Universal trade-off structure between symmetry, irreversibility, and quantum coherence in quantum processes

Understand

Symmetry, irreversibility, and quantum coherence are foundational concepts in physics.

• Here, we present a universal tradeoff relation between these three concepts.
• This particularly reveals that (1) under a global symmetry, any attempt to change the local conserved charge causes inevitable irreversibility, and (2) such irreversibility can be mitigated by quantum coherence.
• Our tradeoff relation follows solely from the unitarity and global symmetry of the total dynamics, allowing for general applicability.