Finite attainment and efficient computation of regularized quantum channel relative entropy

arXiv:2611.02425v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Quantum channel relative entropy can be nonadditive, making its regularization essential for asymptotic analysis. We study when the regularized value is attained at finite blocklength and how efficiently it can be approximated. For the first question, we establish a sharp dichotomy: the regularized value is either attained already at the single-copy level, implying additivity at every blocklength, or is never attained at any finite blocklength. Notably, a simple two-copy additivity test distinguishes between these alternatives for qubit channels and for channel pairs in arbitrary dimensions admitting an interior optimizer. We further show that both the interiority condition and finite nonattainment are generic, holding for almost every channel pair. For the second question, we establish explicit convergence rates for approximating the regularized channel relative entropy. For fixed channel dimensions, $\widetilde O(\varepsilon^{-3/2})$ channel copies suffice to approximate the regularized value to additive accuracy $\varepsilon$. Alternatively, a semidefinite hierarchy achieves the same accuracy at level $\widetilde O(\varepsilon^{-2})$, yielding a certified polynomial-time approximation. Together, these results reveal the intriguing structure and generic behavior of regularized channel relative entropy, sharpening our understanding of both its analytical and computational aspects.