Abstract Establishing quantum correlations between two remote parties by sending an information carrier is an essential step of many protocols in quantum information processing. We obtain trade-off relations between discords and coherence within a bipartite system. Then we study the distribution of coherence in a bipartite quantum state by using the relations of relative entropy and mutual information. We show that the increase of the relative entropy of discord between two remote parties is bounded by the nonclassical correlations quantified by the relative entropy of coherence between the carrier and two remote parties, providing an optimal protocol for discord distribution and showing that quantum correlations are the essential resource for such tasks.
Abstract Establishing quantum correlations between two remote parties by sending an information carrier is an essential step of many protocols in quantum information processing. We obtain trade-off relations between discords and coherence within a bipartite system. Then we study the distribution of coherence in a bipartite quantum state by using the relations of relative entropy and mutual information. We show that the increase of the relative entropy of discord between two remote parties is bounded by the nonclassical correlations quantified by the relative entropy of coherence between the carrier and two remote parties, providing an optimal protocol for discord distribution and showing that quantum correlations are the essential resource for such tasks.
The ability to distribute quantum entanglement is a prerequisite for many fundamental tests of quantum theory and numerous quantum information protocols. Two distant parties can increase the amount of entanglement between them by means of quantum communication encoded in a carrier that is sent from one party to the other. Intriguingly, entanglement can be increased even when the exchanged carrier is not entangled with the parties. However, in light of the defining property of entanglement stating that it cannot increase under classical communication, the carrier must be quantum. Here we show that, in general, the increase of relative entropy of entanglement between two remote parties is bounded by the amount of nonclassical correlations of the carrier with the parties as quantified by the relative entropy of discord. We study implications of this bound, provide new examples of entanglement distribution via unentangled states, and put further limits on this phenomenon.
Abstract This paper examines the coherence in multipartite systems. We first discuss the distribution of total coherence in a given multipartite quantum state into discord between subsystems and coherent dissonance in each individual subsystem, using the relative entropy as a distance measure. Then we give some trade-off relations between various types of coherence and discord within a bipartite system, and extend these results to the multipartite setting. Finally, the change of coherence in entanglement distribution is studied.
Measurements of quantum systems disturb their states. To quantify this nonclassical characteristic, Zurek and Ollivier [Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 017901 (2001)] introduced the quantum discord, a quantum correlation that can be nonzero even when entanglement in the system is zero. Discord has aroused great interest as a resource that is more robust against the effects of decoherence and offers the exponential speed-up of certain computational algorithms. Here, we study general two-level bipartite systems and give general results on the relationship between discord, entanglement, and linear entropy. We also identify the states for which discord takes a maximal value for a given entropy or entanglement, thus placing strong bounds on entanglement-discord and entropy-discord relations. We find out that although discord and entanglement are identical for pure states, they differ when generalized to mixed states as a result of the difference in the method of generalization.
Quantum discord has been studied extensively as a measure of nonclassical correlations which includes entanglement as a subset. Although it is well known that nonzero discord can exist without entanglement, the origin of quantum discord is not well understood as compared to entanglement, which manifests itself more simply as inseparable higher-dimensional quantum superposition. In this paper we establish the discordlike correlation of bipartite coherence and then compare it to quantum discord. Consequently, we show that the minimum of the discordlike correlation of coherence coincides with the original quantum discord. This demonstrates quantum discord as the irreducible correlated bipartite coherence. In addition, the discordlike correlated coherence is shown to admit the postulates of the quantum resource theory (QRT), although the original quantum discord is not a ``good'' candidate under the QRT. We also find that the relative entropy measure induced from the discordlike coherence is a well-defined coherence measure for bipartite states.
How strongly can one system be correlated with another? In the classical world, this basic question concerning correlative capacity has a very satisfying answer: The ``effective size'' of the marginal system, as quantified by the Shannon entropy, sets a tight upper bound to the correlations, as quantified by the mutual information. Although in the quantum world bipartite correlations, like their classical counterparts, are also well quantified by mutual information, the similarity ends here: The correlations in a bipartite quantum system can be twice as large as the marginal entropy. In the paradigm of quantum discord, the correlations are split into classical and quantum components, and it was conjectured that both the classical and quantum correlations are (like the classical mutual information) bounded above by each subsystem's entropy. In this work, by exploiting the interplay between entanglement of formation, mutual information, and quantum discord, we disprove that conjecture. We further indicate a scheme to restore harmony between quantum and classical correlative capacities. The results illustrate dramatically the asymmetric nature of quantum discord and highlight some subtle and unusual features of quantum correlations.
Quantum coherence and quantum correlations are important quantum resources for quantum computation and quantum information. In this paper, using entropy-based measures, we investigate the relationships between quantum correlated coherence, which is the coherence between subsystems, and two main kinds of quantum correlations as defined by quantum discord as well as quantum entanglement. In particular, we show that quantum discord and quantum entanglement can be well characterized by quantum correlated coherence. Moreover, we prove that the entanglement measure formulated by quantum correlated coherence is lower and upper bounded by the relative entropy of entanglement and the entanglement of formation, respectively, and equal to the relative entropy of entanglement for all the maximally correlated states.