Maximal Holevo quantity based on weak measurements

Abstract

The Holevo bound is a keystone in many applications of quantum information theory. We propose "weak maximal Holevo quantity" with weak measurements as the generalization of the standard Holevo quantity which is defined as the optimal projective measurements. The scenarios that weak measurements is necessary are that only the weak measurements can be performed because for example the system is macroscopic or that one intentionally tries to do so such that the disturbance on the measured system can be controlled for example in quantum key distribution protocols. We evaluate systematically the weak maximal Holevo quantity for Bell-diagonal states and find a series of results. Furthermore, we find that weak measurements can be realized by noise and project measurements.