A category theoretic approach to asymptotic quantum channel approximation and Birkhoff's Theorem

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that multiple copies of symmetric unital quantum channels can be closely approximated by mixtures of unitary channels, extending Birkhoff's classical theorem into the quantum domain.

Contribution

It proves that a finite number of copies of symmetric unital channels can approximate convex combinations of unitaries, preserving extremal properties, and suggests generalization to non-symmetric channels.

Findings

$n(n+1)/2$ copies suffice for approximation

Extremal properties are preserved over multiple copies

Potential for generalization to non-symmetric channels

Abstract

Birkhoff's Theorem states that doubly stochastic matrices are convex combinations of permutation matrices. Quantum mechanically these matrices are doubly stochastic channels, i.e. they are completely positive maps preserving both the trace and the identity. We expect these channels to be convex combinations of unitary channels and yet it is known that some channels cannot be written that way. Recent work has suggested that $n$ copies of a single channel might approximate a mixture (convex combination) of unitaries. In this paper we show that $n(n+1)/2$ copies of a symmetric unital quantum channel may be arbitrarily-well approximated by a mixture (convex combination) of unitarily implemented channels. In addition, we prove that any extremal properties of a channel are preserved over $n$ (and thus $n(n+1)/2$) copies. The result has the potential to be completely generalized to include non-symmetric channels.