For any given channel W with classical inputs and possibly quantum outputs, a dual classical-input channel W K can be defined by embedding the original into a channel N with quantum inputs and outputs. Here we give new uncertainty relations for a general class of entropies that lead to very close relationships between the original channel and its dual. Moreover, we show that channel duality can be combined with duality of linear codes, whereupon the uncertainty relations imply that the performance of a given code over a given channel is entirely characterized by the performance of the dual code on the dual channel. This has several applications. In the context of polar codes, it implies that the rates of polarization to ideal and useless channels must be identical. Duality also relates the tasks of channel coding and privacy amplification, implying that the finite blocklength performance of extractors and codes is precisely linked, and that optimal rate extractors can be transformed into capacity-achieving codes, and vice versa. Finally, duality also extends to the EXIT function of any channel and code. Here it implies that for any channel family, if the EXIT function for a fixed code has a sharp transition, then it must be such that the rate of the code equals the capacity at the transition. This gives a different route to proving a code family achieves capacity by establishing sharp EXIT function transitions.
IntroductionDuality is an important concept in many branches of mathematics, often enabling given problems to be transformed into dual versions that are simpler to solve. Recently, the author and collaborators have introduced a dual channel in the context of quantum information processing and polar coding [1][2][3][4]. The dual construction applies to channels with classical inputs and classical or quantum outputs and is designed so that the original channel and its dual can both be embedded into the same quantum channel. Constraints on the form of quantum channels then lead to nontrivial constraints on the behavior of the channel and its dual.Here we investigate the notion of duality more comprehensively. We find that it is entirely compatible with the duality of linear codes generally, as well as the notion of channel convolution appearing in belief propagation decoding and polar coding more specifically. Entropic uncertainty relations imply constraints between a wide variety of entropic functions of the channel and code, including EXIT functions. As the class of entropies is quite large, including Rényi entropies for instance, this essentially means that the behavior of a code over a channel is determined by that of the dual code over the dual channel.Channel duality has several applications, which we briefly describe here by way of outlining the structure of the paper. In the next section we set the mathematical stage and define the class of entropies under consideration. Section 3 is then concerned with the definition and properties of dual channels themselves. In particular, duals of simple classica...