Achievability of the Rains bound under PPT-preserving channels

Unsolved ID op_4cf3e7b8663b1d41 Last edited 4 September 2026
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Problem

Consider distilling the bipartite Bell-diagonal state

\begin{equation} \rho_{\mathbf p} =p_I\lvert\Phi^+\rangle\!\langle\Phi^+\rvert +p_X\lvert\Psi^+\rangle\!\langle\Psi^+\rvert +p_Y\lvert\Psi^-\rangle\!\langle\Psi^-\rvert +p_Z\lvert\Phi^-\rangle\!\langle\Phi^-\rvert, \tag{1} \end{equation}

where \(p_i>0\) and \(p_I+p_X+p_Y+p_Z=1\), and \(\lvert\Phi^\pm\rangle:=(\lvert00\rangle\pm\lvert11\rangle)/\sqrt2\) and \(\lvert\Psi^\pm\rangle:=(\lvert01\rangle\pm\lvert10\rangle)/\sqrt2\). Is the Rains bound of the state in Eq. (1) achievable by a positive-partial-transpose-state-preserving (PPT-state-preserving, or PPT-preserving) quantum channel? If so, what is the constructive quantum channel? A channel is PPT-state-preserving if every PPT input state is mapped to a PPT output state.

Source

Rains introduced the PPT-preserving distillation framework and its semidefinite-programming bound; the present Bell-diagonal achievability question is an implicit specialization of that work [Rai99], [Rai01].

Progress

  • Rains showed that the Rains bound \(R(\rho_{\mathbf p})\) upper-bounds the entanglement distillable from \(\rho_{\mathbf p}\) by PPT-preserving operations:

    \begin{equation} D_{\mathrm{PPT}}(\rho_{\mathbf p})\le R(\rho_{\mathbf p}). \tag{2} \end{equation}

    Equation (2) is the relevant converse bound for the operational class in this problem [Rai99], [Rai01].

Comment

The problem asks whether the upper bound in Eq. (2) is achievable for the Bell-diagonal family in Eq. (1), and, if so, for an explicit construction of a PPT-preserving channel attaining it.

References

[Rai99]
E. M. Rains, “An Improved Bound on Distillable Entanglement,” Physical Review A 60, 179–184 (1999).DOIarXiv
[Rai01]
E. M. Rains, “A Semidefinite Program for Distillable Entanglement,” IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 47, 2921–2933 (2001).DOIarXiv

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“Achievability of the Rains bound under PPT-preserving channels,” Quantum Information and Quantum Computation Open Problem Zoo (QIQCOP Zoo), ID op_4cf3e7b8663b1d41, accessed 2026-09-08.

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@incollection{qiqcop_op_4cf3e7b8663b1d41,
  title = {Achievability of the Rains bound under PPT-preserving channels},
  booktitle = {Quantum Information and Quantum Computation Open Problem Zoo (QIQCOP Zoo)},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://qiqc-op.com/problem/op_4cf3e7b8663b1d41/}},
  note = {Stable ID op_4cf3e7b8663b1d41; status: Unsolved; accessed 2026-09-08}
}

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“Achievability of the Rains bound under PPT-preserving channels,” Quantum Information and Quantum Computation Open Problem Zoo (QIQCOP Zoo), https://qiqc-op.com/problem/op_4cf3e7b8663b1d41/, ID op_4cf3e7b8663b1d41, accessed 2026-09-08.

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op_4cf3e7b8663b1d41
01M1HME78004TME758T7JBWF1D