Quantum and superquantum enhancements to two-sender, two-receiver channels

Abstract

We study the consequences of superquantum nonlocal correlations as represented by the PR-box model of Popescu and Rohrlich, and show that PR boxes can enhance the capacity of noisy interference channels between two senders and two receivers. PR-box correlations violate Bell and CHSH inequalities and are thus stronger—more nonlocal—than quantum mechanics, yet weak enough to respect special relativity in prohibiting faster-than-light communication. Understanding their power will yield insight into the nonlocality of quantum mechanics. We exhibit two proof-of-concept channels: First, we show a channel between two sender-receiver pairs where the senders are not allowed to communicate, for which a shared superquantum bit (a PR box) allows perfect communication. This feat is not achievable with the best classical (senders share no resources) or quantum-entanglement-assisted (senders share entanglement) strategies. Second, we demonstrate a class of channels for which a tunable parameter ε achieves a double separation of capacities; for some range of ε, the superquantum-assisted strategy does better than the entanglement-assisted strategy, which in turn does better than the classical one.