It is emphasized that quantum entanglement determined in terms of the von Neumann entropy operator is a stochastic quantity and, therefore, can fluctuate. The rms fluctuations of the entanglement entropy of two-qubit systems in both pure and mixed states have been obtained. It has been found that entanglement fluctuations in the maximally entangled states are absent. Regions where the entanglement fluctuations are larger than the entanglement itself (strong fluctuation regions) have been revealed. It has been found that the magnitude of the relative entanglement fluctuations is divergent at the points of the transition of systems from an entangled state to a separable state. It has been shown that entanglement fluctuations vanish in the separable states.
It is emphasized that quantum entanglement determined in terms of the von Neumann entropy operator is a stochastic quantity and, therefore, can fluctuate. The rms fluctuations of the entanglement entropy of two-qubit systems in both pure and mixed states have been obtained. It has been found that entanglement fluctuations in the maximally entangled states are absent. Regions where the entanglement fluctuations are larger than the entanglement itself (strong fluctuation regions) have been revealed. It has been found that the magnitude of the relative entanglement fluctuations is divergent at the points of the transition of systems from an entangled state to a separable state. It has been shown that entanglement fluctuations vanish in the separable states.
Maximally entangled mixed states are those states that, for a given mixedness, achieve the greatest possible entanglement. For two-qubit systems and for various combinations of entanglement and mixedness measures, the form of the corresponding maximally entangled mixed states is determined primarily analytically. As measures of entanglement, we consider entanglement of formation, relative entropy of entanglement, and negativity; as measures of mixedness, we consider linear and von Neumann entropies. We show that the forms of the maximally entangled mixed states can vary with the combination of (entanglement and mixedness) measures chosen. Moreover, for certain combinations, the forms of the maximally entangled mixed states can change discontinuously at a specific value of the entropy. Along the way, we determine the states that, for a given value of entropy, achieve maximal violation of Bell's inequality.
The entanglement entropy generated by quantum transport, similar to any physical observable quantity, is a stochastic variable that has its distribution and can fluctuate. The fundamental question is how to define the entanglement entropy operator which allows one to discuss entanglement entropy fluctuation. By introducing the entanglement entropy operator, we develop a theoretical framework to calculate the entanglement entropy fluctuation as well as its higher order cumulants generated by electronic transport in open systems. The distribution of entanglement entropy generated by opening or closing a quantum point contact (QPC) is solved exactly. When the transmission coefficient of QPC is one-half, the entanglement entropy is maximized and fluctuationless. We also establish a general relation between the generated entanglement entropy fluctuation and charge fluctuation. We apply our theory to electronic transport through a quantum dot and study the generated entanglement entropy in the transient regime. Universal behavior is found for the cumulants of entanglement entropy at short times.
The paper is an elaborate comparative assessment of the most relevant entropy-based quantities to be applied in quantifying quantum entanglement in pure, mixed, bipartite, and multipartite quantum systems. The study fills the existing gap in the literature in which most of the previous literature examines individual measures, but a lot of knowledge is lacking on what these measures are regarding their strengths, weaknesses, and the operational usefulness against each other. The study can prove the behaviour of each measure under noise, decoherence, dimensional scaling, and variation of state-type by analysing von Neumann entropy, the Tsallis entropy, entropy of entanglement of formation, concurrence and logarithmic negativity. Numerical studies with pure two-qubit states, Werner states, GHZ states, W states and mixed random states demonstrate specific sensitivity properties and computational limitations which ensure that no single measure can be a universal quantifier. The paper goes on to say that entropy-only measures do not work in mixed regimes because of a dominance in classical correlations. The results have several important implications to quantum communication, quantum simulation, and quantum computing in the NISQ-era, where the choice of measurement has a direct impact on benchmarking, error-correction scheme, and protocol performance based on entanglement. The paper ends with a recommendation of contextual, purpose-based scheme of selecting entanglement measures and suggests a further study on scalable benchmarking, hybrid quantifiers, and operational performance-based entanglement measurements. These observations reinforce the theoretical premise of entanglement studies and enable the advancement of more effective quantum technologies in the field of practice.
The Von Neumann entropy of reduced states is a measure of bipartite entanglement. Despite its name, the entanglement entropy cannot by itself be used as a resource for creating thermodynamic heat flows. In order to extract heat from an entangled pure state, it first needs to be converted into a stochastically mixed state by a process of quantum state reduction. Here we show that even in a system with only two degrees of freedom, for which bipartite entanglement is the sole form of entanglement available, the entanglement entropy cannot be converted into thermodynamic entropy in a one-to-one fashion. Moreover, we show that the stochastic dynamics which is necessarily present in any realistic model of quantum state reduction, allows for multiple definitions of entropy. We indicate why quantum state reduction does not allow construction of a perpetuum mobile, despite some measures of entropy evolving non-monotonically during its dynamics. Finally, we relate the different measures of entropy to the information they contain about quantum entanglement and extractable heat, and show that models of quantum state reduction based on physical, correlated stochastic driving forces give rise to observable thermodynamic signatures of quantum state reduction that can be unambiguously distinguished from environment-induced dephasing.
Entanglement is the fundamental quantum property behind the now popular field of quantum transport of information. This quantum property is incompatible with the separation of a single system into two uncorrelated subsystems. Consequently, it does not require the use of an additive form of entropy. We discuss the problem of the choice of the most convenient entropy indicator, focusing our attention on a system of two qubits, and on a special set, denoted by I. This set contains both the maximally and partially entangled states that are described by density matrices diagonal in the Bell basis set. We select this set for the main purpose of making our work of analysis more straightforward. As a matter of fact, we find that in general the conventional von Neumann entropy is not a monotonic function of the entanglement strength. This means that the von Neumann entropy is not a reliable indicator of the departure from the condition of maximum entanglement. We study the behavior of a form of nonadditive entropy, made popular by the 1988 work by Tsallis [J. Stat. Phys. 52, 479 (1988)]. We show that in the set I, implying the key condition of nonvanishing entanglement, this nonadditive entropy indicator turns out to be a strictly monotonic function of the strength of the entanglement, if entropy indexes q larger than a critical value Q are adopted. We argue that this might be a consequence of the nonadditive nature of the Tsallis entropy, implying that the world is quantum and that uncorrelated subsystems do not exist.
The behavior of Ising chains with the spin-spin interaction value λ in a transverse magnetic field of constant intensity ( h = 1) is considered. For a chain of infinite length, exact analytical formulas are obtained for the second central moment (dispersion) of the entropy operator Ŝ = -lnρ with reduced density matrix ρ, which corresponds to a semi-infinite part of the model chain occurring in the ground state. In the vicinity of a critical point λ c = 1, the entanglement entropy fluctuation Δ S (defined as the square root of dispersion) diverges as Δ S ∼ [ln(1/|1 − λ|)] 1/2 . For the known behavior of the entanglement entropy S , this divergence results in that the relative fluctuation δ S = Δ S / S vanishes at the critical point, that is, a state with almost nonfluctuating entanglement is attained.