A strong converse theorem for channel capacity establishes that the error probability in any communication scheme for a given channel necessarily tends to one if the rate of communication exceeds the channelu27s capacity. Establishing such a theorem for the quantum capacity of degradable channels has been an elusive task, with the strongest progress so far being a so-called "pretty strong converse." In this work, Morgan and Winter proved that the quantum error of any quantum communication scheme for a given degradable channel converges to a value larger than 1/sqrt(2) in the limit of many channel uses if the quantum rate of communication exceeds the channelu27s quantum capacity. The present paper establishes a theorem that is a counterpart to this "pretty strong converse." We prove that the large fraction of codes having a rate exceeding the erasure channelu27s quantum capacity have a quantum error tending to one in the limit of many channel uses. Thus, our work adds to the body of evidence that a fully strong converse theorem should hold for the quantum capacity of the erasure channel. As a side result, we prove that the classical capacity of the quantum erasure channel obeys the strong converse property.
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