The theory of the asymptotic manipulation of pure bipartite quantum systems can be considered completely understood: the rates at which bipartite entangled states can be asymptotically transformed into each other are fully determined by a single number each, the respective entanglement entropy. In the multipartite setting, similar questions of the optimally achievable rates of transforming one pure state into another are notoriously open. This seems particularly unfortunate in the light of the revived interest in such questions due to the perspective of experimentally realizing multipartite quantum networks. In this Letter, we report substantial progress by deriving simple upper and lower bounds on the rates that can be achieved in asymptotic multipartite entanglement transformations. These bounds are based on ideas of entanglement combing and state merging. We identify cases where the bounds coincide and hence provide the exact rates. As an example, we bound rates at which resource states for the cryptographic scheme of quantum secret sharing can be distilled from arbitrary pure tripartite quantum states. This result provides further scope for quantum internet applications, supplying tools to study the implementation of multipartite protocols over quantum networks.
The theory of the asymptotic manipulation of pure bipartite quantum systems can be considered completely understood: the rates at which bipartite entangled states can be asymptotically transformed into each other are fully determined by a single number each, the respective entanglement entropy. In the multipartite setting, similar questions of the optimally achievable rates of transforming one pure state into another are notoriously open. This seems particularly unfortunate in the light of the revived interest in such questions due to the perspective of experimentally realizing multipartite quantum networks. In this Letter, we report substantial progress by deriving simple upper and lower bounds on the rates that can be achieved in asymptotic multipartite entanglement transformations. These bounds are based on ideas of entanglement combing and state merging. We identify cases where the bounds coincide and hence provide the exact rates. As an example, we bound rates at which resource states for the cryptographic scheme of quantum secret sharing can be distilled from arbitrary pure tripartite quantum states. This result provides further scope for quantum internet applications, supplying tools to study the implementation of multipartite protocols over quantum networks.
A key problem in quantum information science is to determine optimal protocols for the interconversion of entangled states shared between remote parties. While for two parties a large number of results in this direction is available, the multipartite setting still remains a major challenge. In this article, this problem is addressed by extending the resource theory of entanglement for multipartite systems beyond the standard framework of local operations and classical communication. Specifically, we consider transformations capable of introducing a small, controllable increase of entanglement of a state, with the requirement that the increase can be made arbitrarily small. We demonstrate that in this adjusted framework, the transformation rates between multipartite states are fundamentally dictated by the bipartite entanglement entropies of the respective quantum states. Remarkably, this approach allows the reduction of tripartite entanglement to its bipartite analog, indicating that every pure tripartite state can be reversibly synthesized from a suitable number of singlets distributed between pairs of parties.
Multipartite entanglement is the premier resource for quantum technologies. Yet, its exact quantification in the laboratory is notoriously challenging, typically requiring the full knowledge of high dimensional quantum states. Here, we construct observable bounds to multipartite entanglement for systems of arbitrary size, which are functions of the local and global state purities, and correlation functions. First, we derive experimentally accessible upper and lower limits to both the bipartite entanglement of formation and the squashed entanglement of bipartite systems, by leveraging cornerstone results of quantum information theory: the entropy strong subadditivity inequality and the Koashi-Winter monogamy relation. Then, we convert them into bounds to the entanglement up to degree k for arbitrary states, and to the genuine k-partite entanglement, by employing a recently proposed method. Finally, we analytically and numerically test these results, by bounding the multipartite entanglement of several relevant states and mixtures, including the important classes of GHZ, Dicke, W states, and random pure states.
The trade-off relation between the rate and the strong converse exponent for probabilistic asymptotic entanglement transformations between pure multipartite states can in principle be characterised in terms of a class of entanglement measures determined implicitly by a set of strong axioms. A nontrivial family of such functionals has recently been constructed, but their previously known characterisations have so far only made it possible to evaluate them in very simple cases. In this paper we derive a new regularised formula for these functionals in terms of a subadditive upper bound, complementing the previously known superadditive lower bound. The upper and lower bounds evaluated on tensor powers differ by a logarithmically bounded term, which provides a bound on the convergence rate. In addition, we find that on states satisfying a certain sparsity constraint, the upper bound is equal to the value of the corresponding additive entanglement measure, therefore the regularisation is not needed for such states, and the evaluation is possible via a single-letter formula. Our results provide explicit bounds on the success probability of transformations by local operations and classical communication and, due to the additivity of the entanglement measures, also on the strong converse exponent for asymptotic transformations.
Quantum resource theories provide a mathematically rigorous way of understanding the nature of various quantum resources. An important problem in any quantum resource theory is to determine how quantum states can be converted into each other within the physical constraints of the theory. The standard approach to this problem is to study approximate or probabilistic transformations. Here, we investigate the intermediate regime, providing limits on both, the fidelity and the probability of state transformations. We derive limitations on the transformations, which are valid in all quantum resource theories, by providing bounds on the maximal transformation fidelity for a given transformation probability. As an application, we show that these bounds imply an upper bound on the asymptotic rates for various classes of states under probabilistic transformations. We also show that the deterministic version of the single copy bounds can be applied for drawing limitations on the manipulation of quantum channels, which goes beyond the previously known bounds of channel manipulations. Furthermore, we completely solve the question of stochastic-approximate state conversion via local operations and classical communication in the following two cases: (i) Both initial and target states are pure bipartite entangled states of arbitrary dimensions. (ii) The target state is a two-qubit entangled state and the initial state is a pure bipartite state.
Distribution and distillation of entanglement over quantum networks is a basic task for Quantum Internet applications. A fundamental question is then to determine the ultimate performance of entanglement distribution over a given network. Although this question has been extensively explored for bipartite entanglement-distribution scenarios, less is known about multipartite entanglement distribution. Here we establish the fundamental limit of distributing multipartite entanglement, in the form of GHZ states, over a quantum network. In particular, we determine the multipartite entanglement distribution capacity of a quantum network, in which the nodes are connected through lossy bosonic quantum channels. This setting corresponds to a practical quantum network consisting of optical links. The result is also applicable to the distribution of multipartite secret key, known as common key, for both a fully quantum network and trusted-node based quantum key distribution network. Our results set a general benchmark for designing a network topology and network quantum repeaters (or key relay in trusted nodes) to realize efficient GHZ state/common key distribution in both fully quantum and trusted-node-based networks. We show an example of how to overcome this limit by introducing a network quantum repeater. Our result follows from an upper bound on distillable GHZ entanglement introduced here, called the "recursive-cut-and-merge" bound, which constitutes major progress on a longstanding fundamental problem in multipartite entanglement theory. This bound allows for determining the distillable GHZ entanglement for a class of states consisting of products of bipartite pure states.
We look into multipartite quantum states on which quantum cryptographic protocols including quantum key distribution and quantum secret sharing can be perfectly performed, and define the quantum cryptographic resource distillable rate as the asymptotic rate at which such multipartite state can be distilled from a given multipartite state. Investigating several relations between entanglement and the rate, we show that there exists a multipartite bound entangled state whose quantum cryptographic resource distillable rate is strictly positive, that is, there exists a multipartite entangled state which is not distillable, but can be useful for quantum cryptography such as quantum key distribution and quantum secret sharing.