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Originally published in Science Express on 21 August 2008
Science 26 September 2008:
Vol. 321. no. 5897, pp. 1812 - 1815
DOI: 10.1126/science.1162242
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Reports

Quantum Communication with Zero-Capacity Channels

Graeme Smith1* and Jon Yard2

Communication over a noisy quantum channel introduces errors in the transmission that must be corrected. A fundamental bound on quantum error correction is the quantum capacity, which quantifies the amount of quantum data that can be protected. We show theoretically that two quantum channels, each with a transmission capacity of zero, can have a nonzero capacity when used together. This unveils a rich structure in the theory of quantum communications, implying that the quantum capacity does not completely specify a channel's ability to transmit quantum information.

1 IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, 1101 Kitchawan Road, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA.
2 Quantum Institute, Center for Nonlinear Studies (CNLS), Computer, Computational and Statistical Sciences (CCS-3), Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gsbsmith{at}gmail.com

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)