Strong convergence of quantum channels: Continuity of the Stinespring dilation and discontinuity of the unitary dilation

Abstract

It is shown that a sequence {φn} of quantum channels strongly converges to a quantum channel φ0 if and only if there exist a common environment for all the channels and a corresponding sequence {Vn} of Stinespring isometries strongly converging to a Stinespring isometry V0 of the channel φ0. A quantitative description of the above characterization of the strong convergence in terms of appropriate metrics on the sets of quantum channels and Stinespring isometries is given. As a result, the uniform selective continuity of the complementary operation with respect to the strong convergence is established. The discontinuity of the unitary dilation is shown by constructing a strongly converging sequence of quantum channels that cannot be represented as a reduction of a strongly converging sequence of unitary channels. The Stinespring representation of strongly converging sequences of quantum channels allows us to prove the lower semicontinuity of the entropic disturbance as a function of a pair (channel, input ensemble). Some corollaries of this property are considered.