Extracting quantum coherence via steering

Quantum Correlations and Coherence of Polar Symmetric Top Molecules in Pendular States

We consider two ultracold polar symmetric top molecules coupled by dipole-dipole interaction in an external electric field with appreciable intensity gradient, serving as the physical carrier of quantum information. Each molecule is induced to undergo pendular oscillations under the strong static electric field. Based on the pendular states of polar symmetric top molecules as candidate qubits, we investigate the bipartite quantum correlations of the two polar molecular system for the thermal equilibrium states, characterized by negativity and quantum discord, and then analyze the corresponding coherence, measured by relative entropy and l₁ norm. Furthermore, we also examine the dynamics of the entanglement and coherence of the system in the presence of intrinsic decoherence, and explore the relations of their temporal evolution with various physical system parameters for two different initial Bell states. It is found that quantum correlations and coherence of the two polar molecules in pendular states can be manipulated by adjusting appropriate reduced variables including external electric field, dipole-dipole interaction, ambient temperature and decoherence factor. Our findings could be used for molecular quantum computing based on rotational states.

The classical correlation limits the ability of the measurement-induced average coherence

Coherence is the most fundamental quantum feature in quantum mechanics. For a bipartite quantum state, if a measurement is performed on one party, the other party, based on the measurement outcomes, will collapse to a corresponding state with some probability and hence gain the average coherence. It is shown that the average coherence is not less than the coherence of its reduced density matrix. In particular, it is very surprising that the extra average coherence (and the maximal extra average coherence with all the possible measurements taken into account) is upper bounded by the classical correlation of the bipartite state instead of the quantum correlation. We also find the sufficient and necessary condition for the null maximal extra average coherence. Some examples demonstrate the relation and, moreover, show that quantum correlation is neither sufficient nor necessary for the nonzero extra average coherence within a given measurement. In addition, the similar conclusions are drawn for both the basis-dependent and the basis-free coherence measure.