The Consumption of Reference Resources

TL;DR

This paper investigates how reference resources enable certain quantum operations forbidden by superselection rules, demonstrating the resource consumption involved in such processes.

Contribution

It explicitly analyzes the consumption of reference resources in implementing forbidden unitary operations under the U(1)-superselection rule.

Findings

Reference states enable forbidden operations.

Resource consumption occurs during operation implementation.

Explicit example of resource use in quantum operations.

Abstract

Under the operational restriction of the U(1)-superselection rule, states that contain coherences between eigenstates of particle number constitute a resource. Such resources can be used to facilitate operations upon systems that otherwise cannot be performed. However, the process of doing this consumes reference resources. We show this explicitly for an example of a unitary operation that is forbidden by the U(1)-superselection rule.