The von Neumann entropy and information rate for ideal quantum Gibbs ensembles

A model of a quantum information source is proposed, based on the Gibbs ensemble of ideal (free) particles (bosons or fermions). We identify the (thermodynamic) von Neumann entropy as the information rate and establish the classical Lempel–Ziv universal coding algorithm in Grassberger’s form for such a source. This generalises the Schumacher theorem to the case of non-IID qubits.