Duality of Quantum Coherence and Path Distinguishability
Abstract
We derive a generalized wave-particle duality relation for arbitrary multipath quantum interference phenomena. Beyond the conventional notion of the wave nature of a quantum system, i.e., the interference fringe visibility, we introduce a quantifier as the normalized quantum coherence, recently defined in the framework of quantum information theory. To witness the particle nature, we quantify the path distinguishability or the which-path information based on unambiguous quantum state discrimination. Then, the Bohr complementarity principle for multipath quantum interference can be stated as a duality relation between the quantum coherence and the path distinguishability. For two-path interference, the quantum coherence is identical to the interference fringe visibility, and the relation reduces to the well-known complementarity relation. The duality relation continues to hold in the case where mixedness is introduced due to possible decoherence effects.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1503.02990,
title = {Duality of Quantum Coherence and Path Distinguishability},
author = {Manabendra Nath Bera and Tabish Qureshi and Mohd Asad Siddiqui and Arun Kumar Pati},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1503.02990},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
6 pages, 0 figures, close to the published version