For any unitarily invariant convex function F on the states of a composite quantum system which isolates the trace there is a critical constant C such that F(w)<= C for a state w implies that w is not entangled; and for any possible D > C there are entangled states v with F(v)=D. Upper- and lower bounds on C are given. The critical values of some F's for qubit/qubit and qubit/qutrit bipartite systems are computed. Simple conditions on the spectrum of a state guaranteeing separability are obtained. It is shown that the thermal equilbrium states specified by any Hamiltonian of an arbitrary compositum are separable if the temperature is high enough.
For two qubits and for general bipartite quantum systems, we give a simple spectral condition in terms of the ordered eigenvalues of the density matrix which guarantees that the corresponding state is separable.
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.
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.
We investigate the canonical forms of positive partial transposition (PPT) density matrices in ${\cal C}^2 \otimes {\cal C}^M \otimes {\cal C}^N$ composite quantum systems with rank $N$. A general expression for these PPT states are explicitly obtained. From this canonical form a sufficient separability condition is presented.
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 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.
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.
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…
This work is an enquiry into the circumstances under which entropy methods can give an answer to the questions of both quantum separability and classical correlations of a composite state. Several entropy functionals are employed to examine the entanglement and correlation properties guided by the corresponding calculations of concurrence. It is shown that the entropy difference between that of the composite and its marginal density matrices may be of arbitrary sign except under special circumstances when conditional probability can be defined appropriately. This ambiguity is a consequence of …
A geometrical picture of separability of 2 x 2 composite quantum systems, showing the region of separable density matrices in the space of hermitian matrices, is given. It rests on the criterion of separability given by Peres, and it is an extension of the ``Horodecki diagram'' and the ``stella octangula'' described by Aravind.
We revisit the relationship between quantum separability and the sign of the relative q-entropies of composite quantum systems. The q-entropies depend on the density matrix eigenvalues p_i through the quantity omega_q = sum_i p_i^q. Renyi's and Tsallis' measures constitute particular instances of these entropies. We perform a systematic numerical survey of the space of mixed states of two-qubit systems in order to determine, as a function of the degree of mixture, and for different values of the entropic parameter q, the volume in state space occupied by those states characterized by positive …
Quantum mechanics is already 100 years old, but remains alive and full of challenging open problems. On one hand, the problems encountered at the frontiers of modern theoretical physics like Quantum Gravity, String Theories, etc. concern Quantum Theory, and are at the same time related to open problems of modern mathematics. But even within non-relativistic quantum mechanics itself there are fundamental unresolved problems that can be formulated in elementary terms. These problems are also related to challenging open questions of modern mathematics; linear algebra and functional analysis in pa…
By using the "subtracting projectors" method in proving the separability of PPT states on multiple quantum spaces, we derive a canonical form of PPT states in ${\Cb}^{K_1} \otimes {\Cb}^{K_2} \otimes ... \otimes {\Cb}^{K_m} \otimes {\Cb}^N$ composite quantum systems with rank $N$, from which a sufficient separability condition for these states is presented.
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.
Within the decoherence theory we investigate the physical background of the condition of the separability (diagonalizability in noncorrelated basis) of the interaction Hamiltonian of the composite system, "system plus environment". It proves that the condition of the separability may serve as a criterion for defining "system", but so that "system" cannot be defined unless it is simultaneously defined with its "environment". When extended to a set of the mutually interacting composite systems, this result implies that the separability conditions of the local interactions are mutually tied. The …
The question of the generation of random mixed states is discussed, aiming for the computation of probabilistic characteristics of composite finite dimensional quantum systems. Particularly, we consider the generation of the random Hilbert-Schmidt and Bures ensembles of qubit and qutrit pairs and compute the corresponding probabilities to find a separable state among the states of a fixed rank.
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 study the general representations of positive partial transpose (PPT) states in ${\cal C}^K \otimes {\cal C}^M \otimes {\cal C}^N$. For the PPT states with rank-$N$ a canonical form is obtained, from which a sufficient separability condition is presented.
The study of conditional $q$-entropies in composite quantum systems has recently been the focus of considerable interest, particularly in connection with the problem of separability. The $q$-entropies depend on the density matrix $ρ$ through the quantity $ω_q = Trρ^q$, and admit as a particular instance the standard von Neumann entropy in the limit case $q\to 1$. A comprehensive numerical survey of the space of pure and mixed states of bipartite systems is here performed, in order to determine the volumes in state space occupied by those states exhibiting various special properties related to …
We study geometrical aspects of entanglement, with the Hilbert--Schmidt norm defining the metric on the set of density matrices. We focus first on the simplest case of two two-level systems and show that a ``relativistic'' formulation leads to a complete analysis of the question of separability. Our approach is based on Schmidt decomposition of density matrices for a composite system and non-unitary transformations to a standard form. The positivity of the density matrices is crucial for the method to work. A similar approach works to some extent in higher dimensions, but is a less powerful to…
We present here an overview of our work concerning entanglement properties of composite quantum systems. The characterization of entanglement, i.e. the possibility to assert if a given quantum state is entangled with others and how much entangled it is, remains one of the most fundamental open questions in quantum information theory. We discuss our recent results related to the problem of separability and distillability for distinguishable particles, employing the tool of witness operators. Finally, we also state our results concerning quantum correlations for indistinguishable particles.
The quantum relative Renyi entropy of two density matrices was recently extended when the two do not commute, from which a conditional entropy is identified. This is here extended to the corresponding Tsallis relative entropy and to its conditional form. This new expression of Tsallis conditional entropy is shown to witness entanglement beyond the method based on global and local spectra of composite quantum states. When the reduced density matrix happens to be a maximally mixed state, this conditional entropy coincides with the expression in terms of Tsallis entropies derived earlier by Abe a…
A quantum system consisting of two subsystems is separable if its density matrix can be written as $ρ=\sum w_K ρ_K'\otimes ρ_K''$, where $ρ_K'$ and $ρ_K''$ are density matrices for the two subsytems, and the positive weights $w_K$ satisfy $\sum w_K=1$. A necessary condition for separability is derived and is shown to be more sensitive than Bell's inequality for detecting quantum inseparability. Moreover, collective tests of Bell's inequality (namely, tests that involve several composite systems simultaneously) may sometimes lead to a violation of Bell's inequality, even if the latter is satisf…
Any bipartite quantum state has quasi-probability representations in terms of separable states. For entangled states these quasi-probabilities necessarily exhibit negativities. Based on the general structure of composite quantum states, one may reconstruct such quasi-propabilities from experimental data. Because of ambiguity, the quasi-probabilities obtained by the bare reconstruction are insufficient to identify entanglement. An optimization procedure is introduced to derive quasi-probabilities with a minimal amount of negativity. Negativities of optimized quasi-probabilities unambiguously pr…
A general method for extending a non-dissipative nonlinear Schrödinger and Liouville-von Neumann 1-particle dynamics to an arbitrary number of particles is described. It is shown at a general level that the dynamics so obtained is completely separable, which is the strongest condition one can impose on dynamics of composite systems. It requires that for all initial states (entangled or not) a subsystem not only cannot be influenced by any action undertaken by an observer in a separated system (strong separability), but additionally that the self-consistency condition $Tr_2\circ ϕ^t_{1+2}=ϕ^t_{…
We investigate the geometric characterization of pure state bipartite entanglement of $(2\times{D})$- and $(3\times{D})$-dimensional composite quantum systems. To this aim, we analyze the relationship between states and their images under the action of particular classes of local unitary operations. We find that invariance of states under the action of single-qubit and single-qutrit transformations is a necessary and sufficient condition for separability. We demonstrate that in the $(2\times{D})$-dimensional case the von Neumann entropy of entanglement is a monotonic function of the minimum sq…
The structure of the state spaces of bipartite (N tensor N) quantum systems which are invariant under product representations of the group SO(3) of three-dimensional proper rotations is analyzed. The subsystems represent particles of arbitrary spin j which transform according to an irreducible representation of the rotation group. A positive map theta is introduced which describes the time reversal symmetry of the local states and which is unitarily equivalent to the transposition of matrices. It is shown that the partial time reversal transformation theta_2 = (I tensor theta) acting on the co…
We address the question of description of qubit system in a formalism based on the nilpotent commuting variables. In this formalism qubits exhibit properties of composite objects being subject of the Pauli exclusion principle, but otherwise behaving boson-like. They are not fundamental particles. In such an approach the classical limit yields the nilpotent mechanics. Using the space of $η$-wavefunctions, generalized Schrödinger equation etc. we study properties of pure qubit systems and also properties of some composed, hybrid models: fermion-qubit, boson-qubit. The fermion-qubit system can be…
Working with multivariate probability distributions Sklar introduced the notion of copula in 1959, which turned out to be a key concept to understand the structure of distributions of composite systems. Roughly speaking Sklar proved that a joint distribution can be represented with its marginals and a copula. The main goal of this paper is to present a quantum analogue of the notion of copula. Our main theorem states that for any state of a composite quantum system there exists a unique copula such that they are connected to each other by invertible matrices, moreover, they are both separable …
We investigate multipartite entanglement for composite quantum systems in a pure state. Using the generalized Bloch representation for n-qubit states, we express the condition that all k-qubit reductions of the whole system are maximally mixed, reflecting maximum bipartite entanglement across all k vs. n-k bipartitions. As a special case, we examine the class of balanced pure states, which are constructed from a subset of the Pauli group P_n that is isomorphic to Z_2^n. This makes a connection with the theory of quantum error-correcting codes and provides bounds on the largest allowed k for fi…
Gedanken experiments in quantum gravity motivate generalised uncertainty relations (GURs) implying deviations from the standard quantum statistics close to the Planck scale. These deviations have been extensively investigated for the non-spin part of the wave function but existing models tacitly assume that spin states remain unaffected by the quantisation of the background in which the quantum matter propagates. Here, we explore a new model of nonlocal geometry in which the Planck-scale smearing of classical points generates GURs for angular momentum. These, in turn, imply an analogous genera…
