Occam's Quantum Strop: Synchronizing and Compressing Classical Cryptic Processes via a Quantum Channel

Sci Rep. 2016 Feb 15:6:20495. doi: 10.1038/srep20495.

Abstract

A stochastic process' statistical complexity stands out as a fundamental property: the minimum information required to synchronize one process generator to another. How much information is required, though, when synchronizing over a quantum channel? Recent work demonstrated that representing causal similarity as quantum state-indistinguishability provides a quantum advantage. We generalize this to synchronization and offer a sequence of constructions that exploit extended causal structures, finding substantial increase of the quantum advantage. We demonstrate that maximum compression is determined by the process' cryptic order--a classical, topological property closely allied to Markov order, itself a measure of historical dependence. We introduce an efficient algorithm that computes the quantum advantage and close noting that the advantage comes at a cost-one trades off prediction for generation complexity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.