The power of entangled quantum channels

Abstract

All communication channels are at bottom quantum mechanical. Quantum mechanics contributes both obstacles to communication in the form of noise, and opportunities in the use of intrinsically quantum representations for information. This paper investigates the trade-off between power and communication rate for coupled quantum channels. By exploiting quantum correlations such as entanglement, coupled quantum channels can communicate at a potentially higher rate than unentangled quantum channels given the same power. In particular, given the same overall power, M coupled, entangled quantum channels can send M bits in the same time it takes a single channel to send a single bit, and in the same time it takes M unentangled channels to send $\sqrt M$ bits.