Coherence-breaking Channels Research Articles

Improvement in quantum communication using quantum switch

Applications of the quantum switch on quantum channels have recently become a topic of intense discussion. In the present work, we show that some useless (for communication) channels may provide useful communication under the action of quantum switch for several information-theoretic tasks: quantum random access codes, quantum steering, etc. We demonstrate that the quantum switch can also be useful in preventing the loss of coherence in a system when only coherence-breaking channels are the available channels for communication. We also show that if a useless quantum channel does not provide useful communication even after using a quantum switch, concatenating the channel with another suitable quantum channel, and subsequently using the switch, one may achieve useful communication. Finally, we discuss how the introduction of noise in the quantum switch can reduce the advantage that the switch provides.

Gaussian coherence-breaking channels and coherence measures

We give a characterization of arbitrary n-mode Gaussian coherence-breaking channels (GCBCs) and construct a kind of Gaussian coherence measure based on the topic of GCBCs. We show the measure can be calculated conveniently.

The resource theory of coherence for quantum channels

We define the quantum-incoherent relative entropy of coherence ($\mathcal{QI}$ REC) of quantum channels in the framework of the resource theory by using the Choi-Jamiolkowsky isomorphism. Coherence-breaking channels are introduced as free operations and their corresponding Choi states as free states. We also show the relationship between the coherence of channel and the quantum discord and find that basis-dependent quantum asymmetric discord can never be more than the $\mathcal{QI}$ REC for any quantum channels. {Also}, we prove the $\mathcal{QI}$ REC is decreasing for any divisible quantum incoherent channel and we also claim it can be considered as the quantumness of quantum channels. Moreover, we demonstrate that for qubit channels, the relative entropy of coherence (REC) can be equivalent to the REC of their corresponding Choi states and the basis-dependent quantum symmetric discord can never exceed the coherence.

Entanglement enhanced distinguishability of coherence-breaking channels

Originating from the superposition principle in quantum mechanics, coherence has been extensively studied as a kind of important resource in quantum information processing. We investigate the distinguishability of coherence-breaking channels with the help of quantum entanglement. By explicitly computing the minimal error probability of channel discrimination, it is shown that entanglement can enhance the capacity of coherence-breaking channel distinguishability with same types for some cases while it cannot be enhanced for some other cases. For coherence-breaking channels with different types, the channel distinguishability cannot be enhanced via entanglement.

Amending Coherence-Breaking Channels via Unitary Operations

The coherence-breaking channels play a significant role in quantum information theory. We study the coherence-breaking channels and give a method to amend the coherence-breaking channels by applying unitary operations. For given incoherent channel $\Phi$, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the channel to be a coherence-breaking channel and amend it via unitary operations. For qubit incoherent channels $\Phi$ that are not coherence-breaking ones, we consider the mapping $\Phi\circ\Phi$ and present the conditions for coherence-breaking and channel amendment as well.

Coherence of quantum channels

We investigate the coherence of quantum channels using the Choi–Jamiołkowski isomorphism. The relation between the coherence and the purity of the channel respects a duality relation. It characterizes the allowed values of coherence when the channel has certain purity. This duality has been depicted via the coherence–purity (Co–Pu) diagrams. In particular, we study the quantum coherence of the unital and non-unital qubit channels and find out the allowed region of coherence for a fixed purity. We also study coherence of different incoherent channels, namely, incoherent operation (IO), strictly incoherent operation (SIO), physical incoherent operation (PIO) etc. Interestingly, we find that the allowed region for different incoherent operations maintains the relationPIO⊂SIO⊂IO. In fact, we find that if PIOs are coherence preserving operations (CPO), its coherence is zero otherwise it has unit coherence and unit purity. Interestingly, different kinds of qubit channels can be distinguished using the Co–Pu diagram. The unital channels generally do not create coherence whereas some nonunital can. All coherence breaking channels are shown to have zero coherence, whereas, this is not usually true for entanglement breaking channels. It turns out that the coherence preserving qubit channels have unit coherence. Although the coherence of the Choi matrix of the incoherent channels might have finite values, its subsystem contains no coherence. This indicates that the incoherent channels can either be unital or nonunital under some conditions.

Coherence-breaking channels and coherence sudden death

Quantum noise is ubiquitous to quantum systems as they incessantly interact with their surroundings and results in degrading useful resources such as coherence for single quantum systems and quantum correlations for multipartite systems. Given the importance of these resources in various quantum information processing protocols, it is of utmost importance to characterize how deteriorating is a particular noise scenario (quantum channel) in reference to a certain resource? Here we develop a theory of coherence breaking channels for single quantum systems. Any quantum channel on a single quantum system will be called a coherence breaking channel if it is an incoherent channel and maps any state to an incoherent state. We explicitly and exhaustively characterize these coherence breaking channels. Moreover, we define the coherence breaking indices for incoherent quantum channels and present various examples to elucidate this concept. We further introduce the concept of coherence sudden death under noisy evolutions and make an explicit connection of the phenomenon of coherence sudden death with the coherence breaking channels and the coherence breaking indices together with various suggestive examples. Furthermore, for higher dimensional Hilbert spaces, we establish the typicality of the dynamics of coherence under any incoherent quantum channel exploiting the concentration of measure phenomenon.