Resource theory of coherence in continuous position basis from measurement-induced dephasing

TL;DR

This paper establishes a resource theory for quantum coherence in the continuous position basis, introducing a physically motivated dephasing channel and quantifiers, and analyzing coherence properties in continuous-variable systems.

Contribution

It develops a novel resource-theoretic framework for continuous-basis quantum coherence, including new dephasing channels, quantifiers, and coherence witnesses tailored for continuous-variable systems.

Findings

The relative-entropy dephasing loss satisfies key resource-theoretic properties.

The Hilbert-Schmidt dephasing loss is convex and experimentally transparent.

Threshold witnesses can certify coherence above finite values and relate to interference visibility.

Abstract

We develop a resource-theoretic framework for quantum coherence directly in continuous basis, with emphasis on the position representation. Since position eigenstates are non-normalizable generalized eigenstates, the standard finite-dimensional dephasing map cannot be transferred directly to normal states. We therefore introduce a physically motivated dephasing channel based on random momentum kicks, equivalently described as the unconditional back-action of a finite-resolution position measurement. This yields a fixed-point notion of incoherence and a natural class of dephasing-covariant free operations. For physically relevant kernels, however, the fixed-point set contains no normal states, showing that continuous-basis coherence is tied to dephasing disturbance rather than to distance from a nonempty set of diagonal states. We study two quantifiers built from the channel action: a relative-entropy dephasing loss and a Hilbert-Schmidt dephasing loss. The former satisfies the main resource-theoretic properties under the free operations considered, while the latter is convex and experimentally transparent but fails monotonicity and strong monotonicity. We also formulate threshold witnesses for certifying coherence above a finite value and connect them, in a two-path setting, with interference visibility. Finally, we illustrate the framework with a Gaussian wavepacket evolving in a gravitational potential. The resulting theory provides a mathematically consistent and physically motivated treatment of coherence in continuous-variable systems.