Operational impact of quantum resources in chemical dynamics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a framework to quantify the operational impact of quantum resources on chemical dynamics, providing tools to assess how quantum effects influence observable processes.

Contribution

It develops process-level quantifiers and bounds that measure the maximum influence of quantum resources on chemical observables, with applications to energy transfer.

Findings

Resource impact functional $ ext{C}_M( ext{Lambda})$ quantifies quantum resource influence.

Derived bounds constrain how quickly resources can alter signals.

Decomposition isolates resourceful dynamics affecting observables.

Abstract

Quantum coherence and other non-classical features are widely discussed in chemical dynamics, yet it remains difficult to quantify when such resources are operationally relevant for a given process and observable. While quantum resource theories provide a comprehensive framework for comparing free and resourceful settings, existing approaches typically rely on resource monotones or on performance bounds under free operations, and do not directly quantify the maximal influence a chosen resource can exert on a fixed chemical dynamics. Here, we introduce task specific, process level quantifiers that upper bound the largest change a quantum resource can induce in a target figure of merit. Central is a resource impact functional $\mathcal{C}_M(\Lambda)$, defined by comparing a state with its paired resource-free counterpart under the same quantum channel $\Lambda$, which admits an operational interpretation in binary hypothesis testing. We derive variation and time bounds that constrain how rapidly a resource can modify a target signal, providing resource-aware analogues of quantum speed limits. Moreover, we show that open system dynamics can be decomposed into free and resourceful components such that only the resourceful component contributes to $\mathcal{C}_M(\Lambda)$, thereby isolating the parts of a generator responsible for resource-induced changes in the observable. We illustrate the framework exemplary for energy transfer in a donor-acceptor dimer in two analytically solvable regimes. Our results provide a general toolbox for diagnosing and benchmarking quantum resource effects in molecular processes.