Structural Characterization And Condition For Measurement Statistics Preservation Of A Unital Quantum Operation

Abstract

We investigate the necessary and sufficient condition for a convex cone of positive semidefinite operators to be fixed by a unital quantum operation $\varphi$ acting on finite-dimensional quantum states. By reducing this problem to the problem of simultaneous diagonalization of the Kraus operators associated with $\varphi$, we can completely characterize the kind of quantum states that are fixed by $\varphi$. Our work has several applications. It gives a simple proof of the structural characterization of a unital quantum operation that acts on finite-dimensional quantum states --- a result not explicitly mentioned in earlier studies. It also provides a necessary and sufficient condition for what kind of measurement statistics is preserved by a unital quantum operation. Finally, our result clarifies and extends the work of Størmer by giving a proof of a reduction theorem on the unassisted and entanglement-assisted classical capacities, coherent information, and minimal output Renyi entropy of a unital channel acting on finite-dimensional quantum state.

9 pages in revtex 4.1, minor revision, to appear in J.Phys.A