On the convex characterisation of the set of unital quantum channels

Abstract In this paper, we consider the convex structure of the set of unital quantum channels. To do this, we introduce a novel framework to construct and characterise different families of low-rank unital quantum maps. In this framework, unital quantum maps are represented as a set of complex parameters on which we impose a set of constraints. The different families of unital maps are obtained by mapping those parameters into the operator representation of a quantum map. For these families, we also introduce a scalar measuring their distance to the set of mixed-unitary maps. We consider the particular case of qutrit channels which is the smallest set of maps for which the existence of non-unitary extremal maps is known. In this setting, we show how our framework generalises the description of well-known maps such as the antisymmetric Werner–Holevo map but also novel families of qutrit maps.