Quantum Discord via Measurement-Induced Coherence Transfer (MICT)

Quantum discord captures nonclassical correlations beyond entanglement and plays a piv-otal role in quantum communication, computation, and thermodynamics. Traditionally defined via entropy-based asymmetries in mutual information, discord remains conceptually rich but operationally opaque particularly in noisy or mixed-state regimes where entanglement vanishes yet quantum advantage persists. In this work, we introduce a novel formulation of discord based on Measurement-Induced Coherence Transfer (MICT). Rather than quantifying information imbalance, MICT discord measures the coherence gained in subsystem A when a projective measurement is performed on subsystem B. This directional, coherence-centric perspective reframes discord as a physically observable transfer process, firmly grounded in the resource theory of quantum coherence. Numerical simulations on Werner states validate the framework and reveal strong basis sensitivity: computational-basis measurements yield vanishing discord, whereas Hadamard-basis measurements consistently produce maximal coherence. This sharp divergence from standard discord measures underscores the operational significance of measurement choice in coherence-aware protocols. Finally, we discuss experimental feasibility, showing that MICT discord can be estimated via standard quantum state tomography and coherence monotones. Our results position MICT discord as a practical diagnostic and a new lens for interpreting quantum correlations, with potential applications in coherence-based benchmarking, quantum thermodynamics, and noise-resilient communication protocols.