Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1704.06469 · Physical Review A

Coherence, asymmetry, and quantum macroscopicity

Hyukjoon Kwon, Chae-Yeun Park, Kok Chuan Tan, Daekun Ahn, Hyunseok Jeong

Published Jan 23, 2018• 14 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We investigate a measure of quantum coherence and its extension to quantify quantum macroscopicity. The coherence measure can also quantify the asymmetry of a quantum state with respect to a given group transformation. We then show that a weighted sum of asymmetry in each mode can be applied as a measure of macroscopic coherence. To exclude the effects of microscopic superpositions, we suggest a method to introduce a cutoff to the weighted sum that will specify the macroscopic portion of the coherence. This cutoff may be interpreted as the fuzziness for a given measurement outcome. Based on the suggested measures, we investigate the quantum macroscopicity for particular concrete examples in $N$-partite spin systems.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.97.012326

Related papers

Quantification of Macroscopic Quantum Superpositions within Phase Space

Chang-Woo Lee, Hyunseok Jeong

Based on phase-space structures of quantum states, we propose a novel measure to quantify macroscopic quantum superpositions. Our measure simultaneously quantifies two different kinds of essential information for a given quantum state in a harmonious manner: the degree of quantum coherence and the effective size of the physical system that involves the superposition. It enjoys remarkably good analytical and algebraic properties. It turns out to be the most general and inclusive measure ever proposed that it can be applied to any types of multipartite states and mixed states represented in phase space.

arXiv:1101.1209•Physical Review Letters•May 31, 2011•123 citations

Frobenius-norm-based measures of quantum coherence and asymmetry

Yao Yao, Guohui Dong, Xing Mao Xiao +1 more

We formulate the Frobenius-norm-based measures for quantum coherence and asymmetry respectively. In contrast to the resource theory of coherence and asymmetry, we construct a natural measure of quantum coherence inspired from optical coherence theory while the group theoretical approach is employed to quantify the asymmetry of quantum states. Besides their simple structures and explicit physical meanings, we observe that these quantities are intimately related to the purity (or linear entropy) of the corresponding quantum states. Remarkably, we demonstrate that the proposed coherence quantifier is not only a measure of mixedness, but also an intrinsic (basis-independent) quantification of quantum coherence contained in quantum states, which can also be viewed as a normalized version of Brukner-Zeilinger invariant information. In our context, the asymmetry of N-qubit quantum systems is considered under local independent and collective transformations. In- triguingly, it is illustrated that the collective effect has a significant impact on the asymmetry measure, and quantum correlation between subsystems plays a non-negligible role in this circumstance.

arXiv:1605.00789•Scientific Reports•Aug 25, 2016•52 citations

Measure of Quantum Macroscopicity for Arbitrary Spin Systems and Quantum Phase Transition as a Genuine Macroscopic Quantum Phenomenon

Minsu Kang, Chang-Woo Lee, Jeongho Bang +3 more

We propose a general and computable measure of quantum macroscopicity for arbitrary spin states by quantifying interference fringes in phase space. It effectively discriminates genuine macroscopic quantum effects from mere accumulations of microscopic quantum effects in large systems. The measure is applied to several examples and it is found to be consistent with some previous proposals. In particular, we investigate many-body spin systems undergoing the quantum phase transition (QPT) and the QPT turns out to be a genuine macroscopic quantum phenomenon. Our result suggests that a macroscopic quantum superposition of an extremely large size may appear during the QPT.

•Oct 10, 2015•0 citations

Macroscopic quantum coherence and entanglement in mechanical systems

Benjamin Yadin, Matteo Fadel

The notion of a macroscopic quantum state must be pinned down in order to assess how well experiments probe the large-scale limits of quantum mechanics. However, the issue of quantifying so-called quantum macroscopicity is fraught with multiple approaches having varying interpretations and levels of computability and measurability. Here, we introduce two measures that capture independent macroscopic properties: i) extensive size, measuring the degree of coherence in position or momentum observables relative to atomic-scale units, and ii) entangled size, quantifying the number of entangled subsystems. These measures unify many desirable features of past proposals while having rigorously justified interpretations from quantum information theory in terms of coherence and multipartite entanglement. We demonstrate how to estimate them and obtain lower-bounds using experimental data from micro-mechanical oscillators and diffracting molecules. Notably, we find evidence for genuine multipartite entanglement of 10 5 to 10 7 atoms in recent mechanical superposition states.

arXiv:2503.08324•Quantum•Oct 30, 2026•0 citations

Robustness of asymmetry and coherence of quantum states

Marco Piani, Marco Cianciaruso, Thomas R. Bromley +3 more

Quantum states may exhibit asymmetry with respect to the action of a given group. Such an asymmetry of states can be considered as a resource in applications such as quantum metrology, and it is a concept that encompasses quantum coherence as a special case. We introduce explicitly and study the robustness of asymmetry, a quantifier of asymmetry of states that we prove to have many attractive properties, including efficient numerical computability via semidefinite programming, and an operational interpretation in a channel discrimination context. We also introduce the notion of asymmetry witnesses, whose measurement in a laboratory detects the presence of asymmetry. We prove that properly constrained asymmetry witnesses provide lower bounds to the robustness of asymmetry, which is shown to be a directly measurable quantity itself. We then focus our attention on coherence witnesses and the robustness of coherence, for which we prove a number of additional results; these include an analysis of its specific relevance in phase discrimination and quantum metrology, an analytical calculation of its value for a relevant class of quantum states, and tight bounds that relate it to another previously defined coherence monotone.

arXiv:1601.03782•Physical Review A•Apr 12, 2016•279 citations

Complementarity relations for quantum coherence

Shuming Cheng, Michael J. W. Hall

Various measures have been suggested recently for quantifying the coherence of a quantum state with respect to a given basis. We first use two of these, the ${l}_{1}$-norm and relative entropy measures, to investigate tradeoffs between the coherences of mutually unbiased bases. Results include relations between coherence, uncertainty, and purity; tight general bounds restricting the coherences of mutually unbiased bases; and an exact complementarity relation for qubit coherences. We further define the average coherence of a quantum state. For the ${l}_{1}$-norm measure this is related to a natural ``coherence radius'' for the state and leads to a conjecture for an ${l}_{2}$-norm measure of coherence. For relative entropy the average coherence is determined by the difference between the von Neumann entropy and the quantum subentropy of the state and leads to upper bounds for the latter quantity. Finally, we point out that the relative entropy of coherence is a special case of G-asymmetry, which immediately yields several operational interpretations in contexts as diverse as frame alignment, quantum communication, and metrology, and suggests generalizing the property of quantum coherence to arbitrary groups of physical transformations.

arXiv:1508.03240•Physical Review A•Oct 2, 2015•182 citations
We investigate a measure of quantum coherence and its extension to quantify quantum macroscopicity. The coherence measure can also quantify the asymmetry of a quantum state with respect to a given group transformation. We then show that a weighted sum of asymmetry in each mode can be applied as a measure of macroscopic coherence. To exclude the effects of microscopic superpositions, we suggest a method to introduce a cutoff to the weighted sum that will specify the macroscopic portion of the coherence. This cutoff may be interpreted as the fuzziness for a given measurement outcome. Based on the suggested measures, we investigate the quantum macroscopicity for particular concrete examples in NNN-partite spin systems.
Based on phase-space structures of quantum states, we propose a novel measure to quantify macroscopic quantum superpositions. Our measure simultaneously quantifies two different kinds of essential information for a given quantum state in a harmonious manner: the degree of quantum coherence and the effective size of the physical system that involves the superposition. It enjoys remarkably good analytical and algebraic properties. It turns out to be the most general and inclusive measure ever proposed that it can be applied to any types of multipartite states and mixed states represented in phase space.
We formulate the Frobenius-norm-based measures for quantum coherence and asymmetry respectively. In contrast to the resource theory of coherence and asymmetry, we construct a natural measure of quantum coherence inspired from optical coherence theory while the group theoretical approach is employed to quantify the asymmetry of quantum states. Besides their simple structures and explicit physical meanings, we observe that these quantities are intimately related to the purity (or linear entropy) of the corresponding quantum states. Remarkably, we demonstrate that the proposed coherence quantifier is not only a measure of mixedness, but also an intrinsic (basis-independent) quantification of quantum coherence contained in quantum states, which can also be viewed as a normalized version of Brukner-Zeilinger invariant information. In our context, the asymmetry of N-qubit quantum systems is considered under local independent and collective transformations. In- triguingly, it is illustrated that the collective effect has a significant impact on the asymmetry measure, and quantum correlation between subsystems plays a non-negligible role in this circumstance.
We propose a general and computable measure of quantum macroscopicity for arbitrary spin states by quantifying interference fringes in phase space. It effectively discriminates genuine macroscopic quantum effects from mere accumulations of microscopic quantum effects in large systems. The measure is applied to several examples and it is found to be consistent with some previous proposals. In particular, we investigate many-body spin systems undergoing the quantum phase transition (QPT) and the QPT turns out to be a genuine macroscopic quantum phenomenon. Our result suggests that a macroscopic quantum superposition of an extremely large size may appear during the QPT.
The notion of a macroscopic quantum state must be pinned down in order to assess how well experiments probe the large-scale limits of quantum mechanics. However, the issue of quantifying so-called quantum macroscopicity is fraught with multiple approaches having varying interpretations and levels of computability and measurability. Here, we introduce two measures that capture independent macroscopic properties: i) extensive size, measuring the degree of coherence in position or momentum observables relative to atomic-scale units, and ii) entangled size, quantifying the number of entangled subsystems. These measures unify many desirable features of past proposals while having rigorously justified interpretations from quantum information theory in terms of coherence and multipartite entanglement. We demonstrate how to estimate them and obtain lower-bounds using experimental data from micro-mechanical oscillators and diffracting molecules. Notably, we find evidence for genuine multipartite entanglement of 10 5 to 10 7 atoms in recent mechanical superposition states.
Quantum states may exhibit asymmetry with respect to the action of a given group. Such an asymmetry of states can be considered as a resource in applications such as quantum metrology, and it is a concept that encompasses quantum coherence as a special case. We introduce explicitly and study the robustness of asymmetry, a quantifier of asymmetry of states that we prove to have many attractive properties, including efficient numerical computability via semidefinite programming, and an operational interpretation in a channel discrimination context. We also introduce the notion of asymmetry witnesses, whose measurement in a laboratory detects the presence of asymmetry. We prove that properly constrained asymmetry witnesses provide lower bounds to the robustness of asymmetry, which is shown to be a directly measurable quantity itself. We then focus our attention on coherence witnesses and the robustness of coherence, for which we prove a number of additional results; these include an analysis of its specific relevance in phase discrimination and quantum metrology, an analytical calculation of its value for a relevant class of quantum states, and tight bounds that relate it to another previously defined coherence monotone.
Various measures have been suggested recently for quantifying the coherence of a quantum state with respect to a given basis. We first use two of these, the l1{l}_{1}l1​-norm and relative entropy measures, to investigate tradeoffs between the coherences of mutually unbiased bases. Results include relations between coherence, uncertainty, and purity; tight general bounds restricting the coherences of mutually unbiased bases; and an exact complementarity relation for qubit coherences. We further define the average coherence of a quantum state. For the l1{l}_{1}l1​-norm measure this is related to a natural ``coherence radius'' for the state and leads to a conjecture for an l2{l}_{2}l2​-norm measure of coherence. For relative entropy the average coherence is determined by the difference between the von Neumann entropy and the quantum subentropy of the state and leads to upper bounds for the latter quantity. Finally, we point out that the relative entropy of coherence is a special case of G-asymmetry, which immediately yields several operational interpretations in contexts as diverse as frame alignment, quantum communication, and metrology, and suggests generalizing the property of quantum coherence to arbitrary groups of physical transformations.