A resource theory of quantum coherence attempts to characterize the quantum coherence that exists in a given quantum system. Many different approaches to a resource theory of coherence have recently been proposed, with their differences lying primarily in the identification of “free” or “incoherent” operations. In this article, we compare a number of these operational classes. In particular, the recently introduced class of dephasing-covariant operations is analyzed, and we characterize the Kraus operators of such maps. A number of coherence measures are introduced based on relative Rényi entropies, and we study incoherent state transformations under different operational classes. In particular, we show that the incoherent Schmidt rank can be increased arbitrarily large by certain noncoherence generating operations. The distinction between asymmetry-based versus basis-dependent notions of coherence theory is clarified, and we further develop the resource theory of $N$ asymmetry, where $N$ is the group of all diagonal incoherent unitaries.

• Received 23 May 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.94.052336