Braess Paradox in a quantum network

Abstract

Dietrich Braess while working on traffic modelling, noticed that traffic flow in a network can be worsened by adding extra edges to an existing network. This seemingly counterintuitive phenomenon is konwn as Braess paradox. We consider a quantum network, where edges represent shared entangled states between spatially separated parties(nodes). The goal is to entangle two previously uncorrelated nodes using entanglement swappings. The amount of entanglement between the distant nodes is quantified by the average concurrence of the states established, as a result of the entanglement swappings. We then introduce an additional edge of maximally entangled Bell states in the network. We show that the introduction of the additional maximally entangled states to this network leads to lower concurrence between the two previously un-correlated nodes. Thus we demonstrate the occurrence of a phenomenon in a quantum network that is analogous to the Braess' paradox in traffic networks.