We consider quantum channels with one sender and two receivers, used in several different ways for the simultaneous transmission of independent messages. We begin by extending the technique of superposition coding to quantum channels with a classical input to give a general achievable region. We also give outer bounds to the capacity regions for various special cases from the classical literature and prove that superposition coding is optimal for a class of channels. We then consider extensions of superposition coding for channels with a quantum input, where some of the messages transmitted are quantum instead of classical, in the sense that the parties establish bipartite or tripartite GHZ entanglement. We conclude by using state merging to give achievable rates for establishing bipartite entanglement between different pair of parties with the assistance of free classical communication.

Consider many instances of an arbitrary quadripartite pure state of four quantum systems ABCD. Alice holds the AC part of each state, Bob holds B, while R represents all other parties correlated with ABC . Alice is required to redistribute the C systems to Bob while asymptotically preserving the overall purity. We prove that this is possible using Q qubits of communication and E ebits of shared entanglement between Alice and Bob, provided that Q ges 1/2I(C; D|B) and Q + E ges H(C|B), proving the optimality of the Luo-Devetak outer bound. The optimal qubit rate provides the first known operational interpretation of quantum conditional mutual information. We also show how our protocol leads to a fully operational proof of strong subaddivity and uncover a general organizing principle, in analogy to thermodynamics, that underlies the optimal rates.

We consider quantum channels with two senders and one receiver. For an arbitrary such channel, we give multiletter characterizations of two different two-dimensional capacity regions. The first region comprises the rates at which it is possible for one sender to send classical information, while the other sends quantum information. The second region consists of the rates at which each sender can send quantum information. For each region, we give an example of a channel for which the corresponding region has a single-letter description. One of our examples relies on a new result proved here, perhaps of independent interest, stating that the coherent information over any degradable channel is concave in the input density operator. We conclude with connections to other work and a discussion on generalizations where each user simultaneously sends classical and quantum information.

We consider quantum channels with two senders and one receiver. For an arbitrary such channel, we give multi-letter characterizations of two different two-dimensional capacity regions. The first region characterizes the rates at which it is possible for one sender to send classical information while the other sends quantum information. The second region gives the rates at which each sender can send quantum information. We give an example of a channel for which each region has a single-letter description, concluding with a characterization of the rates at which each user can simultaneously send classical and quantum information