Given a preferred orthonormal basis $B$ in the Hilbert space of a quantum system, we define a measure of the coherence-generating power of a unitary operation with respect to $B$. This measure is the average coherence generated by the operation acting on a uniform ensemble of incoherent states. We give its explicit analytical form in any dimension and provide an operational protocol to directly detect it. We characterize the set of unitaries with maximal coherence-generating power and study the properties of our measure when the unitary is drawn at random from the Haar distribution. For a large state-space dimension a random unitary has, with overwhelming probability, nearly maximal coherence-generating power with respect to any basis. Finally, extensions to general unital quantum operations and the relation to the concept of asymmetry are discussed.

• Received 11 October 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.95.052306