Fig. 5

Delayed Poisson process. a The corresponding emission probability density for a delayed Poisson process with rest period τ R and lifetime τ L . b Varying the ratio τ R /τ L sweeps between a (memoryless) Poisson process and a periodic emission process, with a corresponding increase in the quantum memory C q required and excess entropy E as the distribution becomes sharper. Here, C q is calculated approximately from a very fine (214 + 1 states) discretisation