Optimal Superdense Coding of Entangled States

In this paper, we present a one-shot method for preparing pure entangled states between a sender and a receiver at a minimal cost of entanglement and quantum communication. In the case of preparing unentangled states, an earlier paper showed that a
$2l$
-qubit quantum state could be communicated to a receiver by physically transmitting only
$l+o(l)$
qubits in addition to consuming
$l$
ebits of entanglement and some shared randomness. When the states to be prepared are entangled, we find that there is a reduction in the number of qubits that need to be transmitted, interpolating between no communication at all for maximally entangled states and the earlier two-for-one result of the unentangled case, all without the use of any shared randomness. We also present two applications of our result: a direct proof of the achievability of the optimal superdense coding protocol for entangled states produced by a memoryless source, and a demonstration that the quantum identification capacity of an ebit is two qubits.