Uniform tight continuity bound for von Neumann entropy

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Consider a Hilbert space H{\mathcal{H}} of finite dimension d=∣H∣d=|{\mathcal{H}}|. Let ρ\rho and σ\sigma be states on H\mathcal{H}. Define

ε≔T(ρ,σ),ν≔∥ρ−σ∥∞.\varepsilon \coloneqq \mathrm{T}(\rho,\sigma),\qquad \nu \coloneqq \lVert\rho-\sigma\rVert_{\infty}.

The function fd(ε,ν)f_d(\varepsilon,\nu) is defined through the paper's equation~. Uniform continuity-bound conjecture. The entropy difference satisfies

∣S(ρ)−S(σ)∣≤fd(ε,ν),\left|S(\rho)-S(\sigma)\right|\leq f_d(\varepsilon,\nu),

and this bound is tight. The conjecture proposes a tight uniform continuity bound for the von Neumann entropy in terms of the trace distance and operator-norm distance, particularly in the regime where 1/β1/\beta is not an integer, where the bound in Theorem~ is not tight.

References

Primary source

Michael G. Jabbour and Nilanjana Datta, “Tightening continuity bounds for entropies and bounds on quantum capacities”, arXiv:2310.17329 (2025).

Progress summary

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The proposed best possible entropy bound remains unproved, with no public counterexample or verification found.

A 2023 paper proposes a tight uniform bound for the entropy difference of two finite-dimensional quantum states using both their trace distance and operator-norm distance. It is settled in the integer-ratio regime, while the noninteger regime motivating the conjecture remains unresolved.

Known results

  • Theorem 4 proves ∣S(ρ)−S(σ)∣≤εlog⁡((ν/ε)d−1)+h(ε)|S(\rho)-S(\sigma)|\leq \varepsilon\log((\nu/\varepsilon)d-1)+h(\varepsilon) under ε≤νd/(νd+3)\varepsilon\leq \nu d/(\nu d+3); it is tight when ε/ν\varepsilon/\nu is an integer.
  • The Audenaert–Petz inequality gives the established dimension-dependent trace-distance bound, including εlog⁡(d−1)+h(ε)\varepsilon\log(d-1)+h(\varepsilon) in its principal regime.

2023 conjecture

The paper explicitly conjectures that ∣S(ρ)−S(σ)∣≤fd(ε,ν)|S(\rho)-S(\sigma)|\leq f_d(\varepsilon,\nu) and that this bound is tight. It discusses possible proof strategies but notes that a key monotonicity approach fails; no subsequent proof, disproof, or verification was found in the supplied sources.

Current status (as of August 2026): The conjectured bound is known to be tight when ε/ν\varepsilon/\nu is an integer, but the noninteger case remains open, with no recorded proof or counterexample.

Sources

Solutions 0

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