Complementarity between quantum coherence and mixedness: a majorization approach

Abstract

Quantum coherence is a relevant resource for various quantum information processing tasks, but it is fragile since it is generally affected by environmental noise. This is reflected in the loss of purity of the system, which in turn limits the amount of quantum coherence of it. As a consequence, a complementarity relation between coherence and mixedness arises. Previous works characterize this complementarity through inequalities between the ℓ 1-norm of coherence and linear entropy, and between the relative entropy of coherence and von Neumann entropy. However, coherence–mixedness complementarity is expected to be a general feature of quantum systems, regardless of the measures used. Here, an alternative approach to coherence–mixedness complementarity, based on majorization theory, is proposed. Vectorial quantifiers of coherence and mixedness, namely the coherence vector and the spectrum, respectively, are used, instead of scalar measures. A majorization relation for the tensor product of both vectorial quantifiers is obtained, capturing general aspects of the trade-off between coherence and mixedness. The optimal bound for qubit systems and numerical bounds for qutrit systems are analyzed. Finally, coherence–mixedness complementarity relations are derived for a family of symmetric, concave and additive functions. These results provide a deeper insight into the relation between quantum coherence and mixedness.