Experimental verification of a coherence factorization law for quantum states

TL;DR

This paper experimentally verifies a coherence factorization law for quantum states, demonstrating how quantum coherence evolves through noisy channels in open systems using photon-based experiments.

Contribution

It introduces and experimentally confirms a general coherence factorization law applicable to noisy quantum channels, advancing understanding of coherence dynamics.

Findings

The law holds for qubits and qutrits in experiments.

Coherence evolution can be factorized through the channel.

Supports further research into coherence laws in open quantum systems.

Abstract

As a quantum resource, quantum coherence plays an important role in modern physics. Many coherence measures and their relations with entanglement have been proposed, and the dynamics of entanglement has been experimentally studied. However, the knowledge of general results for coherence dynamics in open systems is limited. Here we propose a coherence factorization law, which describes the evolution of coherence passing through any noisy channels characterized by genuinely incoherent operations. We use photons to implement the quantum operations and experimentally verify the law for qubits and qutrits. Our work is a step toward the understanding of the evolution of coherence when the system interacts with the environment, and will boost the study of more general laws of coherence.