We describe a purely algebraic method for finding the best separable approximation to a mixed state of a composite 2x2 quantum system, consisting of a decomposition of the state into a linear combination of a mixed separable part and a pure entangled one. We prove that, in a generic case, the weight of the pure part in the decomposition equals the concurrence of the state.
We study characterization of separable (classically correlated) states for composite systems of distinguishable fermions that are represented as CAR algebras.
We present a general description of separable states in Quantum Mechanics. In particular, our result gives an easy proof that inseparabitity (or entanglement) is a pure quantum (noncommutative) notion. This implies that distinction between separability and inseparabitity has sense only for composite systems consisting of pure quantum subsystems. Moreover, we provide the unified characterization of pure-state entanglement and mixed-state entanglement.
We investigate optimal separable approximations (decompositions) of states rho of bipartite quantum systems A and B of arbitrary dimensions MxN following the lines of Ref. [M. Lewenstein and A. Sanpera, Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 2261 (1998)]. Such approximations allow to represent in an optimal way any density operator as a sum of a separable state and an entangled state of a certain form. For two qubit systems (M=N=2) the best separable approximation has a form of a mixture of a separable state and a projector onto a pure entangled state. We formulate a necessary condition that the pure state in t…
We characterize the optimal correlative capacity of entangled, separable, and classically correlated states. Introducing the notions of the infimum and supremum within majorization theory, we construct the least disordered separable state compatible with a set of marginals. The maximum separable correlation information supportable by the marginals of a multi-qubit pure state is shown to be an LOCC monotone. The least disordered composite of a pair of qubits is found for the above classes, with classically correlated states defined as diagonal in the product of marginal bases.
It has been showed that two entangle pure states can violate the bilocal inequality in the entanglement-swapping network, vice versa. What happens for mixed states? Whether or not are there separable mixed states violating the bilocal inequality? In the work, we devote to finding the mixed Werner states which violate the bilocal inequality by Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithms. Finally, we shows that there are pairs of states, where one is separable and the other is entangled, can violate the bilocal inequality.
Absolutely separable states form a special subset of the set of all separable states, as they remain separable under any global unitary transformation unlike other separable states. In this work we consider the set of absolutely separable bipartite states and show that it is convex and compact in any arbitrary dimensional Hilbert space. Through a generic approach of construction of suitable hermitian operators we prove the completeness of the separation axiom for identifying any separable state that is not absolutely separable. We demonstrate the action of such witness operators in different q…
We study certain quantum states for which the PPT criterion is both sufficient and necessary for separability. A class of $n\times n$ bipartite mixed states is presented and the conditions of PPT for these states are derived. The separable pure state decompositions of these states are explicitly constructed when they are PPT.
Study of an N qubit mixed symmetric separable states is a long standing challenging problem as there exist no unique separability criterion. In this regard, we take up the N-qubit mixed symmetric separable states for a detailed study as these states are of experimental importance and offer elegant mathematical analysis since the dimension of the Hilbert space reduces from 2^N to N + 1. Since there exists a one to one correspondence between spin-j system and an N-qubit symmetric state, we employ Fano statistical tensor parameters for the parametrization of spin density matrix. Further, we use g…
We have investigated the dynamics of quantum discord and entanglement for two qubits subject to independent global transverse and/or longitudinal memoryless noisy classical fields. Global transverse and/or longitudinal random fields are found to drive the system to maximally discordant mixed separable steady states for suitable initial conditions. Moreover, two independent noises in the system are found to enhance both the steady state randomness and quantum discord in the absence of entanglement for some initial states.
We show that for an m-partite quantum system, there is a ball of radius 2^{-(m/2-1)} in Frobenius norm, centered at the identity matrix, of separable (unentangled) positive semidefinite matrices. This can be used to derive an epsilon below which mixtures of epsilon of any density matrix with 1 - epsilon of the maximally mixed state will be separable. The epsilon thus obtained is exponentially better (in the number of systems) than existing results. This gives a number of qubits below which NMR with standard pseudopure-state preparation techniques can access only unentangled states; with parame…
We present a practical scheme for the decomposition of a bipartite mixed state into a sum of direct products of local density matrices, using the technique developed in Li and Qiao (Sci. Rep. 8: 1442, 2018). In the scheme, the correlation matrix which characterizes the bipartite entanglement is first decomposed into two matrices composed of the Bloch vectors of local states. Then we show that the symmetries of Bloch vectors are consistent with that of the correlation matrix, and the magnitudes of the local Bloch vectors are lower bounded by the correlation matrix. Concrete examples for the sep…
We obtain a new lower bound on the radius of the largest ball of separable unnormalized states around the identity matrix for a 3-qubit system. This also enables us to improve the corresponding lower bounds for multi-qubit systems. These bounds are approximately 5% better than the previously known ones. As a by-product, we compute the radius of the largest ball that fits into the triple projective tensor product of the unit ball in R^3.
We introduce an operational procedure to determine, with arbitrary probability and accuracy, optimal entanglement witness for every multipartite entangled state. This method provides an operational criterion for separability which is asymptotically necessary and sufficient. Our results are also generalized to detect all different types of multipartite entanglement.
A lower bound on the amount of noise that must be added to a GHZ-like entangled state to make it separable (also called the random robustness) is found using the transposition condition. The bound is applicable to arbitrary numbers of subsystems, and dimensions of Hilbert space, and is shown to be exact for qubits. The new bound is compared to previous such bounds on this quantity, and found to be stronger in all cases. It implies that increasing the number of subsystems, rather than increasing their Hilbert space dimension is a more effective way of increasing entanglement. An explicit decomp…
The separable mixed 2-qubit X-states are classified in accordance with degeneracies in the spectrum of density matrices. It is shown that there are four classes of separable X-states, among them: one 4D family, a pair of 2D family and a single, zero-dimensional maximally mixed state.
We provide a constructive algorithm to find the best separable approximation to an arbitrary density matrix of a composite quantum system of finite dimensions. The method leads to a condition of separability and to a measure of entanglement.
Let M be the set of mixed states and S the set of separable states of the two-qubit system, and G = SU(2) x SU(2) the group of local unitary transformations (ignoring the overall phase factor). We compute the multigraded Poincare series for the algebra of G-invariant polynomial functions on the affine space of all Hermitian operators of trace 1. We check that this series is consistent with the list of invariants computed by Makhlin. By using the recent result of Augusiak et al., we show that the boundary of S decomposes naturally into two pieces. We prove that the part of this boundary which i…
The optimal (pure state) ensemble length of a separable state, A, is the minimum number of (pure) product states needed in convex combination to construct A. We study the set of all separable states with optimal (pure state) ensemble length equal to k or fewer. Lower bounds on k are found below which these sets have measure 0 in the set of separable states. In the bipartite case and the multiparticle case where one of the particles has significantly more quantum numbers than the rest, the lower bound for non-pure state ensembles is sharp. A consequence of our results is that for all two partic…
We investigate separability and entanglement of mixed states in ${\cal C}^2\otimes{\cal C}^2\otimes{\cal C}^N$ three party quantum systems. We show that all states with positive partial transposes that have rank $\le N$ are separable. For the 3 qubit case (N=2) we prove that all states $ρ$ that have positive partial transposes and rank 3 are separable. We provide also constructive separability checks for the states $ρ$ that have the sum of the rank of $ρ$ and the ranks of partial transposes with respect to all subsystems smaller than 15N-1.
It is shown that the outcomes of measurements on systems in separable mixed states can be partitioned, via subsequent measurements on a disentangled extraneous system, into subensembles that display the statistics of entangled states. This motivates the introduction of the concept of "counterfactual" entanglement, which can be associated with all separable mixed states including those that are factorable. This type of entanglement gives rise to a new kind of postselection-induced Bell inequality violation. The significance of counterfactual entanglement, and its physical implications, are asse…
In this paper, we treat an asymptotic hypothesis testing (or state discrimination with asymmetric treatment of errors) between an arbitrary fixed bipartite pure state and the completely mixed state by one-way LOCC, two-way LOCC, and separable POVMs. As a result, we derive single-letterized formulas for the Stein's lemma type of optimal error exponents under one-way LOCC, two-way LOCC and separable POVMs, the Chernoff bounds under one-way LOCC POVMs and separable POVMs, and the Hoeffding bounds under one-way LOCC POVMs in the whole region of a parameter and under separable POVMs on a restricted…
We define a negative entanglement measure for separable states which shows that how much entanglement one should compensate the unentangled state at least for changing it into an entangled state. For two-qubit systems and some special classes of states in higher-dimensional systems, the explicit formula and the lower bounds for the negative entanglement measure have been presented, and it always vanishes for bipartite separable pure states. The negative entanglement measure can be used as a useful quantity to describe the entanglement dynamics and the quantum phase transition. In the transvers…
For manipulations of multipartite quantum systems, it was well known that all local operations assisted by classical communication (LOCC) constitute a proper subset of the class of separable operations. Recently, Gheorghiu and Griffiths found that LOCC and general separable operations are equally powerful for transformations between bipartite pure states. In this letter we extend this comparison to mixed states and show that in general separable operations are strictly stronger than LOCC when transforming a mixed state to a pure entangled state. A remarkable consequence of our finding is the e…
The arguments of Cohen [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 60}, 80 (1999)] against the `ignorance interpretation' of mixed states are questioned. The physical arguments are shown to be inconsistent and the supporting example illustrates the opposite of the original statement. The operational difference between two possible definitions of mixed states is exposed and the inadequacy of one of them is stressed.
The separability and entanglement of quantum mixed states in $\Cb^2 \otimes \Cb^3 \otimes \Cb^N$ composite quantum systems are investigated. It is shown that all quantum states $ρ$ with positive partial transposes and rank $r(ρ)\leq N$ are separable.
For finite-dimensional bipartite quantum systems, we find the exact size of the largest balls, in spectral $l_p$ norms for $1 \le p \le \infty$, of separable (unentangled) matrices around the identity matrix. This implies a simple and intutively meaningful geometrical sufficient condition for separability of bipartite density matrices: that their purity $\tr ρ^2$ not be too large. Theoretical and experimental applications of these results include algorithmic problems such as computing whether or not a state is entangled, and practical ones such as obtaining information about the existence or n…
We give a canonical form of PPT states in ${\cal C}^2 \otimes {\cal C}^2\otimes {\cal C}^2 \otimes {\cal C}^N$ with rank=$N$. From this canonical form a necessary separable condition for these states is presented.
Quantum correlations in composite and separable quantum systems are characterized by non-vanishing quantum discord. We demonstrate the necessary and sufficient conditions for existence of hermitian witness operators for quantum discord, bypassing the problem of non-convexity of the set of all classical states. We propose an example of a linear witness which can detect quantum correlations in large classes of separable bipartite systems. Decomposition of the witness in terms of a small number of locally measurable operators as shown here, paves the way for experimental detection of quantum corr…
The problem of of how many entangled or, respectively, separable states there are in the set of all quantum states is investigated. We study to what extent the choice of a measure in the space of density matrices describing N--dimensional quantum systems affects the results obtained. We demonstrate that the link between the purity of the mixed states and the probability of entanglement is not sensitive to the measure chosen. Since the criterion of partial transposition is not sufficient to distinguish all separable states for N > 6, we develop an efficient algorithm to calculate numerically th…
Two families of bipartite mixed quantum states are studied for which it is proved that the number of members in the optimal-decomposition ensemble --- the ensemble realizing the entanglement of formation --- is greater than the rank of the mixed state. We find examples for which the number of states in this optimal ensemble can be larger than the rank by an arbitrarily large factor. In one case the proof relies on the fact that the partial transpose of the mixed state has zero eigenvalues; in the other case the result arises from the properties of product bases that are completable only by emb…
We consider a class of entangled states of a quantum system (S) and a second system (A) where pure states of the former are correlated with mixed states of the latter, and work out the entanglement measure with reference to the nearest separable state. Such `pure-mixed' entanglement is expected when the system S interacts with a macroscopic measuring apparatus in a quantum measurement, where the quantum correlation is destroyed in the process of environment-induced decoherence whereafter only the classical correlation between S and A remains, the latter being large compared to the former. We p…
We analyze the separability properties of density operators supported on $\C^2\otimes \C^N$ whose partial transposes are positive operators. We show that if the rank of $ρ$ equals N then it is separable, and that bound entangled states have rank larger than N. We also give a separability criterion for a generic density operator such that the sum of its rank and the one of its partial transpose does not exceed 3N. If it exceeds this number we show that one can subtract product vectors until decreasing it to 3N, while keeping the positivity of $ρ$ and its partial transpose. This automatically gi…
We show that all density operators of 2$\times N$--dimensional quantum systems that remain invariant after partial transposition with respect to the first system are separable. Based on this criterion, we derive a sufficient separability condition for general density operators in such quantum systems. We also give a simple proof of the separability criterion in $2\times 2$--dimensional systems [A. Peres, Phys. Rev. Lett {\bf 77}, 1413 (1996)]
We propose an interpretation of quantum separability based on a physical principle: local time reversal. It immediately leads to a simple characterization of separable quantum states that reproduces results known to hold for binary composite systems and which thereby is complete for low dimensions. We then describe a constructive algorithm for finding the canonical decomposition of separable and non separable mixed states of dimensions 2x2 and 2x3.
A geometrical characterization of robustly separable (that is, remaining separable under sufficiently small variiations) mixed states of a bipartite quantum system is given. It is shown that the density matrix of any such state can be represented as a normal vector to a hypersurface in the Euclidean space of all self-adjoint operators in the state space of the whole system. The expression for this hypersurface is provided.
We present a general method for constructing pure-product-state representations for density operators of $N$ quantum bits. If such a representation has nonnegative expansion coefficients, it provides an explicit separable ensemble for the density operator. We derive the condition for separability of a mixture of the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state with the maximally mixed state.
To determine whether a given multipartite quantum state is separable with respect to some partition we construct a family of entanglement measures R_m. This is done utilizing generalized concurrences as building blocks which are defined by flipping of M constituents and indicate states that are separable with regard to bipartitions when vanishing. Further, we provide an analytically computable lower bound for R_m via a simple ordering relation of the convex roof extension. Using the derived lower bound, we illustrate the effect of the isotropic noise on a family of four-qubit mixed states for …
The dynamical behavior of interacting systems plays a fundamental role for determining quantum correlations, such as entanglement. In this Letter, we describe temporal quantum effects of the inseparable evolution of composite quantum states by comparing the trajectories to their classically correlated counterparts. For this reason, we introduce equations of motions describing the separable propagation of any interacting quantum system, which are derived by requiring separability for all times. The resulting Schroedinger-type equations allow for comparing the trajectories in a separable configu…
We introduce algebriac sets in the products of complex projective spaces for multipartite mixed states, which are independent of their eigenvalues and only measure the "position" of their eigenvectors, as their non-local invariants (ie. remaining invariant after local untary transformations). These invariants are naturally arised from the physical consideration of checking multipartite mixed states by measuring them with multipartite separable pure states. The algebraic sets have to be the sum of linear subspaces if the multipartite mixed state is separable, and thus we give a new separability…
We study the stability of NPT property of an arbitrary pure entangled state under the mixture of arbitrary pure separable states. For bipartite pure states with Schmidt number $n$ $(n>1)$ which is NPT, we show that this state is still NPT when it is mixed with no more than $\frac{n(n-1)}{2}-1$ arbitrary pure separable states. This result is generalized to multipartite case.
New quantum entropic inequality for states of system of n >_ 1 qudits is obtained. The inequality has the form of quantum subadditivity condition of bipartite qudit system and coincides with this subadditivity condition for the system of two qudits. The general statement on existence of the subadditivity condition for arbitrary probability distribution and arbitrary qudit-system tomogram is formulated. The nonlinear quantum channels creating the entangled states from separable ones are discussed.
We prove experimentally the predicted existence of a three-qubit quantum state with genuine multipartite entanglement which can be certified solely from its separable two-qubit reduced density matrices. The qubits are encoded into different degrees of freedom of a pair of correlated photons and the state is prepared by letting the photons to propagate through a linear optical circuit. The presence of genuine multipartite entanglement is verified by finding numerically a fully decomposable entanglement witness acting nontrivially only on the reductions of the global state. Our result confirms v…
We show how to decompose any density matrix of the simplest binary composite systems, whether separable or not, in terms of only product vectors. We determine for all cases the minimal number of product vectors needed for such a decomposition. Separable states correspond to mixing from one to four pure product states. Inseparable states can be described as pseudomixtures of four or five pure product states, and can be made separable by mixing them with one or two pure product states.
We study six natural decompositions of mixed states in one spatial dimension: the Matrix Product Density Operator (MPDO) form, the local purification form, the separable decomposition (for separable states), and their three translational invariant (t.i.) analogues. For bipartite states diagonal in the computational basis, we show that these decompositions correspond to well-studied factorisations of an associated nonnegative matrix. Specifically, the first three decompositions correspond to the minimal factorisation, the nonnegative factorisation, and the positive semidefinite factorisation. W…
The structural study of entanglement in multipartite systems is hindered by the lack of necessary and sufficient operational criteria able to discriminate among the various entanglement properties of a given mixed state. Here, we pursue a different route to the study of multipartite entanglement based on the closeness of a multipartite state to the set of separable ones. In particular, we analyze multipartite diagonal symmetric N qubit states and provide the analytical expression for their Best Separable Approximation (BSA [Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 2261 (1998)]), that is, their unique convex decom…
We introduce algebraic sets in the complex projective spaces for the mixed states in bipartite quantum systems as their invariants under local unitary operations. The algebraic sets of the mixed state have to be the union of the linear subspaces if the mixed state is separable. Some examples are given and studied based on our criterion
This paper present a geometric diagram of a separable state: If a mixed state $σ$ is separable, there are $2^{nS(σ)}$ linearly independant product vectors which span the same Hilbert space as the $2^{nS(σ)}$ ``likely'' strings of $σ^{\otimes n}$ do. This diagram results in a criterion for separability which is strictly stronger than the inorder criterion in [M.A. Nielsen and J. Kempe, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 5184 (2001)]. This means that the number of product bases of states of a system has close link to the nonlocality of the system.
We obtain the necessary and sufficient separability and distillability conditions of mixtures of a maximally entangled state and the completely separable state in relativistic setting. In an inertial frame we study the entanglement under Wigner rotations induced by Lorentz transformations. We also investigate the mixed state entanglement of scalar and Dirac fields as seen by two relatively accelerated observers. For scalar field we show that in infinite acceleration limit the state has no longer distillable entanglement. For dirac field the entanglement in the infinite acceleration limit is fi…
The computable measure of the mixed-state entanglement, the negativity, is shown to admit a clear geometrical interpretation, when applied to Schmidt-correlated (SC) states: the negativity of a SC state equals a distance of the state from a pertinent separable state. As a consequence, a SC state is separable if and only if its negativity vanishes. Another remarkable consequence is that the negativity of a SC can be estimated "at a glance" on the density matrix. These results are generalized to mixtures of SC states, which emerge in certain quantum-dynamical settings.
We give improved upper bounds on the radius of the largest ball of separable states of an m-qubit system around the maximally mixed state. The ratio between the upper bound and the best known lower bound (Hildebrand, quant.ph/0601201) thus shrinks to a constant c = \sqrt{34/27} ~ 1.122, as opposed to a term of order \sqrt{m\log m} for the best upper bound known previously (Aubrun and Szarek, quant.ph/0503221). We give concrete examples of separable states on the boundary to entanglement which realize these upper bounds. As a by-product, we compute the radii of the largest balls that fit into t…
The robustness of entanglement results of Vidal and Tarrach considered the problem whereby an entangled state is mixed with a separable state so that the overall state becomes non-entangled. In general it is known that there are also cases when entangled states are mixed with other entangled states and where the sum is separable. In this paper, we treat the more general case where entangled states can be mixed with any states so that the resulting mixture is unentangled. It is found that entangled pure states for this generalized case have the same robustness as the restricted case of Vidal an…
We reduce the question whether a given quantum mixed state is separable or entangled to the problem of existence of a certain full family of commuting normal matrices whose matrix elements are partially determined by components of the pure states constituting a decomposition of the considered mixture. The method reproduces many known entanglement and/or separability criteria, and provides yet another geometrical characterization of mixed separable states.
We introduce algebraic sets in the products of complex projective spaces for the mixed states in multipartite quantum systems as their invariants under local unitary operations. The algebraic sets have to be the union of the linear subspaces if the state is separable. Some examples are studied based on our criterion
The geometric measure of entanglement of a pure state, defined by its distance to the set of pure separable states, is extended to multipartite mixed states. We characterize the nearest disentangled mixed state to a given mixed state with respect to this measure by a system of equations. The entanglement eigenvalue for a mixed state is introduced. For a given mixed state, we show that its nearest disentangled mixed state is associated with its entanglement eigenvalue.