We introduce a resource theory of channels relevant to communication via quantum channels, in which the set of constant channels—useless channels for communication tasks—are considered as free resources. We find that our theory with such a simple structure is useful to address central problems in quantum Shannon theory—in particular, we provide a converse bound for the one-shot nonsignaling assisted classical capacity that naturally leads to its strong converse property, as well as obtain the one-shot channel simulation cost with nonsignaling assistance. We clarify an intimate connection between the nonsignaling assistance and our formalism by identifying the nonsignaling assisted channel coding with the channel transformation under the maximal set of resource nongenerating superchannels, providing a physical characterization of the latter. Our results provide new perspectives and concise arguments to those problems, connecting the recently developed fields of resource theories to “classic” settings in quantum information theory and shedding light on the validity of resource theories of channels as effective tools to address practical problems.

• Received 7 November 2019
• Accepted 19 February 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.120502