Spectral methods for entropy contraction coefficients

We propose a conceptually simple method for proving various entropic inequalities by means of spectral estimates. Our approach relies on a two-sided estimate of the relative entropy between two quantum states in terms of certain variance-type quantities. As an application of this estimate, we answer three important problems in quantum information theory and dissipative quantum systems that were left open until now: first, we prove the existence of strictly contractive constants for the strong data processing inequality for quantum channels that satisfy a notion of detailed balance. Second, we prove the existence of the complete modified logarithmic Sobolev constant which controls the exponential entropic convergence of a quantum Markov semigroup towards its equilibrium. Third, we prove a new generalization of the strong subadditivity of the entropy for the relative entropy distance to a von Neumann algebra under a specific gap condition. All the three results obtained are independent of the size of the environment.