Entanglement is a powerful resource for processing quantum information. In this context pure, maximally entangled states have received considerable attention. In the case of bipartite qubit-systems the four orthonormal Bell-states are of this type. One of these Bell states, the singlet Bell-state, has the additional property of being antisymmetric with respect to particle exchange. In this contribution we discuss possible generalizations of this antisymmetric Bell-state to cases with more than two particles and with single-particle Hilbert spaces involving more than two dimensions. We review basic properties of these totally antisymmetric states. Among possible applications of this class of states we analyze a new quantum key sharing protocol and methods for comparing quantum states.
We propose generalizations of concurrence for multi-partite quantum systems that can distinguish qualitatively distinct quantum correlations. All introduced quantities can be evaluated efficiently for arbitrary mixed sates.
We develop protocols for preparing a GHZ state and, in general,a pure multi-partite maximally entangled state in a distributed network with apriori quantum entanglement between agents using classical communication and local operations. We investigate and characterize the minimal combinatorics of the sharing of EPR pairs required amongst agents in a network for the creation of multi-partite entanglement. We also characterize the minimal combinatorics of agents in the creation of pure maximal multi-partite entanglement amongst the set $N$ of $n$ agents in a network using apriori multi-partite en…
We derive hierarchies of separability criteria that identify the different degrees of entanglement ranging from bipartite to genuine multi-partite in mixed quantum states of arbitrary size.
Identifying the $k$-partite entanglement and $k$-nonseparability of general $N$-partite quantum states are fundamental issues in quantum information theory. By use of computable inequalities of nonlinear operators, we present some simple and powerful $k$-partite entanglement and $k$-nonseparability criteria that works very well and allow for a simple and inexpensive test for the whole hierarchy of $k$-partite entanglement and $k$-separability of $N$-partite systems with $k$ running from $N$ down to 2. We illustrate their strengths by considering several examples in which our criteria perform b…
We provide various schemes for the splitting up of Quantum information into parts using the four and five partite cluster states. Explicit protocols for the Quantum information splitting (QIS) of single and two qubit states are illustrated. It is found that the four partite cluster state can be used for the QIS of an entangled state and the five partite cluster state can be used for QIS of an arbitrary two qubit state. The schemes considered here are also secure against certain eavesdropping attacks.
The variety of multi-partite entangled states enables numerous applications in novel quantum information tasks. In order to compare the suitability of different states from a theoretical point of view classifications have been introduced. Accordingly, here we derive criteria and demonstrate how to experimentally discriminate an observed state against the ones of certain other classes of multi-partite entangled states. Our method, originating in Bell inequalities, adds an important tool for the characterization of multi-party entanglement.
We show how multi-partite entanglement, such as of W-state form, can be created in branched spin chain systems. We also discuss the preservation of such entanglement, once created. The technique could be applied to actual spin chain systems, or to other physical systems such as strings of coupled quantum dots, molecules or atoms.
The degree to which a pure quantum state is entangled can be characterized by the distance or angle to the nearest unentangled state. This geometric measure of entanglement is explored for bi-partite and multi-partite pure and mixed states. It is determined analytically for arbitrary two-qubit mixed states, generalized Werner, and isotropic states, and is also applied to certain multi-partite mixed states, including two distinct multi-partite bound entangled states. Moreover, the ground-state entanglement of the XY model in a transverse field is calculated and shown to exhibit singular behavio…
Two pure states of a multi-partite system are alway are related by a unitary transformation acting on the Hilbert space of the whole system. This transformation involves multi-partite transformations. On the other hand some quantum information protocols such as the quantum teleportation and quantum dense coding are based on equivalence of some classes of states of bi-partite systems under the action of local (one-particle) unitary operations. In this paper we address the question: ``Under what conditions are the two states states, $\varrho$ and $σ$, of a multi-partite system locally unitary eq…
We analyze the security of two multipartite quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols, specifically we introduce an $N$-partite version of the BB84 protocol and we discuss the $N$-partite six-state protocol proposed in arXiv:1612.05585v2. The security analysis proceeds from the generalization of known results in bipartite QKD to the multipartite scenario, and takes into account finite resources. In this context we derive a computable expression for the achievable key rate of both protocols by employing the best-known strategies: the uncertainty relation and the postselection technique. We compa…
We present local invariants of multi-partite pure or mixed states, which can be easily calculated and have a straight-forward physical meaning. As an application, we derive a new entanglement criterion for arbitrary mixed states of $n$ parties. The new criterion is weaker than the partial transposition criterion but offers advantages for the study of multipartite systems. A straightforward generalization of these invariants allows for the construction of a complete set of observable polynomial invariants.
We consider the degrees of controllability of multi-partite quantum systems as well as necessary and sufficient criteria for each case. The results are applied to the problem of simultaneous control of an ensemble of quantum dots with a single laser pulse. Finally, we apply optimal control techniques to demonstrate selective excitation of individual dots for a simultaneously controllable ensemble.
We present a tripartite three-level state that allows a secret sharing protocol among the three parties, or a quantum key distribution protocol between any two parties. The state used in this scheme contains entanglement even after one system is traced out. We show how to utilize this residual entanglement for quantum key distribution purposes, and propose a realization of the scheme using entanglement of orbital angular momentum states of photons.
In this paper, combined with infinite time-evolving block decimation (iTEBD) algorithm and Bell-type inequalities, we investigate multi-partite quantum nonlocality in an infinite one-dimensional quantum spin-1/2 XXZ system. High hierarchy of multipartite nonlocality can be observed in the gapless phase of the model, meanwhile only the lowest hierarchy of multipartite nonlocality is observed in most regions of the gapped anti-ferromagnetic phase. Thereby, Bell-type inequalities disclose different correlation structures in the two phases of the system. Furthermore, at the infinite-order QPT (or …
In a recent work by Novo et al. (Sci. Rep. 5, 13304, 2015), the invariant subspace method was applied to the study of continuous-time quantum walk (CTQW). The method helps to reduce a graph into a simpler version that allows more transparent analyses of the quantum walk model. In this work, we adopt the aforementioned method to investigate the optimality of a quantum walk search of a marked element on a complete multi-partite graph. We formulate the eigenbasis that would facilitate the transport between the two lowest energy eigenstates and demonstrate how to set the appropriate coupling facto…
In this paper, a computable multipartite multimode Gaussian quantum correlation measure ${\mathcal M}^{(k)}$ is proposed for any $k$-partite continuous-variable (CV) systems with $k\geq 2$. ${\mathcal M}^{(k)}$ depends only on the covariance matrix of CV states, is invariant under any permutation of subsystems, is a quantification without ancilla problem, nonincreasing under $k$-partite local Gaussian channels (particularly, invariant under $k$-partite local Gaussian unitary operations), vanishes on $k$-partite product states. For a $k$-partite Gaussian state $ρ$, ${\mathcal M}^{(k)}(ρ)=0$ if …
We show how to create maximally entangled dressed states of a weakly interacting multi-partite quantum system by suitably tuning an external, periodic driving field. Floquet theory allows us to relate, in a transparent manner, the occurrence of entanglement resonances to avoided crossings in the spectrum of quasi-energies, tantamount of well-defined conditions for the controlled, resonant interaction of particles. We demonstrate the universality of the phenomenon for periodically driven, weakly interacting two-level systems, by considering different interaction mechanisms and driving profiles.…
We show that there is a unique maximal decomposition of a pure multi-partite (N>2) quantum state into a sum of states which are "locally orthogonal" in the sense that the local reduced state for a term in the sum lives in its own orthogonal subspace for each subsystem. Observers can make local measurements on any subsystem and determine which "branch" they are on. The Shannon entropy of the resulting branch weights defines a new measure of global, GHZ-like entanglement, which is insensitive to local pairwise entangling operations and vanishes when there is no piece of information recorded at e…
The detection of multipartite entanglement in arbitrary dimensional systems is investigated. We derive useful $k$-separability criteria of mixed $n$-partite ($n\geq 3$) quantum states to detect $k$-nonseparable $n$-partite quantum states. Our criteria can be expressed by the elements of the density matrix, which allows a simple and practical evaluation and computation. They are experimentally accessible without quantum state tomography.
We introduce inequalities for multi-partite entanglement, derived from the geometry of spin vectors. The criteria are constructed iteratively from cross and dot products between the spins of individual subsystems, each of which may have arbitrary dimension. For qubit ensembles the maximum violation for our inequalities is larger than that for the Mermin-Klyshko Bell inequalities, and the maximally violating states are different from Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states. Our inequalities are violated by certain bound entangled states for which no Bell-type violation has yet been found.
We show how to quantify tri-partite entanglement using entropies derived from experimental correlations. We use a multi-partite generalization of the entanglement of formation that is greater than zero if and only if the state is genuinely multi-partite entangled. We develop an entropic witness for tripartite entanglement, and show that the degree of violation of this witness places a lower limit on the tripartite entanglement of formation. We test our results in the three-qubit regime using the GHZ-Werner state and the W-Werner state, and in the high-dimensional pure-state regime using the tr…
Bi-partite entanglement in multi-qubit systems cannot be shared freely. The rules of quantum mechanics impose bounds on how multi-qubit systems can be correlated. In this paper we utilize a concept of entangled graphs with weighted edges in order to analyze pure quantum states of multi-qubit systems. Here qubits are represented by vertexes of the graph while the presence of bi-partite entanglement is represented by an edge between corresponding vertexes. The weight of each edge is defined to be the entanglement between the two qubits connected by the edge, as measured by the concurrence. We pr…
We derive a general framework to identify genuinely multipartite entangled mixed quantum states in arbitrary-dimensional systems and show in exemplary cases that the constructed criteria are stronger than those previously known. Our criteria are simple functions of the given quantum state and detect genuine multipartite entanglement that had not been identified so far. They are experimentally accessible without quantum state tomography and are easily computable as no optimization or eigenvalue evaluation is needed.
We investigate and define dark and semi-dark states for multiple qudit systems. For two-level systems, semi-dark and dark states are equivalent. We show that the semi-dark states are equivalent to the singlet states of the rotation group. They exist for many multiple qudit systems, whereas dark states are quite rare. We then show that when a dark state is collapsed onto another dark state of fewer parties, the resulting state is again dark. Furthermore, one can use two orthogonal multi-qudit dark states to construct a decoherence-free qudit.
The laws of quantum mechanics allow for the distribution of a secret random key between two parties. Here we analyse the security of a protocol for establishing a common secret key between N parties (i.e. a conference key), using resource states with genuine N-partite entanglement. We compare this protocol to conference key distribution via bipartite entanglement, regarding the required resources, achievable secret key rates and threshold qubit error rates. Furthermore we discuss quantum networks with bottlenecks for which our multipartite entanglement-based protocol can benefit from network c…
The theory of the asymptotic manipulation of pure bipartite quantum systems can be considered completely understood: The rates at which bipartite entangled states can be asymptotically transformed into each other are fully determined by a single number each, the respective entanglement entropy. In the multi-partite setting, similar questions of the optimally achievable rates of transforming one pure state into another are notoriously open. This seems particularly unfortunate in the light of the revived interest in such questions due to the perspective of experimentally realizing multi-partite …
In this paper we show that sufficient multi-partite quantum entanglement helps in fair and unbiased election of a leader in a distributed network of processors with only linear classical communication complexity. We show that a total of $O(\log n)$ distinct multi-partite maximally entanglement sets (ebits) are capable of supporting such a protocol in the presence of nodes that may lie and thus be biased. Here, $n$ is the number of nodes in the network. We also demonstrate the difficulty of performing unbiased and fair election of a leader with linear classical communication complexity in the a…
We give a new separability criterion, a necessary condition for separability of $N$-partite quantum states. The criterion is based on the Bloch representation of a $N$-partite quantum state and makes use of multilinear algebra, in particular, the matrization of tensors. Our criterion applies to {\it arbitrary} $N$-partite quantum states in $\mathcal{H}=\mathcal{H}^{d_1}\otimes \mathcal{H}^{d_2} \otimes ... \otimes \mathcal{H}^{d_N}.$ The criterion can test whether a $N$-partite state is entangled and can be applied to different partitions of the $N$-partite system. We provide examples that sho…
We develop separability criteria to identify non-$k$-separability $(k = 2,3,\ldots,n)$ and genuine multipartite entanglement in different classes of mixed $n$-partite quantum states using elements of density matrices. With the help of these criteria, we detect non-$k$-separability in $n$-qudit GHZ and W states respectively added with white noise. We also discuss the experimental implementation of our criteria by means of local observables.
The preparation of multipartite entangled states is the prerequisite for exploring quantum information networks and quantum computation. In this letter, we present the first experimental demonstration of eight-partite spatially separated CV entangled states. The initial resource quantum states are eight squeezed states of light, through the linearly optical transformation of which two types of the eight-partite cluster entangled states are prepared, respectively. The generated eight entangled photonic qumodes are spatially separated, which provide valuable quantum resources to implement more c…
A genuinely $N$-partite entangled state may display vanishing $N$-partite correlations measured for arbitrary local observables. In such states the genuine entanglement is noticeable solely in correlations between subsets of particles. A straightforward way to obtain such states for odd $N$ is to design an `anti-state' in which all correlations between an odd number of observers are exactly opposite. Evenly mixing a state with its anti-state then produces a mixed state with no $N$-partite correlations, with many of them genuinely multiparty entangled. Intriguingly, all known examples of `entan…
We show how to make event-ready multi-partite entanglement between qubits which may be encoded on photons or matter systems. Entangled states of matter systems, which can also act as single photon sources, can be generated using the entangling operation presented in quant-ph/0408040. We show how to entangle such sources with photon qubits, which may be encoded in the dual rail, polarization or time-bin degrees of freedom. We subsequently demonstrate how projective measurements of the matter qubits can be used to create entangled states of the photons alone. The state of the matter qubits is in…
The squash operation, or the squashing model, is a useful mathematical tool for proving the security of quantum key distribution systems using practical (i.e., non-ideal) detectors. At the present, however, this method can only be applied to a limited class of detectors, such as the threshold detector of the Bennett-Brassard 1984 type. In this paper we generalize this method to include multi-partite measurements, such that it can be applied to a wider class of detectors. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this generalization by applying it to the device-independent security proof of the Ekert…
Group theoretic methods to construct all N-particle singlet states by iterative recursion are presented. These techniques are applied to the quantum correlations of four spin one-half particles in their singlet states. Multipartite quantized systems can be partitioned, and their observables grouped and redefined into condensed correlations.
In this paper, we focus on two different kinds of multipartite correlation, $k$-nonseparability and $k$-partite entanglement, both of which can describe the essential characteristics of multipartite entanglement. We propose effective methods to detect $k$-nonseparability and $k$-partite entanglement in terms of quantum Fisher information. We illustrate the significance of our results and show that they identify some $k$-nonseparability and $k$-partite entanglement that cannot be identified by known criteria by several concrete examples.
In a network of spin 1/2 particles, controlled through an external electro-magnetic field, the gyromagnetic ratio of each spin is a parameter that characterizes the interaction of the spin with the external control field. Multipartite networks are such that the spins are divided into subsets according to their gyromagnetic ratio and spins in one set interact in the same way with all spins in another set. Due to the presence of symmetries in this type of systems, the underlying Hilbert state space splits into invariant subspaces for the dynamics. Subspace controllability is verified if every un…
We study the norms of the Bloch vectors for arbitrary $n$-partite quantum states. A tight upper bound of the norms is derived for $n$-partite systems with different individual dimensions. These upper bounds are used to deal with the separability problems. Necessary conditions are presented for $\mathbf m$-separable states in $n$-partite quantum systems. Based on the upper bounds, classification of multipartite entanglement is illustrated with detailed examples.
We propose a wide class of distillation schemes for multi-partite entangled states that are CSS-states. Our proposal provides not only superior efficiency, but also new insights on the connection between CSS-states and bipartite graph states. We then apply our distillation schemes to the tri-partite case for three cryptographic tasks--namely, (a) conference key agreement, (b) quantum sharing of classical secrets and (c) third-man cryptography. Moreover, we construct ``prepare-and-measure'' protocols for the above three cryptographic tasks which can be implemented with the generation of only a …
We construct a method for verifying mode entanglement of N-mode W states. The ideal W state contains exactly one excitation symmetrically shared between N modes, but our method takes the existence of higher numbers of excitations into account, as well as the vacuum state and other deviations from the ideal state. Moreover, our method distinguishes between full N-party entanglement and states with M-party entanglement with M<N, including mixtures of the latter. We specialize to the case N=4 for illustrative purposes. In the optical case, where excitations are photons, our method can be implemen…
Secret sharing is a multi-party cryptographic primitive that can be applied to a network of partially distrustful parties for encrypting data that is both sensitive (it must remain secure) and important (it must not be lost or destroyed). When sharing classical secrets (as opposed to quantum states), one can distinguish between protocols that leverage bi-partite quantum key distribution (QKD) and those that exploit multi-partite entanglement. The latter class are known to be vulnerable to so-called participant attacks and, while progress has been made recently, there is currently no analysis t…
One notion of non-locality in quantum theory is the fact that information may be encoded in a composite system in such a way that it is not accessible through local measurements, even with the assistance of classical communication. Thus, contrary to the classical case, there exists information in quantum many body systems which cannot be accessed locally. We show however that, remarkably, two-dimensional subspaces do not have this property: any physically allowed measurement on information encoded in any two-dimensional subspace, regardless of entanglement or multi-partite structure, may be pe…
We present a general technique for hiding a classical bit in multipartite quantum states. The hidden bit, encoded in the choice of one of two possible density operators, cannot be recovered by local operations and classical communication without quantum communication. The scheme remains secure if quantum communication is allowed between certain partners, and can be designed for any choice of quantum communication patterns to be secure, but to allow near perfect recovery for all other patterns. The maximal probability of unwanted recovery of the hidden bit, as well as the maximal error for allo…
A set of multipartite orthogonal quantum states is strongly nonlocal if it is locally irreducible for every bipartition of the subsystems [Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 040403 (2019)]. Although this property has been shown in three-, four- and five-partite systems, the existence of strongly nonlocal sets in $N$-partite systems remains unknown when $N\geq 6$. In this paper, we successfully show that a strongly nonlocal set of orthogonal entangled states exists in $(\mathbb{C}^d)^{\otimes N}$ for all $N\geq 3$ and $d\geq 2$, which for the first time reveals the strong quantum nonlocality in general $N$-…
Non-classical correlations between measurement results make entanglement the essence of quantum physics and the main resource for quantum information applications. Surprisingly, there are $n$-particle states which do not exhibit $n$-partite correlations at all but still are genuinely $n$-partite entangled. We introduce a general construction principle for such states, implement them in a multiphoton experiment and analyze their properties in detail. Remarkably, even without $n$-partite correlations, these states do violate Bell inequalities showing that there is no classical, i.e., local reali…
We study the concurrence for arbitrary N-partite W-class states based on the (N-1)-partite partitions of subsystems by taking account to the structures of W-class states. By using the method of permutation and combination we give analytical formula of concurrence and some elegant relations between the multipartite concurrence and the (N-1)-partite concurrence for arbitrary multipartite W-class states. Applying these relations we present better lower bounds of concurrence for multipartite mixed states. An example is given to demonstrate that our lower bounds can detect more entanglements.
We propose two classes of the generalized concurrence vectors of the multipartite systems consisting of qubits. Making use of them, we are able to, respectively, describe and quantify GHZ-class and W-class entanglement both in total and between arbitrary two partite in the multipartite system consisting of qubits. In the case of pure state of three qubits that one partite is separable, it is shown to exactly back to the usual Wootters' concurrence after introduce a whole concurrence vector. In principle, our method is applicable to any $N$-partite systems consisting of $N$ qubits.
