Bosonic Quantum Communication Across Arbitrarily High Loss Channels

A general attenuator Φ_λ,σ is a bosonic quantum channel that acts by combining the input with a fixed environment state σ in a beam splitter of transmissivity λ. If σ is a thermal state, the resulting channel is a thermal attenuator, whose quantum capacity vanishes for λ≤1/2. We study the quantum capacity of these objects for generic σ, proving a number of unexpected results. Most notably, we show that for any arbitrary value of λ>0 there exists a suitable single-mode state σ(λ) such that the quantum capacity of Φ_λ,σ(λ) is larger than a universal constant $c>0$. Our result holds even when we fix an energy constraint at the input of the channel, and implies that quantum communication at a constant rate is possible even in the limit of arbitrarily low transmissivity, provided that the environment state is appropriately controlled. We also find examples of states σ such that the quantum capacity of Φ_λ,σ is not monotonic in λ. These findings may have implications for the study of communication lines running across integrated optical circuits, of which general attenuators provide natural models.