A general framework for quantum macroscopicity in terms of coherence

Abstract

We propose a universal language to assess macroscopic quantumness in terms of coherence, with a set of conditions that should be satisfied by any measure of macroscopic coherence. We link the framework to the resource theory of asymmetry. We show that the quantum Fisher information gives a good measure of macroscopic coherence, enabling a rigorous justification of a previously proposed measure of macroscopicity. This picture lets us draw connections between different measures of macroscopicity and evaluate them; we show that another widely studied measure fails one of our criteria.