We construct faces of the convex set of all $2\ensuremath{\bigotimes}4$ bipartite separable states, which are affinely isomorphic to the simplex ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{9}$ with 10 extreme points. Every interior point of these faces is a separable state which has a unique decomposition into 10 product states, even though the ranks of the state and its partial transpose are 5 and 7, respectively. We also note that the number 10 is greater than $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}4$, to disprove a conjecture on the lengths of qubit-qudit separable states. This face is inscribed in the corresponding face of the convex set of all PPT states so that subsimplices ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{k}$ of ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{9}$ share the boundary if and only if $k\ensuremath{\le}5$. This enables us to find a large class of $2\ensuremath{\bigotimes}4$ PPT entangled edge states with rank 5.
We construct a large class of indecomposable positive linear maps from the matrix algebra into the matrix algebra, which generate exposed extreme rays of the convex cone of all positive maps. We show that extreme points of the dual faces for separable states arising from these maps are parametrized by the Riemann sphere, and the convex hulls of the extreme points arising from a circle parallel to the equator have exactly the same properties with the convex hull of the trigonometric moment curve studied from combinatorial topology. Any interior points of the dual faces are boundary separable states with full ranks. We exhibit concrete examples of such states.
Abstract In order to classify partial entanglement of multi-partite states, it is natural to consider the convex hulls, intersections and differences of basic convex cones obtained from partially separable states with respect to partitions of systems. In this paper, we consider convex cones consisting of -shaped three qubit states arising in this way. The class of -shaped states includes important classes like Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger diagonal states. We find all the extreme rays of those convex cones to exhibit corresponding partially separable states. We also give characterizations for those cones which give rise to necessary criteria in terms of diagonal and anti-diagonal entries for general three qubit states.
We analyze faces generated by points in an arbitrary convex set and their relative algebraic interiors, which are nonempty as we shall prove. We show that by intersecting a convex set with a sublevel or level set of a generalized affine functional, the dimension of the face generated by a point may decrease by at most one. We apply the results to the set of quantum states on a separable Hilbert space. Among others, we show that every state having finite expected values of any two (not necessarily bounded) positive operators admits a decomposition into pure states with the same expected values. We discuss applications in quantum information theory.
We investigate the geometric structure of the set of spectra of bipartite absolute separable states (
ASEPm,n) and absolute positive partial transpose states (
APPTm,n), \emph{i.e.}, bipartite quantum states that remain separable or PPT, respectively, under all global unitary transformations. First, we establish general geometric properties of absolute convex sets of matrices, their spectra and extreme points. Regarding absolute separability, we present a permutation-symmetric reformulation of the absolute PPT criterion and use it to demonstrate that
APPTm,n is a spectrahedron for all
m≤n: in particular, all its faces are exposed. While
ASEP2,n is a spectrahedron, too, for
ASEPm,n we can in general only show that it is a semialgebraic set for all
m,n≥3. Furthermore, we provide a complete characterization of the faces and extreme points of
APPTm,n and demonstrate that the dimension of a face is determined by the rank of a certain matrix, with maximal proper faces having dimension
mn−m−1.
In the quantitative setting, we provide a rigorous lower bound on the maximal attainable purity of
APPTm,n via an inscribed polytope
Pm,n and conjecture that the maximal purity of
APPTm,n (along with its spectra) coincides with the polytope for arbitrary dimensions except when
m=n=2. Additionally, we also provide a rigorous upper bound on the minimal von Neumann entropy of
APPTm,n and demonstrate numerically that the minimum entropy eventually coincides with the polytope
Pm,n as the local system dimension
n increases. Finally, we show that the relative spectral volume of
APPTm,n decays exponentially in
n by a constant multiplicative factor of the relative volume of the inscribed polytope
Pm,n.
The convex cone
V1 generated by separable states is contained in the cone
T of all positive semi-definite block matrices whose block transposes are also positive semi-definite. We characterize faces of the cone
V1 induced by faces of the cone
T which are determined by pairs of subspaces of matrices.