Catalysis in quantum information theory
Patryk Lipka-Bartosik, Henrik Wilming, Nelly H. Y. Ng · Reviews of Modern Physics · 2024
A branch of quantum information is concerned with transformations that are possible given certain resources: for example, quantum teleportation moves a quantum state from one place to another, aided by entanglement and classical communication. Certain other tasks are provably impossible. But, as surveyed in this review, a surprising fact is that some tasks become possible if another quantum state is present, even if this state is returned untouched at the end of the task. This ``quantum catalysis'' enables a large variety of interesting tasks, with applications ranging from cryptography to thermodynamics.