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arXiv:1107.1372 · Physical Review A

Symmetric mixed states of n qubits: Local unitary stabilizers and entanglement classes

David W. Lyons, Scott N. Walck

Published Oct 31, 2011• 11 citations
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Abstract

We classify, up to local unitary equivalence, local unitary stabilizer Lie algebras for symmetric mixed states of $n$ qubits into six classes. These include the stabilizer types of the Werner states, the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state and its generalizations, and Dicke states. For all but the zero algebra, we classify entanglement types (local unitary equivalence classes) of symmetric mixed states that have those stabilizers. We make use of the identification of symmetric density matrices with polynomials in three variables with real coefficients and apply the representation theory of SO(3) on this space of polynomials.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.84.042340

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We classify, up to local unitary equivalence, local unitary stabilizer Lie algebras for symmetric mixed states of nnn qubits into six classes. These include the stabilizer types of the Werner states, the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state and its generalizations, and Dicke states. For all but the zero algebra, we classify entanglement types (local unitary equivalence classes) of symmetric mixed states that have those stabilizers. We make use of the identification of symmetric density matrices with polynomials in three variables with real coefficients and apply the representation theory of SO(3) on this space of polynomials.
The first characterization of mixed-state entanglement was achieved for two-qubit states in Werner's seminal work [Phys. Rev. A 40, 4277 (1989)]. A physically important extension concerns mixtures of a pure entangled state [such as the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state] and the unpolarized state. These mixed states serve as benchmark for the robustness of multipartite entanglement. They share the symmetries of the GHZ state. We call such states GHZ symmetric. Here we give a complete description of the entanglement in the family of three-qubit GHZ-symmetric states and, in particular, of the three-qubit generalized Werner states. Our method relies on the appropriate parametrization of the states and on the invariance of entanglement properties under general local operations. An application is the definition of a symmetrization witness for the entanglement class of arbitrary three-qubit states.
We analyze entanglement classes for permutation-symmetric states for nnn qudits (i.e., ddd-level systems), with respect to local unitary operations (LU equivalence) and stochastic local operations and classical communication (SLOCC equivalence). In both cases, we show that the search can be restricted to operations where the same local operation acts on all qudits, and we provide an explicit construction for it. Stabilizers of states in the form of one-particle operations preserving permutation symmetry are shown to provide a coarse-grained classification of entanglement classes. We prove that the Jordan form of such one-particle operators is a SLOCC invariant. We find, as representatives of those classes, a discrete set of entangled states that generalize the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger and WWW states for the many-particle qudit case. In the latter case, we introduce the excitation state as a natural generalization of the WWW state for d>2d>2d>2.
Majorana Representation (MR) of symmetric $ N $-qubit pure states has been used successfully in entanglement classification. Generalization of this has been a long standing open problem due to the difficulties faced in the construction of a Majorana like geometric representation for symmetric mixed state. We have overcome this problem by developing a method of classifying local unitary (LU) equivalent classes of symmetric NNN-qubit mixed states based on the geometrical Multiaxial Representation (MAR) of the density matrix. In addition to the two parameters defined for the entanglement classification of the symmetric pure states based on MR, namely, diversity degree and degeneracy configuration, we show that another parameter called rank needs to be introduced for symmetric mixed state classification. Our scheme of classification is more general as it can be applied to both pure and mixed states. To bring out the similarities/ differences between the MR and MAR, $ N $-qubit GHZ state is taken up for a detailed study. We conclude that pure state classification based on MR is not a special case of our classification scheme based on MAR. We also give a recipe to identify the most general symmetric NNN-qubit pure separable states. The power of our method is demonstrated using several well known examples of symmetric two qubit pure and mixed states as well as three qubit pure states. Classification of uniaxial, Biaxial and triaxial symmetric two qubit mixed states which can be produced in the laboratory is studied in detail.
We classify local unitary equivalence classes of symmetric states via a classification of their local unitary stabilizer subgroups. For states whose local unitary stabilizer groups have a positive number of continuous degrees of freedom, the classification is exhaustive. We show that local unitary stabilizer groups with no continuous degrees of freedom are isomorphic to finite subgroups of the rotation group SO(3)SO(3)SO(3), and give examples of states with discrete stabilizers.
Majorana representation (MR) of symmetric N-qubit pure states has been used successfully in entanglement classification. Generalization of this has been a long standing open problem due to the difficulties faced in the construction of a Majorana like geometric representation for symmetric mixed state. We have overcome this problem by developing a method of classifying local unitary (LU) equivalent classes of symmetric N-qubit mixed states based on the geometrical multiaxial representation (MAR) of the density matrix. In addition to the two parameters defined for the entanglement classification of the symmetric pure states based on MR, namely, diversity degree and degeneracy configuration, we show that another parameter called rank needs to be introduced for symmetric mixed state classification. Our scheme of classification is more general as it can be applied to both pure and mixed states. To bring out the similarities/differences between the MR and MAR, N-qubit GHZ state is taken up for a detailed study. We conclude that pure state classification based on MR is not a special case of our classification scheme based on MAR. We also give a recipe to identify the most general symmetric N-qubit pure separable states. The power of our method is demonstrated using several well-known examples of symmetric two-qubit pure and mixed states as well as three-qubit pure states. Classification of uniaxial, biaxial and triaxial symmetric two-qubit mixed states which can be produced in the laboratory is studied in detail.
We refine recent local unitary entanglement classification for symmetric pure states of nnn qubits (that is, states invariant under permutations of qubits) using local unitary stabilizer subgroups and Majorana configurations. Stabilizer subgroups carry more entanglement distinguishing power than do the stabilizer subalgebras used in our previous work. We extend to mixed states recent results about local operations on pure symmetric states by showing that if two symmetric density operators are equivalent by a local unitary operation, then they are equivalent via a local unitary operation that is the {\em same} in each qubit. A geometric consequence, used in our entanglement classification, is that two symmetric pure states are local unitary equivalent if and only if their Majorana configurations can be interchanged by a rotation of the Bloch sphere.