Localizing quantum information

Abstract

The idea that information can be localized is pervasive in physics. In thermodynamics, entropy flows from one reservoir to another, and in quantum gravity, the entropy content of some spatial regions is bounded. In quantum information theory, information is transmitted from one place to another, and entanglement can provide an advantage when there are constraints on such transmission. Shannon entropy quantifies localizable information in the sense that marginalization defines an outer measure on the set of parts of a classical multipartite system. In contrast, von Neumann entropy does not quantify localizable information in this sense. However, a variant of von Neumann entropy, which originates in noncommutative geometry, does. We prove that this adjusted von Neumann entropy is the minimum quantum entropy that quantifies localizable information. We also prove that this is the unique quantum entropy that characterizes Bell states in terms of redundant information, directly generalizing the classical case. We work with finite-dimensional $C^*$-algebras throughout, modeling finite quantum systems that may have superselection sectors.