In quantum communication protocols the existence of a shared reference frame between two spatially separated parties is normally presumed. However, in many practical situations we are faced with the problem of misaligned reference frames. In this paper, we study communication between two inertial observers who have partial knowledge about the Lorentz transformation that relates their frames of reference. Since every Lorentz transformation can be decomposed into a pure boost followed by a rotation, we begin by analyzing the effects on communication when the parties have partial knowledge about the transformation relating their frames, when the transformation is either a rotation or a pure boost. This then enables us to investigate how the efficiency of communication is affected due to partially correlated inertial reference frames related by an arbitrary Lorentz transformation. Furthermore, we show how the results of previous studies where reference frames are completely uncorrelated are recovered from our results in appropriate limits.

• Received 10 September 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.92.062319