Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
No-communication theorem
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==Informal overview== The no-communication theorem states that, within the context of quantum mechanics, it is not possible to transmit classical bits of information by means of carefully prepared [[mixed state (physics)|mixed]] or [[pure state]]s, whether [[entangled state|entangled]] or not. The theorem is only a [[sufficient condition]] that states that if the [[Quantum operation#Kraus operators|Kraus matrices]] commute then there can be no communication through the quantum entangled states and that this is applicable to all communication. From a relativity and quantum field perspective, also faster than light or "instantaneous" communication is disallowed.<ref name="Peres-2004">{{Cite journal |last1=Peres |first1=Asher |last2=Terno |first2=Daniel R. |date=2004-01-06 |title=Quantum information and relativity theory |url=https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/RevModPhys.76.93 |journal=Reviews of Modern Physics |language=en |volume=76 |issue=1 |pages=93β123 |arxiv=quant-ph/0212023 |bibcode=2004RvMP...76...93P |doi=10.1103/RevModPhys.76.93 |issn=0034-6861 |s2cid=7481797}}</ref>{{rp|100}} Being only a sufficient condition, there can be other reasons communication is not allowed. The basic premise entering into the theorem is that a quantum-mechanical system is prepared in an initial state with some entangled states, and that this initial state is describable as a mixed or pure state in a [[Hilbert space]] ''H''. After a certain amount of time, the system is divided in two parts each of which contains some non-entangled states and half of the quantum entangled states, and the two parts become spatially distinct, ''A'' and ''B'', sent to two distinct observers, [[Alice and Bob]], who are free to perform quantum mechanical measurements on their portion of the total system (viz, ''A'' and ''B''). The question is: is there any action that Alice can perform on ''A'' that would be detectable by Bob making an observation of ''B''? The theorem replies 'no'. An important assumption going into the theorem is that neither Alice nor Bob is allowed, in any way, to affect the preparation of the initial state. If Alice were allowed to take part in the preparation of the initial state, it would be trivially easy for her to encode a message into it; thus neither Alice nor Bob participates in the preparation of the initial state. The theorem does not require that the initial state be somehow 'random' or 'balanced' or 'uniform': indeed, a third party preparing the initial state could easily encode messages in it, received by Alice and Bob. Simply, the theorem states that, given some initial state, prepared in some way, there is no action that Alice can take that would be detectable by Bob. The proof proceeds by defining how the total Hilbert space ''H'' can be split into two parts, ''H''<sub>''A''</sub> and ''H''<sub>''B''</sub>, describing the subspaces accessible to Alice and Bob. The total state of the system is described by a [[density matrix]] Ο. The goal of the theorem is to prove that Bob cannot in any way distinguish the pre-measurement state Ο from the post-measurement state ''P''(Ο). This is accomplished mathematically by comparing the [[trace (linear algebra)|trace]] of Ο and the trace of ''P''(Ο), with the trace being taken over the subspace ''H''<sub>''A''</sub>. Since the trace is only over a subspace, it is technically called a [[partial trace]]. Key to this step is that the (partial) trace adequately summarizes the system from Bob's point of view. That is, everything that Bob has access to, or could ever have access to, measure, or detect, is completely described by a partial trace over ''H''<sub>A</sub> of the system Ο. The fact that this trace never changes as Alice performs her measurements is the conclusion of the proof of the no-communication theorem.<ref name="Peres-2004"/>{{rp|100}}
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)