As an analogy of best separable approximation (BSA) in the framework of entanglement theory, here we concentrate on the notion of best incoherent approximation, with application to characterizing and quantifying quantum coherence. From both analytical and numerical perspectives, we have demonstrated that the weight-based coherence measure displays some unusual properties, in sharp contrast to other popular coherence quantifiers. First, by deriving a closed formula for single-qubit states, we have shown the exact value of weight-based coherence measure does not depend solely on the off-diagonal element but relies on the geometry of a given qubit state, thus exhibiting a rich structure even in this simplest case. Second, albeit the fact that almost all popular coherence measures only assign a maximal value to pure maximally coherent states, we have demonstrated the existence of mixed maximally coherent states (MMCS) with respect to this coherence measure and discussed the characteristic feature of MMCS in high-dimensional Hilbert spaces. Especially, we present several important families of MMCS by gaining insights from the numerical simulations. Moreover, it is pointed out that some considerations in this work can be generalized to general convex resource theories and a numerical method of improving the computational efficiency for finding the BSA is also discussed.
As an analogy of best separable approximation (BSA) in the framework of entanglement theory, here we concentrate on the notion of best incoherent approximation, with application to characterizing and quantifying quantum coherence. From both analytical and numerical perspectives, we have demonstrated that the weight-based coherence measure displays some unusual properties, in sharp contrast to other popular coherence quantifiers. First, by deriving a closed formula for single-qubit states, we have shown the exact value of weight-based coherence measure does not depend solely on the off-diagonal element but relies on the geometry of a given qubit state, thus exhibiting a rich structure even in this simplest case. Second, albeit the fact that almost all popular coherence measures only assign a maximal value to pure maximally coherent states, we have demonstrated the existence of mixed maximally coherent states (MMCS) with respect to this coherence measure and discussed the characteristic feature of MMCS in high-dimensional Hilbert spaces. Especially, we present several important families of MMCS by gaining insights from the numerical simulations. Moreover, it is pointed out that some considerations in this work can be generalized to general convex resource theories and a numerical method of improving the computational efficiency for finding the BSA is also discussed.
As an analogy of the fully entangled fraction in the framework of entanglement theory, we have introduced the notion of quantum coherence fraction CF, which quantifies the closeness between a given state and the set of maximally coherent states. By providing an alternative formulation of the robustness of coherence CR, we have elucidated the relationship between the quantum coherence fraction and the normalized version of CR, i.e., CR, where the role of genuinely incoherent operations is highlighted. Numerical simulation shows that, though as expected CF is upper bounded by CR, CF constitutes a good approximation to CR especially in low-dimensional Hilbert spaces. Even more intriguingly, we can analytically prove that CF is exactly equivalent to CR for qubit and qutrit states. Moreover, some intuitive properties and implications of CF are also indicated.
Quantum coherence is known as an important resource in many quantum information tasks, which is a basis-dependent property of quantum states. In this paper, we discuss quantum incoherence based simultaneously on k bases using Matrix Theory Method. First, by defining a correlation function m(e,f) of two orthonormal bases e and f, we investigate the relationships between sets I(e) and I(f) of incoherent states with respect to e and f. We prove that I(e)=I(f) if and only if the rank-one projective measurements generated by e and f are identical. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for the intersection I(e)⋂I(f) to include a state except the maximally mixed state. Especially, if two bases e and f are mutually unbiased, then the intersection has only the maximally mixed state. Secondly, we introduce the concepts of strong incoherence and weak coherence of a quantum state with respect to a set B of k bases and propose a measure for the weak coherence. In the two-qubit system, we prove that there exists a maximally coherent state with respect to B when k=2 and it is not the case for k=3.
Recently, how to measure quantum coherence is a hot topic in the quantum resource theory. In 2014, Baumgratz et al. proposed a rigorous framework to quantify coherence. In this framework, a particular basis of the Hilbert space is required to define the coherence measure, and hence, the proposed coherence measure of the same quantum state does not remain the same under the basis transformations. In this paper, a measure of coherence based on the normalized modulus of the coherent vector is proposed in coherent vector representation, where the property of the coherent vector under basis transformation is considered. The measure of coherence proposed here is independent of the choice of the basis. The incoherent states and incoherent operators based on this measure can also be well defined as the classical maximal mixed states and the unitary operators respectively. And three important properties can be obtained, namely, non-negativity, convexity and invariance on the incoherent operators.
We study bipartite entanglement from the convex geometry of quantum states. Taking the maximally mixed state as a reference point, we define a geometric entangled-space quantity G(ρ)=[1−L(ρ)]/L(ρ) from the relative positions of the separable and quantum-state boundaries, and introduce a relative entanglement degree Q(ρ)=[(1−p)/p]/G(ρ) by comparing it with the robustness relative to the maximally mixed state.
We apply this geometric construction to the Best Separable Approximation (BSA). For the optimal decomposition, we derive the general bound (1−p)LB/[p(1−LB)]≤p0≤Q(ρ) and show that the entangled component of the BSA has an entangled-space size no smaller than that of the original mixed state, namely [1−LR]/LR≤[1−LB]/LB.
For two-qubit states, the BSA entangled component is a pure entangled state. Using the PPT criterion, its geometric parameter can be evaluated explicitly, giving the bound (1−p)/(2p)≤p0≤Q(ρ). These results provide a simple geometric description of the relation between BSA, robustness, and the entangled region of the quantum-state space.
The resource theory of quantum coherence studies the off-diagonal elements of a density matrix in a distinguished basis, whereas the resource theory of purity studies all deviations from the maximally mixed state. We establish a direct connection between the two resource theories, by identifying purity as the maximal coherence which is achievable by unitary operations. The states that saturate this maximum identify a universal family of maximally coherent mixed states. These states are optimal resources under maximally incoherent operations, and thus independent of the way coherence is quantified. For all distance-based coherence quantifiers the maximal coherence can be evaluated exactly, and is shown to coincide with the corresponding distance-based purity quantifier. We further show that purity bounds the maximal amount of entanglement and discord that can be generated by unitary operations, thus demonstrating that purity is the most elementary resource for quantum information processing.
A resource theory of quantum measurement can be addressed in terms of quantum coherence and measurement sharpness, respectively. The former analyzes the off-diagonal structure of POVM elements in a predetermined basis while the latter analyzes the deviation from trivial, state-independent, measurements. We establish a direct connection between the two resource theories by identifying measurement sharpness as the maximal coherence that is achievable under all possible unitary changes of the reference basis. For a broad class of POVMs whose elements share a common eigenbasis, we show that the maximal distance-based coherence of measurement coincides exactly with the corresponding distance-based sharpness monotone. We further extend this equivalence, with element-additive distances, to POVMs whose elements admit a common mutually unbiased basis structure. These results provide a measurement-theoretic analogue of the maximal-coherence \& purity correspondence for quantum states. We also show that the maximal coherence of measurement is faithful with respect to trivial measurements and is monotonic under fuzzifying operations for dichotomic measurements, as well as under mixed-unitary and unitarily covariant preprocessing channels. Finally, we illustrate the operational meaning and limitations of the equivalence through qubit POVMs, single-photon phase sensing, and noisy photon-number resolving detection. In particular, the maximal Fisher information in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer is shown to be determined by the squared maximal coherence of the measurement, while in an imperfect photon-number resolving detector the maximal coherence behaves as a proper sharpness monotone, unlike conventional PVM-based unsharpness measures.