Quantum Discord and its Role in Quantum Information Theory

Abstract: Quantum entanglement is the most popular kind of quantum correlations, and its fundamental role in several tasks in quantum information theory like quantum cryptography, quantum dense coding, and quantum teleportation is undeniable. However, recent results suggest that various applications in quantum information theory do not require entanglement, and that their performance can be captured by a new type of quantum correlations which goes beyond entanglement. Quantum discord, introduced by Zurek more than a decade ago, is the most popular candidate for such general quantum correlations. In this work we give an introduction to this modern research direction. After a short review of the main concepts of quantum theory and entanglement, we present quantum discord and general quantum correlations, and discuss three applications which are based on this new type of correlations: remote state preparation, entanglement distribution, and transmission of correlations. We also give an outlook to other research in this direction.