Manabendra Nath Bera

Measuring Quantum Coherence with Entanglement

Quantum coherence is an essential ingredient in quantum information processing and plays a central role in emergent fields such as nanoscale thermodynamics and quantum biology. However, our understanding and quantitative characterization of coherence as an operational resource are still very limited. Here we show that any degree of coherence with respect to some reference basis can be converted to entanglement via incoherent operations. This finding allows us to define a novel general class of measures of coherence for a quantum system of arbitrary dimension, in terms of the maximum bipartite entanglement that can be generated via incoherent operations applied to the system and an incoherent ancilla. The resulting measures are proven to be valid coherence monotones satisfying all the requirements dictated by the resource theory of quantum coherence. We demonstrate the usefulness of our approach by proving that the fidelity-based geometric measure of coherence is a full convex coherence monotone, and deriving a closed formula for it on arbitrary single-qubit states. Our work provides a clear quantitative and operational connection between coherence and entanglement, two landmark manifestations of quantum theory and both key enablers for quantum technologies.

Assisted distillation of quantum coherence

We introduce and study the task of assisted coherence distillation. This task arises naturally in bipartite systems where both parties work together to generate the maximal possible coherence on one of the subsystems. Only incoherent operations are allowed on the target system, while general local quantum operations are permitted on the other; this is an operational paradigm that we call local quantum-incoherent operations and classical communication. We show that the asymptotic rate of assisted coherence distillation for pure states is equal to the coherence of assistance, an analog of the entanglement of assistance, whose properties we characterize. Our findings imply a novel interpretation of the von Neumann entropy: it quantifies the maximum amount of extra quantum coherence a system can gain when receiving assistance from a collaborative party. Our results are generalized to coherence localization in a multipartite setting and possible applications are discussed.

Entanglement and coherence in quantum state merging

Understanding the resource consumption in distributed scenarios is one of the main goals of quantum information theory. A prominent example for such a scenario is the task of quantum state merging, where two parties aim to merge their tripartite quantum state parts. In standard quantum state merging, entanglement is considered to be an expensive resource, while local quantum operations can be performed at no additional cost. However, recent developments show that some local operations could be more expensive than others: it is reasonable to distinguish between local incoherent operations and local operations which can create coherence. This idea leads us to the task of incoherent quantum state merging, where one of the parties has free access to local incoherent operations only. In this case the resources of the process are quantified by pairs of entanglement and coherence. Here, we develop tools for studying this process and apply them to several relevant scenarios. While quantum state merging can lead to a gain of entanglement, our results imply that no merging procedure can gain entanglement and coherence at the same time. We also provide a general lower bound on the entanglement-coherence sum and show that the bound is tight for all pure states. Our results also lead to an incoherent version of Schumacher compression: in this case the compression rate is equal to the von Neumann entropy of the diagonal elements of the corresponding quantum state.

Characterizing non-Markovianity via quantum interferometric power

Non-Markovian evolution in open quantum systems is often characterized in terms of the backflow of information from environment to system and is thus an important facet in investigating the performance and robustness of quantum information protocols. In this work, we explore non Markovianity through the breakdown of monotonicity of a metrological figure of merit, called the quantum interferometric power, which is based on the minimal quantum Fisher information obtained by local unitary evolution of one part of the system, and can be interpreted as a quantifier of quantum correlations beyond entanglement. We investigate our proposed non-Markovianity indicator in two relevant examples. First, we consider the action of a single-party dephasing channel on a maximally entangled two-qubit state, by applying the Jamiolkowski Choi isomorphism. We observe that the proposed measure is consistent with established non-Markovianity quantifiers defined using other approaches based on dynamical divisibility, distinguishability, and breakdown of monotonicity for the quantum mutual information. Further, we consider the dynamics of two-qubit Werner states, under the action of a local, single-party amplitude damping channel, and observe that the nonmonotonic evolution of the quantum interferometric power is more robust than the corresponding one for entanglement in capturing the backflow of quantum information associated with the non-Markovian process. Implications for the role of non- Markovianity in quantum metrology and possible extensions to continuous variable systems are discussed.

Towards Resource Theory of Coherence in Distributed Scenarios

The search for a simple description of fundamental physical processes is an important part of quantum theory. One example for such an abstraction can be found in the distance lab paradigm: if two separated parties are connected via a classical channel, it is notoriously difficult to characterize all possible operations these parties can perform. This class of operations is widely known as local operations and classical communication (LOCC). Surprisingly, the situation becomes comparably simple if the more general class of separable operations is considered, a finding which has been extensively used in quantum information theory for many years. Here, we propose a related approach for the resource theory of quantum coherence, where two distant parties can only perform measurements which do not create coherence and can communicate their outcomes via a classical channel. We call this class local incoherent operations and classical communication (LICC). While the characterization of this class is also difficult in general, we show that the larger class of separable incoherent operations (SI) has a simple mathematical form, yet still preserving the main features of LICC. We demonstrate the relevance of our approach by applying it to three different tasks: assisted coherence distillation, quantum teleportation, and single-shot quantum state merging. We expect that the results obtained in this work also transfer to other concepts of coherence which are discussed in recent literature. The approach presented here opens new ways to study the resource theory of coherence in distributed scenarios.

Uncertainty Relations for Quantum Coherence

Coherence of a quantum state intrinsically depends on the choice of the reference basis. A natural question to ask is the following: if we use two or more incompatible reference bases, can~there be some trade-off relation between the coherence measures in different reference bases? We show that the quantum coherence of a state as quantified by the relative entropy of coherence in two or more noncommuting reference bases respects uncertainty like relations for a given state of single and bipartite quantum systems. In the case of bipartite systems, we find that the presence of entanglement may tighten the above relation. Further, we find an upper bound on the sum of the relative entropies of coherence of bipartite quantum states in two noncommuting reference bases. Moreover, we provide an upper bound on the absolute value of the difference of the relative entropies of coherence calculated with respect to two incompatible bases.

Characterization of tripartite quantum states with vanishing monogamy score

Quantum discord, an information-theoretic quantum correlation measure, can satisfy as well as violate monogamy for three-party quantum states. We quantify the feature using the concept of discord monogamy score. We find a necessary condition of a vanishing discord monogamy score for arbitrary three-party states. A necessary and sufficient condition is obtained for pure states. We prove that the class of states having a vanishing discord monogamy score cannot have arbitrarily high genuine multipartite entanglement, as quantified by generalized geometric measure. In the special case of three-qubit pure states, their classification with respect to the discord monogamy score reveals a rich structure that is different from that which had been obtained by using the monogamy score corresponding to the entanglement measure called concurrence. We investigate properties like genuine multipartite entanglement and violation of the multipartite Bell inequality for these states.

Randomness in quantum mechanics: philosophy, physics and technology

This progress report covers recent developments in the area of quantum randomness, which is an extraordinarily interdisciplinary area that belongs not only to physics, but also to philosophy, mathematics, computer science, and technology. For this reason the article contains three parts that will be essentially devoted to different aspects of quantum randomness, and even directed, although not restricted, to various audiences: a philosophical part, a physical part, and a technological part. For these reasons the article is written on an elementary level, combining simple and non-technical descriptions with a concise review of more advanced results. In this way readers of various provenances will be able to gain while reading the article.

Asymptotic role of entanglement in quantum metrology

Quantum systems allow one to sense physical parameters beyond the reach of classical statistics---with resolutions greater than

Gaussian interferometric power as a measure of continuous-variable non-Markovianity

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