Asymptotic relative submajorization of multiple-state boxes

Pairs of states, or “boxes” are the basic objects in the resource theory of asymmetric distinguishability (Wang and Wilde in Phys Rev Res 1(3):033170, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.1.033170 ), where free operations are arbitrary quantum channels that are applied to both states. From this point of view, hypothesis testing is seen as a process by which a standard form of distinguishability is distilled. Motivated by the more general problem of quantum state discrimination, we consider boxes of a fixed finite number of states and study an extension of the relative submajorization preorder to such objects. In this relation, a tuple of positive operators is greater than another if there is a completely positive trace nonincreasing map under which the image of the first tuple satisfies certain semidefinite constraints relative to the other one. This preorder characterizes error probabilities in the case of testing a composite null hypothesis against a simple alternative hypothesis, as well as certain error probabilities in state discrimination. We present a sufficient condition for the existence of catalytic transformations between boxes, and a characterization of an associated asymptotic preorder, both expressed in terms of sandwiched Renyi divergences. This characterization of the asymptotic preorder directly shows that the strong converse exponent for a composite null hypothesis is equal to the maximum of the corresponding exponents for the pairwise simple hypothesis testing tasks.