Entropy, Quantum Information and Entanglement

Dear Colleagues,

Classical information theory is primarily concerned with the problem of sending classical information over communications channels which operate in accordance with the laws of classical physics. Quantum information theory is similarly motivated by the study of communication channels but encompassing a much wider domain of applications based on quantum mechanics. The three fundamental goals of quantum information theory are concerned with (i) identifying new classes of static resources, which we identify as types of ‘information’; (ii) new elementary classes of dynamical processes, which we identify as types of ‘information processing’; and, lastly (iii), means and measures to quantify the resource tradeoffs incurred when performing elementary quantum dynamical processes.

One of the entirely new classes of static resources allowed for by quantum mechanics is quantum entanglement, whereby an entangled state provides us with more information about the total system than about its subsystems. The applications of entanglement are now well known to manifold, from applied applications such as cryptography, metrology, and communication/networking computing to new fundamental insights into particle and black hole physics, involving the entanglement of the vacuum and across horizons.

Essential to the study of entanglement is a fundamental understating of distinguishability, which is the measure of uncertainty in a given probability distribution inherent or generated in quantum states. Quantum distinguishability never decreases, and correlations cannot increase without subsystem interactions. Here, the concept of entropy, and measures of entropy, play a central role. In an entangled state, the entropy of a subsystem can be greater than the entropy of the total system only when the state is entangled. In other words, the subsystems of an entangled system may exhibit more disorder than the system as a whole, a phenomena that in the classical world never occurs.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect works exhibiting novel connections amongst the topics of entropy, quantum information, and entanglement. Special attention to the role played by entropic arguments in such connections will be warmly welcome.

Dr. Paul M. Alsing
Guest Editor

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• entropy
• entanglement
• quantum information
• measures of indistinguishability/fidelity of quantum states
• thermodynamics
• black hole information paradox
• vacuum entanglement and particle physics