We give the first systematic study on the second order asymptotics of the operational task of coherence distillation with and without assistance. In the unassisted setting, we introduce a variant of randomness extraction framework where free incoherent operations are allowed before the incoherent measurement and the randomness extractors. We then show that the maximum number of random bits extractable from a given quantum state is precisely equal to the maximum number of coherent bits that can be distilled from the same state. This relation enables us to derive tight second order expansions of both tasks in the independent and identically distributed setting. Remarkably, the incoherent operation classes that can empower coherence distillation for generic states all admit the same second order expansions, indicating their operational equivalence for coherence distillation in both asymptotic and large block length regime. We then generalize the above line of research to the assisted setting, arising naturally in bipartite quantum systems where Bob distills coherence from the state at hand, aided by the benevolent Alice possessing the other system. More precisely, we introduce a new assisted incoherent randomness extraction task and establish an exact relation between this task and the assisted coherence distillation. This strengthens the one-shot relation in the unassisted setting and confirms that this cryptographic framework indeed offers a new perspective to the study of quantum coherence distillation. Likewise, this relation yields second order characterizations to the assisted tasks. As by-products, we show the strong converse property of the aforementioned tasks from their second order expansions.
We compute analytically the maximal rates of distillation of quantum coherence under strictly incoherent operations (SIO) and physically incoherent operations (PIO), showing that they coincide for all states, and providing a complete description of the phenomenon of bound coherence. In particular, we establish a simple, analytically computable necessary and sufficient criterion for the asymptotic distillability under SIO and PIO. We use this result to show that almost every quantum state is undistillable --- only pure states as well as states whose density matrix contains a rank-one submatrix …
We characterize the distillation of quantum coherence in the one-shot setting, that is, the conversion of general quantum states into maximally coherent states under different classes of quantum operations. We show that the maximally incoherent operations (MIO) and the dephasing-covariant incoherent operations (DIO) have the same power in the task of one-shot coherence distillation. We establish that the one-shot distillable coherence under MIO and DIO is efficiently computable with a semidefinite program, which we show to correspond to a quantum hypothesis testing problem. Further, we introdu…
Quantum random number generators (QRNGs) harness the intrinsic randomness in measurement processes: the measurement outputs are truly random given the input state is a superposition of the eigenstates of the measurement operators. In the case of \emph{trusted} devices, true randomness could be generated from a mixed state $ρ$ so long as the system entangled with $ρ$ is well protected. We propose a random number generation scheme based on measuring the quadrature fluctuations of a single mode thermal state using an optical homodyne detector. By mixing the output of a broadband amplified spontan…
We develop the resource theory of private randomness extraction in the distributed and device-dependent scenario. We begin by introducing the notion of independent random bits, which are bipartite states containing ideal private randomness for each party, and motivate the natural set of free operations. As a conceptual tool, we introduce Virtual Quantum State Merging, which is essentially the flip side of Quantum State Merging, without communication. We focus on the bipartite case and find the rate regions achievable in different settings. Surprisingly, it turns out that local noise can boost …
In the task of assisted coherence distillation via the set of operations X, where X is either local incoherent operations and classical communication (LICC), local quantum-incoherent operations and classical communication (LQICC), separable incoherent operations (SI), or separable quantum incoherent operations (SQI), two parties, namely Alice and Bob, share many copies of a bipartite joint state. The aim of the process is to generate the maximal possible coherence on the subsystem of Bob. In this paper, we investigate the assisted coherence distillation of some special mixed states, the states…
The task of compressing classical information in the one-shot scenario is studied in the setting where the decompressor additionally has access to some given quantum side information. In this hybrid classical-quantum version of the famous Slepian-Wolf problem, the smooth max-entropy is found to govern the number of bits into which classical information can be compressed so that it can be reliably recovered from the compressed version and quantum side information. Combining this result with known results on privacy amplification then yields bounds on the amount of common randomness and secret k…
Coherence distillation is one of the central problems in the resource theory of coherence. In this Letter, we complete the deterministic distillation of quantum coherence for a finite number of coherent states under strictly incoherent operations. Specifically, we find the necessary and sufficient condition for the transformation from a mixed coherent state into a pure state via strictly incoherent operations, which recovers a connection between the resource theory of coherence and the algebraic theory of majorization lattice. With the help of this condition, we present the deterministic coher…
The ability to distill quantum coherence is pivotal for optimizing the performance of quantum technologies; however, such a task cannot always be accomplished with certainty. Here we develop a general framework of probabilistic distillation of quantum coherence in a one-shot setting, establishing fundamental limitations for different classes of free operations. We first provide a geometric interpretation for the maximal success probability, showing that under maximally incoherent operations (MIO) and dephasing-covariant incoherent operations (DIO) the problem can be simplified into efficiently…
The resource framework of quantum coherence was introduced by Baumgratz, Cramer and Plenio [PRL 113, 140401 (2014)] and further developed by Winter and Yang [PRL 116, 120404 (2016)]. We consider the one-shot problem of distilling pure coherence from a single instance of a given resource state. Specifically, we determine the distillable coherence with a given fidelity under incoherent operations (IO) through a generalisation of the Winter-Yang protocol. This is compared to the distillable coherence under maximal incoherent operations (MIO) and dephasing-covariant incoherent operations (DIO), wh…
The remarkable phenomenon of catalyst tells us that adding a catalyst could help state transformation. In this paper, we consider the problem of catalyst-assisted probabilistic coherence distillation for mixed states under strictly incoherent operations. To this end, we first present the necessary and sufficient conditions for distilling a target pure coherent state from an initial mixed state via stochastic strictly incoherent operations and the maximal probability of obtaining the target pure state from the initial state. With the help of these results, we present the necessary and sufficien…
We introduce and study the task of assisted coherence distillation. This task arises naturally in bipartite systems where both parties work together to generate the maximal possible coherence on one of the subsystems. Only incoherent operations are allowed on the target system while general local quantum operations are permitted on the other, an operational paradigm that we call local quantum-incoherent operations and classical communication (LQICC). We show that the asymptotic rate of assisted coherence distillation for pure states is equal to the coherence of assistance, an analog of the ent…
We experimentally investigate problems of one-shot coherence distillation [Regula, Fang, Wang, and Adesso, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 010401 (2018)]. Based on a set of optical devices, we design a type of strictly incoherent operation (SIO), which is applicable in high-dimensional cases and can be applied to accomplish the transformations from higher-dimensional states to lower-dimensional states. Furthermore, a relatively complete process of the one-shot coherence distillation is experimentally demonstrated for three- and four-dimensional input states. Experimental data reveal an interesting resul…
We present an optimal probabilistic protocol to distill quantum coherence. Inspired by a specific entanglement distillation protocol, our main result yields a strictly incoherent operation that produces one of a family of maximally coherent states of variable dimension from any pure quantum state. We also expand this protocol to the case where it is possible, for some initial states, to avert any waste of resources as far as the output states are concerned, by exploiting an additional transformation into a suitable intermediate state. These results provide practical schemes for efficient quant…
Coherence distillation is a basic information-theoretic task in the resource theory of coherence. In this paper, we develop the framework of the approximate coherence distillation under strictly incoherent operations. This protocol considers the situation that we cannot transform an initial state $ρ$ into a target state $ψ$ with certainty; instead, we aim to deterministically transform the initial state $ρ$ into an intermediate state $ϕ$ that is most approximate to the target state $ψ$ in terms of fidelity. We also present the explicit conversion strategy of the approximate coherence distillat…
Coherence distillation is a basic information-theoretic task in the resource theory of coherence. In this paper, we present the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a mixed state can be distilled into a pure coherent state via stochastic incoherent operations (sIOs). With the help of this result, we further show the following: (i) Any $2$-dimensional coherent state is distillable via sIOs if and only if it is a pure coherent state; (ii) a state $ρ$ is n-distillable via sIOs if and only if it is 1-distillable; and (iii) the set of distillable states via stochastic maximally incoheren…
We complete the task of optimal probabilistic coherence distillation protocol, whose aim is to transform a general state into a set of n-level maximally coherent states via strictly incoherent operations (SIO). Specifically, we present the necessary and sufficient condition for the transformation from a mixed state into a pure-state ensemble via SIO. With the aid of this condition and the simplex algorithm, we can accomplish the probabilistic distillation protocol by presenting an analytical expression of the maximal average distillable coherence of a general state and constructing the corresp…
We present a generalized tomographic quantum key distribution protocol in which the two parties share a Bell diagonal mixed state of two qubits. We show that if an eavesdropper performs a coherent measurement on many quantum ancilla states simultaneously, classical methods of secure key distillation are less effective than quantum entanglement distillation protocols. We also show that certain Bell diagonal states are resistant to any attempt of incoherent eavesdropping.
Quantum coherence and quantum entanglement represent two fundamental features of non-classical systems that can each be characterized within an operational resource theory. In this paper, we unify the resource theories of entanglement and coherence by studying their combined behavior in the operational setting of local incoherent operations and classical communication (LIOCC). Specifically we analyze the coherence and entanglement trade-offs in the tasks of state formation and resource distillation. For pure states we identify the minimum coherence-entanglement resources needed to generate a g…
The security of a cryptographic key that is generated by communication through a noisy quantum channel relies on the ability to distill a shorter secure key sequence from a longer insecure one. We show that -- for protocols that use quantum channels of any dimension and completely characterize them by state tomography -- the noise threshold for classical advantage distillation is substantially lower than the threshold for quantum entanglement distillation because the eavesdropper can perform powerful coherent attacks. The earlier claims that the two noise thresholds are identical, which were b…
Manipulation and quantification of quantum resources are fundamental problems in quantum physics. In the asymptotic limit, coherence distillation and dilution have been proposed by manipulating infinite identical copies of states. In the non-asymptotic setting, finite data-size effects emerge, and the practically relevant problem of coherence manipulation using finite resources has been left open. This letter establishes the one-shot theory of coherence dilution, which involves converting maximally coherent states into an arbitrary quantum state using maximally incoherent operations, dephasing…
Finite-Blocklength and Exponential Analyses for Universal Entanglement and Coherence Distillation under Various Free Operations
Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics, Harbin Institute of Technology（哈尔滨工业大学高等研究院）；School of Data Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen（香港中文大学（深圳）数据科学学院）
Based on the theory of quantum mechanics, intrinsic randomness in measurement distinguishes quantum effects from classical ones. From the perspective of states, this quantum feature can be summarized as coherence or superposition in a specific (classical) computational basis. Recently, by regarding coherence as a physical resource, Baumgratz et al.~present a comprehensive framework for coherence measures. Here, we propose a quantum coherence measure essentially using the intrinsic randomness of measurement. The proposed coherence measure provides an answer to the open question in completing th…
Recently Horodecki et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 100402 (2003)] introduced an important quantum information processing paradigm, in which two parties sharing many copies of the same bipartite quantum state distill local pure states, by means of local unitary operations assisted by a one-way (two-way) completely dephasing channel. Local pure states are a valuable resource from a thermodynamical point of view, since they allow thermal energy to be converted into work by local quantum heat engines. We give a simple information-theoretical characterization of the one-way distillable local purity, w…
Quantum coherence, which quantifies the superposition properties of a quantum state, plays an indispensable role in quantum resource theory. A recent theoretical work [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{116}, 070402 (2016)] studied the manipulation of quantum coherence in bipartite or multipartite systems under the protocol Local Incoherent Operation and Classical Communication (LQICC). Here we present the first experimental realization of obtaining maximal coherence in assisted distillation protocol based on linear optical system. The results of our work show that the optimal distillable coherence rate…
We compute on all quantum states several measures that characterise asymptotic quantum coherence manipulation under restricted classes of operations. We focus on the distillable coherence, i.e. the maximum rate of production of approximate pure bits of coherence starting from independent copies of an input state $ρ$, and on the coherence cost, i.e. the minimum rate of consumption of pure coherence bits that is needed to generate many copies of $ρ$ with vanishing error. We obtain the first closed-form expression for the distillable coherence under strictly incoherent operations (SIO), proving t…
We consider the extraction of shared secret key from correlations that are generated by either a classical or quantum source. In the classical setting, two honest parties (Alice and Bob) use public discussion and local randomness to distill secret key from some distribution $p_{XYZ}$ that is shared with an unwanted eavesdropper (Eve). In the quantum settings, the correlations $p_{XYZ}$ are delivered to the parties as either an \textit{incoherent} mixture of orthogonal quantum states or as \textit{coherent} superposition of such states; in both cases, Alice and Bob use public discussion and loc…
Local pure states are an important resource for quantum computing. The problem of distilling local pure states from mixed ones can be cast in an information theoretic paradigm. The bipartite version of this problem where local purity must be distilled from an arbitrary quantum state shared between two parties, Alice and Bob, is closely related to the problem of separating quantum and classical correlations in the state and in particular, to a measure of classical correlations called the one-way distillable common randomness. In Phys. Rev. A 71, 062303 (2005), the optimal rate of local purity d…
We establish a set of resource conversion relationships between quantum coherence and multipartite entanglement in many-body systems, where the operational measures of resource cost and distillation are focused. Under the multipartite incoherent operation, the initial coherence of single-party system bounds the maximal amounts of corresponding operational entanglement in an arbitrary bipartite partition as well as the genuine multipartite entanglement in many-body systems. Furthermore, the converted multipartite entanglement can be transferred to its subsystems and restored to coherence of a s…
The fluctuation-dissipation theorem is a fundamental result in statistical physics that establishes a connection between the response of a system subject to a perturbation and the fluctuations associated with observables in equilibrium. Here we derive its version within a resource-theoretic framework, where one investigates optimal quantum state transitions under thermodynamic constraints. More precisely, we first characterise optimal thermodynamic distillation processes, and then prove a relation between the amount of free energy dissipated in such processes and the free energy fluctuations o…
As an important quantum resource, quantum coherence play key role in quantum information processing. It is often concerned with manipulation of families of quantum states rather than individual states in isolation. Given two pairs of coherent states $(ρ_1,ρ_2)$ and $(σ_1,σ_2)$, we are aimed to study how can we determine if there exists a strictly incoherent operation $Φ$ such that $Φ(ρ_i) =σ_i,i = 1,2$. This is also a classic question in quantum hypothesis testing. In this note, structural characterization of coherent preorder under strongly incoherent operations is provided. Basing on the cha…
Non-local correlations are not only a fascinating feature of quantum theory, but an interesting resource for information processing, for instance in communication-complexity theory or cryptography. An important question in this context is whether the resource can be distilled: Given a large amount of weak non-local correlations, is there a method to obtain strong non-locality using local operations and shared randomness? We partly answer this question by no: CHSH-type non-locality, the only possible non-locality of binary systems, which is not super-strong, but achievable by measurements on ce…
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering（电子与电气工程系）；Imperial College London（帝国理工学院）；Imperial Centre for Quantum Engineering, Science and Technology（帝国量子工程、科学与技术中心）；Blackett Laboratory, Department of Physics（布莱克特实验室，物理系）；Graduate Institute of Applied Physics（应用物理研究院）；Brookhaven National Laboratory（布鲁赫斯国家实验室）；Quantum Information Center（量子信息中心）；Master Program in Intelligent Computing and Big Data（智能计算与大数据硕士项目）；Chung Yuan Christian University；JIJ
The search for a simple description of fundamental physical processes is an important part of quantum theory. One example for such an abstraction can be found in the distance lab paradigm: if two separated parties are connected via a classical channel, it is notoriously difficult to characterize all possible operations these parties can perform. This class of operations is widely known as local operations and classical communication (LOCC). Surprisingly, the situation becomes comparably simple if the more general class of separable operations is considered, a finding which has been extensively…
Coherence is a cornerstone of quantum theory and a prerequisite for the advantage of quantum technologies. In recent work, the notion of coherence with respect to a general quantum measurement (POVM) was introduced and embedded into a resource-theoretic framework that generalizes the standard resource theory of coherence. In particular, POVM-incoherent (free) states and operations were established. In this work, we explore features of this framework which arise due to the rich structure of POVMs compared to projective measurements. Moreover, we introduce a rigorous, probabilisitic framework fo…
Quantum resource theories have been widely studied to systematically characterize the non-classicality of quantum systems. Most resource theories focus on quantum states and study their interconversions. Although quantum channels are generally used as the tool for state manipulation, such a manipulation capability can be naturally regarded as a generalized quantum resource, leading to an open research direction in the resource theories of quantum channels. Various resource-theoretic properties of channels have been investigated, however, without treating channels themselves as operational reso…
Quantum resource theory under different classes of quantum operations advances multiperspective understandings of inherent quantum-mechanical properties, such as quantum coherence and quantum entanglement. We establish hierarchies of different operations for manipulating coherence and entanglement in distributed settings, where at least one of the two spatially separated parties are restricted from generating coherence. In these settings, we introduce new classes of operations and also characterize those maximal, i.e., the resource-non-generating operations, progressing beyond existing studies…
We establish an operational theory of coherence (or of superposition) in quantum systems, by focusing on the optimal rate of performance of certain tasks. Namely, we introduce the two basic concepts - "coherence distillation" and "coherence cost" in the processing quantum states under so-called incoherent operations [Baumgratz/Cramer/Plenio, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113:140401 (2014)]. We then show that in the asymptotic limit of many copies of a state, both are given by simple single-letter formulas: the distillable coherence is given by the relative entropy of coherence (in other words, we give the …
