In this work we consider the permutational properties of multipartite entanglement monotones. Based on the fact that genuine multipartite entanglement is a property of the entire multiqubit system, we argue that ideal definitions for its characterizing quantities must be permutation invariant. Using this criterion, we examine the three four-qubit entanglement monotones introduced by Osterloh and Siewert [Phys. Rev. A 72, 012337 (2005)]. By expressing them in terms of quantities whose permutational properties can be easily derived, we find that one of these monotones is not permutation invariant. We propose a permutation-invariant entanglement monotone to replace it, and show that our new monotone properly measures the genuine four-qubit entanglement in four-qubit cluster-class states. Our results provide some useful insights in understanding multipartite entanglement.
In this work we consider the permutational properties of multipartite entanglement monotones. Based on the fact that genuine multipartite entanglement is a property of the entire multiqubit system, we argue that ideal definitions for its characterizing quantities must be permutation invariant. Using this criterion, we examine the three four-qubit entanglement monotones introduced by Osterloh and Siewert [Phys. Rev. A 72, 012337 (2005)]. By expressing them in terms of quantities whose permutational properties can be easily derived, we find that one of these monotones is not permutation invariant. We propose a permutation-invariant entanglement monotone to replace it, and show that our new monotone properly measures the genuine four-qubit entanglement in four-qubit cluster-class states. Our results provide some useful insights in understanding multipartite entanglement.
It is a recent observation that entanglement classification for qubits is closely related to local SL(2,C)-invariants including the invariance under qubit permutations [Dür, et al., Phys. Rev. A 62, 062314 (2000); Osterloh, A. and Siewert, J., Phys. Rev. A 72, 012337 (2005); O. Chterental and D. Ž. Ðoković, Linear Algebra Research Advances (Nova Science, Hauppauge, N.Y., 2007), Chap. 4, p. 133], which has been termed SL∗ invariance. In order to single out the SL∗ invariants, we analyze the SL(2,C)-invariants of four (five) qubits and decompose them into irreducible modules for the symmetric group S4 (S5) of qubit permutations. A classifying set of measures of genuine multipartite entanglement is given by the ideal of the algebra of SL∗-invariants vanishing on arbitrary product states. We find that low degree homogeneous components of this ideal can be constructed in full by using the approach introduced by Osterloh and Siewert [Phys. Rev. A 72, 012337 (2005); Int. J. Quant. Inf. 4, 531 (2006)]. Our analysis highlights an intimate connection between this latter procedure and the standard methods to create invariants, such as the Ω-process [Luque, J.-G. and Thibon, J.-Y., J. Phys. A 39, 371 (2005)]. As the degrees of invariants increase, the alternative method proves to be particularly efficient.
We consider the problem of characterizing genuine multiparticle entanglement for permutationally invariant states using the approach of positive partial transpose mixtures. We show that the evaluation of this necessary biseparability criterion scales polynomially with the number of particles. In practice, it can be evaluated easily up to ten qubits and improves existing criteria significantly. Finally, we show that our approach solves the problem of characterizing genuine multiparticle entanglement for permutationally invariant three-qubit states.
We show that a positive homogeneous function that is invariant under determinant-1 stochastic local operations and classical communication (SLOCC) transformations defines an N-qubit entanglement monotone if and only if the homogeneous degree is not larger than 4. We then describe a common basis and formalism for the N-tangle and other known invariant polynomials of degree 4. This allows us to elucidate the relation of the four-qubit invariants defined by Luque and Thibon [Phys. Rev. A 67, 042303 (2003)] and the reduced two-qubit density matrices of the states under consideration, thus giving a physical interpretation for those invariants. We demonstrate that this is a special case of a completely general law that holds for any multipartite system with bipartitions of equal dimension, e.g., for an even number of qudits.
Quantifying entanglement is vital to understand entanglement as a resource in quantum information processing, and many entanglement measures have been suggested for this purpose. When mathematically defining an entanglement measure, we should consider the distinguishability between entangled and separable states, the invariance under local transformation, the monotonicity under local operations and classical communication, and the convexity. These are reasonable requirements but may be insufficient, in particular when taking into account the usefulness of quantum states in multi-party quantum information processing. Therefore, if we want to investigate multipartite entanglement as a resource, then it can be necessary to consider the usefulness of quantum states in multi-party quantum information processing when we define a multipartite entanglement measure. In this paper, we define new multipartite entanglement measures for three-qubit systems based on the three-party teleportation capability, and show that these entanglement measures satisfy the requirements for being genuine multipartite entanglement measures. We also generalize our entanglement measures for N-qubit systems, where [Formula: see text], and discuss that these quantities may be good candidates to measure genuine multipartite entanglement.
The main concern of this paper is how to define proper measures of multipartite entanglement for mixed quantum states. Since the structure of partial separability and multipartite entanglement is getting complicated if the number of subsystems exceeds two, one cannot expect the existence of an ultimate scalar entanglement measure, which grasps even a small part of the rich hierarchical structure of multipartite entanglement, and some higher-order structure characterizing that is needed. In this paper we make some steps in this direction. First, we reveal the lattice-theoretic structure of the partial separability classification, introduced earlier [Sz. Szalay and Z. K\"ok\'enyesi, Phys. Rev. A 86, 032341 (2012)]. It turns out that, mathematically, the structure of the entanglement classes is the up-set lattice of the structure of the different kinds of partial separability, which is the down-set lattice of the lattice of the partitions of the subsystems. It also turns out that, physically, this structure is related to the local operations and classical communication convertibility: If a state from a class can be mapped into another one, then that class can be found higher in the hierarchy. Second, we introduce the notion of multipartite monotonicity, expressing that a given set of entanglement monotones, while measuring the different kinds of entanglement, shows also the same hierarchical structure as the entanglement classes. Then we construct such hierarchies of entanglement measures and propose a physically well-motivated one, being the direct multipartite generalization of the entanglement of formation based on the entanglement entropy, motivated by the notion of statistical distinguishability. The multipartite monotonicity shown by this set of measures motivates us to consider the measures to be the different manifestations of some ``unified'' notion of entanglement.
A complete characterization and quantification of entanglement, particularly the multipartite entanglement, remains an unfinished long-term goal in quantum information theory. As long as the multipartite system is concerned, the relation between the entanglement contained in different partitions or different subsystems need to take into account. The complete multipartite entanglement measure and the complete monogamy relation is a framework that just deals with such a issue. In this paper, we put forward conditions to justify whether the multipartite entanglement monotone (MEM) and genuine multipartite entanglement monotone (GMEM) are complete, completely monogamous, and tightly complete monogamous according to the feature of the reduced function. Especially, we proposed a class of complete MEMs and a class of complete GMEMs via the maximal reduced function for the first time. By comparison, it is shown that, for the tripartite case, this class of GMEMs is better than the one defined from the minimal bipartite entanglement in literature under the framework of complete MEM and complete monogamy relation. In addition, the relation between monogamy, complete monogamy, and the tightly complete monogamy are revealed in light of different kinds of MEMs and GMEMs.