
2
mode Gaussian states [50,51], squeezed states [52], cat
states [53], etc. All such evaluations are incomplete, in
the sense that they test the performance by transmitting
specific states rather than arbitrary unknown states. A
true quantifier for CV unidirectional teleportation was
given in [54], which benchmarks the performance of an
experimental implementation in terms of the energy-
constrained channel fidelity between ideal teleportation
and its experimental implementation. We also note here
that [54] is foundational for the present paper.
In this paper, we quantify the performance of any ex-
perimental implementation of CV unidirectional, as well
as bidirectional, teleportation, under certain energy con-
straints. The performance metric that we consider is the
energy-constrained channel fidelity between an ideal tele-
portation and its experimental implementation. We ex-
plicitly find optimal input states, i.e., quantum states
whose output fidelity corresponding to the ideal chan-
nel and its experimental approximation is the same as
the energy-constrained channel fidelity between the two
channels. Our method is purely analytical, employing
optimization techniques from multivariable calculus. The
optimal states for unidirectional, as well as bidirectional,
teleportation are finite entangled superpositions of twin-
Fock states saturating the energy constraint. Further-
more, we prove that the optimal input states are unique;
i.e., there is no other optimal finite entangled superposi-
tion of twin-Fock states.
Our results on bidirectional teleportation are also re-
lated to one of the most interesting mathematical prob-
lems in quantum information theory: the study of addi-
tive and multiplicative properties of measures associated
with quantum channels [55–58]. Much progress has been
made in addressing these additivity issues [59–63], set-
tling some of the questions posed in [64,65]. The fidelity
of quantum states is well known to be multiplicative for
tensor-product quantum states [63]. This induces an in-
equality for energy-constrained channel fidelity between
two tensor-product channels. As a consequence of our
work, we give examples where the induced inequality is
strict; that is, our results also imply that the energy-
constrained fidelity between the identity channel and an
additive-noise channel is strictly sub-multiplicative.
The rest of our paper is organized as follows. In Sec-
tion II, we review some definitions. We present a deriva-
tion of the optimal input state for CV unidirectional tele-
portation in Section III, and for CV bidirectional tele-
portation in Section IV. We show in Section Vthat the
energy-constrained fidelity between the ideal swap chan-
nel and the tensor product of two additive-noise chan-
nels is strictly sub-multiplicative. We then discuss pos-
sible extensions and generalizations of the present work
in Section VI. Finally, in Section VII we summarize our
results and outline questions for future work.
The appendices contain necessary calculations for de-
riving the results. In Appendix A, we provide proofs of
some preliminary results required to derive the optimal
input state for CV unidirectional teleportation. Simi-
larly, we prove some preliminary results in Appendix B
that are used to derive the optimal input state for CV
bidirectional teleportation.
II. PRELIMINARIES
Let Hbe a separable Hilbert space, and let Tbe an
operator acting on H. The adjoint of Tis the unique
operator T†acting on Hdefined by ⟨ϕ|T|ψ⟩=⟨ψ|T†|ϕ⟩
for all |ϕ⟩,|ψ⟩ ∈ H;Tis said to be self-adjoint if T=
T†. If Tr(√T†T)<∞then Tis said to be a trace-
class operator, and its trace norm is defined as ∥T∥1:=
Tr(√T†T). A quantum state is a positive semi-definite,
trace-class operator with trace norm equal to one. We
denote by D(H) the set of all quantum states or density
operators acting on H. Let ρ, σ ∈ D(H). The fidelity
between ρand σis defined by [66]
F(ρ, σ):=
√ρ√σ
2
1.(1)
If one of the quantum states is pure, i.e., say ρ=|ψ⟩⟨ψ|,
then F(ρ, σ) = Tr(ρσ). The sine distance between ρand
σis given by [67–70]
C(ρ, σ):=p1−F(ρ, σ).(2)
The following inequalities relate the fidelity, sine dis-
tance, and trace distance [71, Theorem 1]
1−pF(ρ, σ)≤1
2∥ρ−σ∥1≤C(ρ, σ).(3)
The set of bounded operators on Hforms a C∗-algebra
under the operator norm, and we denote it by L(H). Let
HAdenote the Hilbert space corresponding to a quan-
tum system A. A quantum channel from a quantum
system Ato a quantum system Bis a completely posi-
tive, trace preserving linear map from L(HA) to L(HB).
Let MA→Band NA→Bbe quantum channels. Let HA
be a Hamiltonian corresponding to the quantum system
A, and let Rdenote a reference system. The energy-
constrained channel fidelity between MA→Band NA→B
for E∈[0,∞) is defined by [72,73]
FE(MA→B,NA→B):=
inf
ρRA:Tr(HAρA)≤EF(MA→B(ρRA),NA→B(ρRA)),(4)
where ρRA ∈ D(HR⊗ HA), ρA= TrR(ρRA),and it is
implicit that the identity channel IRacts on the refer-
ence system R. Furthermore, the optimization in (4) is
taken over every possible reference system R. Similarly,
the energy-constrained sine distance between MA→Band
NA→Bfor E∈[0,∞) is defined by [72,73]
CE(MA→B,NA→B):=
sup
ρRA:Tr(HAρA)≤E
C(MA→B(ρRA),NA→B(ρRA)).(5)