In quantum information theory, strong subadditivity of quantum entropy (SSA) is the relation among the von Neumann entropies of various quantum subsystems of a larger quantum system consisting of three subsystems (or of one quantum system with three degrees of freedom). It is a basic theorem in modern quantum information theory. It was conjectured by D. W. Robinson and D. Ruelle in 1966 and O. E. Lanford III and D. W. Robinson in 1968 and proved in 1973 by E.H. Lieb and M.B. Ruskai, building on results obtained by Lieb in his proof of the Wigner-Yanase-Dyson conjecture.

The classical version of SSA was long known and appreciated in classical probability theory and information theory. The proof of this relation in the classical case is quite easy, but the quantum case is difficult because of the non-commutativity of the reduced density matrices describing the quantum subsystems.

Some useful references here include:

We use the following notation throughout the following: A Hilbert space is denoted by ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}}$, and ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {B}}({\mathcal {H}})}$ denotes the bounded linear operators on ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}}$. Tensor products are denoted by superscripts, e.g., ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}^{12}={\mathcal {H}}^{1}\otimes {\mathcal {H}}^{2}}$. The trace is denoted by ${\displaystyle {\rm {Tr}}}$.

A density matrix is a Hermitian, positive semi-definite matrix of trace one. It allows for the description of a quantum system in a mixed state. Density matrices on a tensor product are denoted by superscripts, e.g., ${\displaystyle \rho ^{12}}$ is a density matrix on ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}^{12}}$.

The von Neumann quantum entropy of a density matrix ${\displaystyle \rho }$ is

Umegaki's quantum relative entropy of two density matrices ${\displaystyle \rho }$ and ${\displaystyle \sigma }$ is

A function ${\displaystyle g}$ of two variables is said to be jointly concave if for any ${\displaystyle 0\leq \lambda \leq 1}$ the following holds