ar X iv : q ua nt - p h / 96 05 03 9 v 2 20 J an 1 99 7 Quantum information theory of entanglement and measurement ?

We present a quantum information theory that allows for a consistent description of entanglement. It parallels classical (Shannon) information theory but is based entirely on density matrices (rather than probability distributions) for the description of quantum ensembles. We find that quantum conditional entropies can be negative for entangled systems, which leads to a violation of well-known bounds in Shannon information theory. Such a unified informationtheoretic description of classical correlation and quantum entanglement clarifies the link between them: the latter can be viewed as “super-correlation” which can induce classical correlation when considering a tripartite or larger system. Furthermore, negative entropy and the associated clarification of entanglement paves the way to a natural information-theoretic description of the measurement process. This model, while unitary and causal, implies the well-known probabilistic results of conventional quantum mechanics. It also results in a simple interpretation of the Kholevo theorem limiting the accessible information in a quantum measurement.