianity of tripartite quantum states from an operational viewpoint, we introduce a class Ω° of operations performed by three distant parties. A tripartite quantum state is a free state under Ω° if and only if it is a quantum Markov chain. We introduce a function of tripartite quantum states that we call the non-Markovianity of formation, and prove that it is a faithful measure of non-Markovianity, which is continuous and monotonically nonincreasing under a subclass Ω of Ω°. We consider a task in which the three parties generate a non-Markov state from scratch by operations in Ω, assisted with quantum communication from the third party to the others, which does not belong to Ω. We prove that the minimum cost of quantum communication required therein is asymptotically equal to the regularized non-Markovianity of formation. Based on this result, we provide a direct operational meaning to a measure of bipartite entanglement called the c-squashed entanglement.

We consider state redistribution of a "hybrid" information source that has both classical and quantum components. The sender transmits classical and quantum information at the same time to the receiver, in the presence of classical and quantum side information both at the sender and at the decoder. The available resources are shared entanglement, and noiseless classical and quantum communication channels. We derive one-shot direct and converse bounds for these three resources, represented in terms of the smooth conditional entropies of the source state. The two bounds coincide in the asymptotic limit of infinitely many copies and vanishingly small error. Various coding theorems for two-party communication tasks are obtained by reduction from our results.

We introduce a task that we call partial decoupling, in which a bipartite quantum state is transformed by a unitary operation on one of the two subsystems and then is subject to the action of a quantum channel. We assume that the subsystem is decomposed into a direct-sum-product form, which often appears in the context of quantum information theory. The unitary is chosen at random from the set of unitaries having a simple form under the decomposition. The goal of the task is to make the final state, for typical choices of the unitary, close to the averaged final state over the unitaries. We consider a one-shot scenario, and derive upper and lower bounds on the average distance between the two states. The bounds are represented simply in terms of smooth conditional entropies of quantum states involving the initial state, the channel and the decomposition. Thereby we provide generalizations of the one-shot decoupling theorem. The obtained result would lead to further development of the decoupling approaches in quantum information theory and fundamental physics.

We introduce and analyze a task that we call Markovianization, in which a tripartite quantum state is transformed to a quantum Markov chain by a randomizing operation on one of the three subsystems. We consider cases where the initial state is the tensor product of n copies of a tripartite state ρ ABC, and is transformed to a quantum Markov chain conditioned by Bn with a small error, using a random unitary operation on An. In an asymptotic limit of infinite copies and vanishingly small error, we analyze the Markovianizing cost, that is, the minimum cost of randomness per copy required for Markovianization. For tripartite pure states, we derive a singleletter formula for the Markovianizing costs. Counterintuitively, the Markovianizing cost is not a continuous function of states, and can be arbitrarily large even if the state is close to a quantum Markov chain. Our results have an application in analyzing the cost of resources for simulating a bipartite unitary gate by local operations and classical communication.

We introduce and analyze a task in which a tripartite quantum state is transformed to an approximately recoverable state by a randomizing operation on one of the three subsystems. We consider cases where the initial state is a tensor product of n copies of a tripartite state ρABC, and is transformed by a random unitary operation on Anto another state, which is approximately recoverable from its reduced state on AnBn(Case 1) or BnCn (Case 2). We analyze the minimum cost of randomness per copy required for the task in an asymptotic limit of infinite copies and vanishingly small error of recovery, mainly focusing on the case of pure states. We prove that the minimum cost in Case 1 is equal to the Markovianizing cost of the state, for which a single-letter formula is known. With an additional requirement on the convergence speed of the recovery error, we prove that the minimum cost in Case 2 is also equal to the Markovianizing cost. Our results have an application for distributed quantum computation.

We analyze implementations of bipartite unitaries by means of local operations and classical communication (LOCC) assisted by shared entanglement. We employ concepts and techniques developed in the quantum Shannon theory to study an asymptotic scenario, in which two distant parties perform the same bipartite unitary on infinitely many pairs of inputs. We analyze minimum cost of entanglement and classical communication per copy. For two-round LOCC protocols, we derive a single-letter formula for the minimum cost of entanglement and classical communication, under an additional requirement that the error converges to zero faster than 1/n4, where n is the number of input pairs. The formula is given by the “Markovianizing cost” of a tripartite state associated with the unitary, which can be computed by a finite-step algorithm. We also derive a lower bound on the minimum cost of resources, which applies for protocols with arbitrary number of rounds.

We introduce and analyze a task that we call Markovianization, in which a tripartite quantum state is transformed to a quantum Markov chain by a randomizing operation on one of the three subsystems. We consider cases where the initial state is a tensor product of n copies of a tripartite state ρABC, and is transformed to a quantum Markov chain conditioned by Bnwith a small error, by a random unitary operation on An. In an asymptotic limit of infinite copies and vanishingly small error, we analyze the Markovianizing cost, that is, the minimum cost of randomness per copy required for Markovianization. For tripartite pure states, we derive a single-letter formula for the Markovianizing costs. Counterintuitively, the Markovianizing cost is not a continuous function of states, and can be arbitrarily large even if the state is an approximate quantum Markov chain. Our results have an application for distributed quantum computation.

We analyze implementations of bipartite unitaries in a distributed quantum computation setting using local operations and classical communication (LOCC) assisted by shared entanglement. We employ concepts and techniques developed in quantum Shannon theory to study an asymptotic scenario in which the two distant parties perform the same bipartite unitary on infinitely many pairs of input states generated by a completely random i.i.d. (independent and identically distributed) quantum information source. We analyze the minimum costs of resources of entanglement and classical communication per copy. For protocols consisting of two-round LOCC, we prove that an achievable rate tuple of costs of entanglement and classical communication is given by the “Markovianizing cost” of a tripartite state associated with the unitary, which is conjectured to be optimal as well. The Markovianizing cost can be computed by a finite-step algorithm.