Generalized coherence concurrence and path distinguishability

Abstract

We propose a new family of coherence monotones, named the generalized coherence concurrence (or coherence k-concurrence), which is an analogous concept to the generalized entanglement concurrence. The coherence k-concurrence of a state is nonzero if and only if the coherence number (a recently introduced discrete coherence monotone) of the state is not smaller than k, and a state can be converted to a state with nonzero entanglement k-concurrence via incoherent operations if and only if the state has nonzero coherence k-concurrence. We apply the coherence concurrence family to the problem of wave-particle duality in multi-path interference phenomena. We obtain a sharper equation for path distinguishability (which witnesses the duality) than the known one and show that the amount of each concurrence for the quanton state determines the number of slits which are identified unambiguously.