In this paper, we study the behavior of the output of pure entangled states after being transformed by a product of conjugate random unitary channels. This study is motivated by the counterexamples by Hastings [Superadditivity of communication capacity using entangled inputs, Nat. Phys.5 (2009) 255–257] and Hayden–Winter [Counterexamples to the maximal p-norm multiplicativity conjecture for all p > 1, Comm. Math. Phys.284(1) (2008) 263–280] to the additivity problems. In particular, we study in depth the difference of behavior between random unitary channels and generic random channels. In the case where the number of unitary operators is fixed, we compute the limiting eigenvalues of the output states. In the case where the number of unitary operators grows linearly with the dimension of the input space, we show that the eigenvalue distribution converges to a limiting shape that we characterize with free probability tools. In order to perform the required computations, we need a systematic way of dealing with moment problems for random matrices whose blocks are i.i.d. Haar distributed unitary operators. This is achieved by extending the graphical Weingarten calculus introduced in [B. Collins and I. Nechita, Random quantum channels I: Graphical calculus and the Bell state phenomenon, Comm. Math. Phys.297(2) (2010) 345–370].
Relations between convolutions and transforms in operator-valued free probability
