Quantum correlations play vital roles in the quantum features in quantum information processing tasks. Among the measures of quantum correlations, quantum discord (QD) and entanglement of formation (EOF) are two significant ones. Recent research has shown that there exists a relation between QD and EOF, which makes QD more significant in quantum information theory. However, until now, there exists no general method of characterizing quantum discord in high-dimensional quantum systems. In this paper, we have proposed a general method for calculating quantum discord in arbitrary-dimensional bipartite quantum systems in terms of Hurwitz's theory. Applications including the Werner state, the spin-1 XXZ model thermal equilibrium state, the Horodecki state, and the separable-bound-free entanglement state are investigated. We present the method of obtaining the EOF of arbitrary-dimensional bipartite quantum states via purification, and the relationship between QD and EOF.
The total correlation in a bipartite quantum system is measured by the quantum mutual information
I, which consists of quantum discord and classical correlation. However, recent results in quantum information show that coherence, which is a part of total correlation, is more general and more fundamental. The role of coherence in quantum resource theory is worthwhile to investigate. We first study the relationship between quantum discord and coherence by decreasing the difference between them. Then, we consider the dynamics of quantum discord, classical correlation, and quantum coherence under incoherent quantum channels. It is found that coherence indicates the behavior of quantum discord (classical correlation) for times
t<t, and indicates the behavior of classical correlation (quantum discord) for times
t>t. Moreover, the coherence freeze and decay characterize the quantum discord and classical correlation freeze and decay, respectively.