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The entropy photon-number inequality
Proves the entropy photon-number inequality for beam-splitter mixing of two independent finite-energy bosonic inputs in any finite number of modes: the output's entropy photon number is at least the transmissivity-weighted average of the inputs'. Arbitrary entanglement within each input is allowed, and product thermal inputs attain equality even when their entropies differ.
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The entropy photon-number inequality
Sep 24, 2026·paper.pdf
We prove the entropy photon-number inequality for two independent bosonic inputs with finite mean energy, for every finite number of modes. This resolves the entropy photon-number conjecture in this finite-energy setting while allowing arbitrary entanglement among the modes within either input. As a consequence, we determine the exact minimum output entropy at fixed input entropy for every finite tensor power of an identical thermal attenuator, over finite-energy inputs that may be entangled across modes. We also obtain the exact classical capacity region of the degraded two-receiver pure-loss bosonic broadcast channel under a mean photon constraint.