Monotonicity Of Relative Entropy Research Articles

Averaged null energy and the renormalization group

We establish a connection between the averaged null energy condition (ANEC) and the monotonicity of the renormalization group, by studying the light-ray operator ∫ duTuu in quantum field theories that flow between two conformal fixed points. In four dimensions, we derive an exact sum rule relating this operator to the Euler coefficient in the trace anomaly, and show that the ANEC implies the a-theorem. The argument is based on matching anomalies in the stress tensor 3-point function, and relies on special properties of contact terms involving light-ray operators. We also illustrate the sum rule for the example of a free massive scalar field. Averaged null energy appears in a variety of other applications to quantum field theory, including causality constraints, Lorentzian inversion, and quantum information. The quantum information perspective provides a new derivation of the a-theorem from the monotonicity of relative entropy. The equation relating our sum rule to the dilaton scattering amplitude in the forward limit suggests an inversion formula for non-conformal theories.

Achronal averaged null energy condition for extremal horizons and (A)dS

We prove the achronal averaged null energy condition for general quantum field theories in the near horizon geometry of spherical extremal black holes (i.e. AdS2× Sd−2), de Sitter and anti-de Sitter. The derivation follows from monotonicity of relative entropy after computing the modular hamiltonian of a null deformed region. For incomplete (but maximally extended) achronal null geodesics in AdS2× Sd−2, we prove the positivity of a different light-ray operator for arbitrary CFTs. This agrees with a constraint recently derived for the Lorentzian cylinder.

Global aspects of conformal symmetry and the ANEC in dS and AdS

Starting from the averaged null energy condition (ANEC) in Minkowski we show that conformal symmetry implies the ANEC for a conformal field theory (CFT) in a de Sitter and anti-de Sitter background. A similar and novel bound is also obtained for a CFT in the Lorentzian cylinder. Using monotonicity of relative entropy, we rederive these results for dS and the cylinder. As a byproduct we obtain the vacuum modular Hamiltonian and entanglement entropy associated to null deformed regions of CFTs in (A)dS and the cylinder. A third derivation of the ANEC in dS is shown to follow from bulk causality in AdS/CFT. Finally, we use the Tomita-Takesaki theory to show that Rindler positivity of Minkowski correlators generalizes to conformal theories defined in dS and the cylinder.

Markovianity of the reference state, complete positivity of the reduced dynamics, and monotonicity of the relative entropy

Consider the set $\mathcal{S}=\lbrace\rho_{SE}\rbrace$ of possible initial states of the system-environment, steered from a tripartite reference state $\omega_{RSE}$. Buscemi [F. Buscemi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 140502 (2014)] showed that the reduced dynamics of the system, for each $\rho_{S}\in \mathrm{Tr}_{E}\mathcal{S}$, is always completely positive if and only if $\omega_{RSE}$ is a Markov state. There, during the proof, it has been assumed that the dimensions of the system and the environment can vary through the evolution. Here, we show that this assumption is necessary: we give an example for which, though $\omega_{RSE}$ is not a Markov state, the reduced dynamics of the system is completely positive, for any evolution of the system-environment during which the dimensions of the system and the environment remain unchanged. As our next result, we show that the result of Muller-Hermes and Reeb [A. Muller-Hermes and D. Reeb, Ann. Henri Poincare 18, 1777 (2017)], of monotonicity of the quantum relative entropy under positive maps, cannot be generalized to the Hermitian maps, even within their physical domains.

Anomalous gravitation and its positivity from entanglement

We explore the emergence of gravitation from entanglement in holographic CFTs with gravitational anomalies. More specifically, the holographic correspondence between topologically massive gravity (TMG) with gravitational Chern-Simons term in the 3D bulk and its dual CFT with unbalanced left and right moving central charges on the 2D boundary, is studied from the quantum entanglement perspective. Using the first law of entanglement, we derive the holographic dictionary of the energy-momentum tensor in TMG, including the chiral case with logarithmic mode. Furthermore, we show that the linearized equation of motion of TMG can also be obtained from entanglement using the Wald-Tachikawa covariant phase space formalism. Finally, we identify a quasi-local gravitational energy in the entanglement wedge as the holographic dual of relative entropy in gravitationally anomalous CFTs. The positivity and monotonicity of relative entropy imply that such a gravitational energy should be positive definite and become larger when increasing the size of the entanglement wedge. These constraints from quantum information may be potentially used to discuss the UV inconsistent issues of TMG.

Gravitational positive energy theorems from information inequalities

In this paper we argue that classical, asymptotically AdS spacetimes that arise as states in consistent ultraviolet completions of Einstein gravity coupled to matter must satisfy an infinite family of positive energy conditions. To each ball-shaped spatial region $B$ of the boundary spacetime, we can associate a bulk spatial region $\Sigma_B$ between $B$ and the bulk extremal surface $\tilde{B}$ with the same boundary as $B$. We show that there exists a natural notion of a gravitational energy for every such region that is non-negative, and non-increasing as one makes the region smaller. The results follow from identifying this gravitational energy with a quantum relative entropy in the associated dual CFT state. The positivity and monotonicity properties of the gravitational energy are implied by the positivity and monotonicity of relative entropy, which holds universally in all quantum systems.

Monotonicity of quantum relative entropy and recoverability

The relative entropy is a principal measure of distinguishability in quantum information theory, with its most important property being that it is non-increasing with respect to noisy quantum operations. Here, we establish a remainder term for this inequality that quantifies how well one can recover from a loss of information by employing a rotated Petz recovery map. The main approach for proving this refinement is to combine the methods of [Fawzi and Renner, 2014] with the notion of a relative typical subspace from [Bjelakovic and Siegmund-Schultze, 2003]. Our paper constitutes partial progress towards a remainder term which features just the Petz recovery map (not a rotated Petz map), a conjecture which would have many consequences in quantum information theory. A well known result states that the monotonicity of relative entropy with respect to quantum operations is equivalent to each of the following inequalities: strong subadditivity of entropy, concavity of conditional entropy, joint convexity of relative entropy, and monotonicity of relative entropy with respect to partial trace. We show that this equivalence holds true for refinements of all these inequalities in terms of the Petz recovery map. So either all of these refinements are true or all are false.

Monotonicity of quantum relative entropy and recoverability

The relative entropy is a principal measure of distinguishability in quantum information theory, with its most important property being that it is non-increasing with respect to noisy quantum operations. Here, we establish a remainder term for this inequality that quantifies how well one can recover from a loss of information by employing a rotated Petz recovery map. The main approach for proving this refinement is to combine the methods of [Fawzi and Renner, 2014] with the notion of a relative typical subspace from [Bjelakovic and Siegmund-Schultze, 2003]. Our paper constitutes partial progress towards a remainder term which features just the Petz recovery map (not a rotated Petz map), a conjecture which would have many consequences in quantum information theory. A well known result states that the monotonicity of relative entropy with respect to quantum operations is equivalent to each of the following inequalities: strong subadditivity of entropy, concavity of conditional entropy, joint convexity of relative entropy, and monotonicity of relative entropy with respect to partial trace. We show that this equivalence holds true for refinements of all these inequalities in terms of the Petz recovery map. So either all of these refinements are true or all are false.

Inviolable energy conditions from entanglement inequalities

Via the AdS/CFT correspondence, fundamental constraints on the entanglement structure of quantum systems translate to constraints on spacetime geometries that must be satisfied in any consistent theory of quantum gravity. In this paper, we investigate such constraints arising from strong subadditivity and from the positivity and monotonicity of relative entropy in examples with highly-symmetric spacetimes. Our results may be interpreted as a set of energy conditions restricting the possible form of the stress-energy tensor in consistent theories of Einstein gravity coupled to matter.

Remainder terms for some quantum entropy inequalities

We consider three von Neumann entropy inequalities: subadditivity; Pinsker's inequality for relative entropy; and the monotonicity of relative entropy. For these we state conditions for equality, and we prove some new error bounds away from equality, including an improved version of Pinsker's inequality.

All Inequalities for the Relative Entropy

The relative entropy of two n-party quantum states is an important quantity exhibiting, for example, the extent to which the two states are different. The relative entropy of the states formed by reducing two n-party to a smaller number $m$ of parties is always less than or equal to the relative entropy of the two original n-party states. This is the monotonicity of relative entropy. Using techniques from convex geometry, we prove that monotonicity under restrictions is the only general inequality satisfied by relative entropies. In doing so we make a connection to secret sharing schemes with general access structures. A suprising outcome is that the structure of allowed relative entropy values of subsets of multiparty states is much simpler than the structure of allowed entropy values. And the structure of allowed relative entropy values (unlike that of entropies) is the same for classical probability distributions and quantum states.

Relative Entropy of States of von Neumann Algebras

Relative entropy of two states of a von Neumann algebra is defined in terms of the relative modular operator. The strict positivity, lower semicontinuity, convexity and monotonicity of relative entropy are proved. The Wigner-Yanase-Dyson-Lieb concavity is also proved for general von Neumann algebra.