Experimental verification of a coherence factorization law for quantum states

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 that 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 understanding of the evolution of coherence when the system interacts with the environment, and will boost the study of more general laws of coherence. (c) 2022 Chinese Laser Press

Automated summary

This study proposes a coherence factorization law that describes the evolution of coherence passing through noisy channels characterized by genuinely incoherent operations. The law is experimentally verified using photons in qubits and qutrits. This work contributes to the understanding of coherence evolution in the presence of environmental interactions and promotes the study of more general laws of coherence.