This paper is concerned with quantum data compression of asymptotically many independent and identically distributed copies of ensembles of mixed quantum states. The encoder has access to a side information system. The figure of merit is per-copy or local error criterion. Rate-distortion theory studies the trade-off between the compression rate and the per-copy error. The optimal trade-off can be characterized by the rate-distortion function, which is the best rate given a certain distortion. In this paper, we derive the rate-distortion function of mixed-state compression. The rate-distortion functions in the entanglement-assisted and unassisted scenarios are in terms of a single-letter mutual information quantity and the regularized entanglement of purification, respectively. For the general setting where the consumption of both communication and entanglement are considered, we present the full qubit-entanglement rate region. Our compression scheme covers both blind and visible compression models (and other models in between) depending on the structure of the side information system.

In this paper we consider the compression of asymptotically many i.i.d. copies of ensembles of mixed quantum states where the encoder has access to a side information system. This source is equivalently defined as a classical-quantum state, namely, a quantum system correlated with a classical system playing the role of an inaccessible reference system. The figure of merit is evaluated based on per-copy or local error criterion. The rate-distortion theory aims to reveal the trade-off between the compression rate and the per-copy error. The optimal trade-off can be characterized by the rate-distortion function, which is the best rate given a certain distortion. In this paper, we analyze the rate-distortion functions of mixed-state compression. We find the rate-distortion functions in the entanglement-assisted and unassisted scenarios, in terms of a single-letter mutual information quantity and the regularized entanglement of purification, respectively.