Error exponents of quantum state discrimination with composite correlated hypotheses

Abstract: We study the error exponents in quantum hypothesis testing between two sets of quantum states, extending the analysis beyond the independent and identically distributed case to encompass composite and correlated hypotheses. We introduce and compare two natural extensions of the quantum Hoeffding divergence and anti-divergence to sets of quantum states, establishing their equivalence or quantitative relationships. Our main results generalize the quantum Hoeffding bound to stable sequences of convex, compact sets of quantum states, demonstrating that the optimal type-I error exponent, under an exponential constraint on the type-II error, is precisely characterized by the regularized quantum Hoeffding divergence between the sets. In the strong converse regime, we provide a lower bound on the exponent in terms of the regularized quantum Hoeffding anti-divergence. These findings refine the generalized quantum Stein's lemma and yield a detailed understanding of the trade-off between type-I and type-II errors in discrimination with composite correlated hypotheses.