Åberg Johan
Institute for Physics, University of Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Strasse 3, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany.
Phys Rev Lett. 2014 Oct 10;113(15):150402. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.150402. Epub 2014 Oct 7.
Because of conservation of energy we cannot directly turn a quantum system with a definite energy into a superposition of different energies. However, if we have access to an additional resource in terms of a system with a high degree of coherence, as for standard models of laser light, we can overcome this limitation. The question is to what extent coherence gets degraded when utilized. Here it is shown that coherence can be turned into a catalyst, meaning that we can use it repeatedly without ever diminishing its power to enable coherent operations. This finding stands in contrast to the degradation of other quantum resources and has direct consequences for quantum thermodynamics, as it shows that latent energy that may be locked into superpositions of energy eigenstates can be released catalytically.
由于能量守恒，我们无法直接将具有确定能量的量子系统转变为不同能量的叠加态。然而，如果我们能够利用一个具有高度相干性的系统作为额外资源，就像标准激光模型那样，我们就可以克服这一限制。问题在于，相干性在被利用时会在多大程度上退化。这里表明，相干性可以转变为一种催化剂，这意味着我们可以反复使用它，而其促成相干操作的能力却不会减弱。这一发现与其他量子资源的退化形成对比，并且对量子热力学有直接影响，因为它表明可能锁定在能量本征态叠加中的潜在能量可以通过催化作用释放出来。
