The Schmidt number is an entanglement measure whose logarithm quantifies the zero-error entanglement cost of generating a given quantum state using local operations and classical communication. In this paper, we show that the Schmidt number is highly nonmultiplicative in the sense that for any integer n, there exist states whose Schmidt number remains constant when taking n copies of the given state. These states also provide a rare instance in which the regularized zero-error entanglement cost can be computed exactly. We then explore the question of increasing the Schmidt number by quantum operations. We describe a class of bipartite quantum operations that preserve the Schmidt number for pure state transformations, and yet they can increase the Schmidt number by an arbitrarily large amount when generating mixed states. Our results are obtained by making connections to the resource theory of quantum coherence and generalizing the class of dephasing-covariant incoherent operations to the bipartite setting.
The Schmidt number is an entanglement measure whose logarithm quantifies the zero-error entanglement cost of generating a given quantum state using local operations and classical communication. In this paper, we show that the Schmidt number is highly nonmultiplicative in the sense that for any integer n, there exist states whose Schmidt number remains constant when taking n copies of the given state. These states also provide a rare instance in which the regularized zero-error entanglement cost can be computed exactly. We then explore the question of increasing the Schmidt number by quantum operations. We describe a class of bipartite quantum operations that preserve the Schmidt number for pure state transformations, and yet they can increase the Schmidt number by an arbitrarily large amount when generating mixed states. Our results are obtained by making connections to the resource theory of quantum coherence and generalizing the class of dephasing-covariant incoherent operations to the bipartite setting.
There are processes that cannot generate entanglement but may, nevertheless, amplify entanglement already present in a system. Here, we show that a non-entangling operation can increase the Schmidt number of a quantum state only if it can generate entanglement with some non-zero probability. This is in stark contrast to the case where the parties of a quantum network are only able to control their joint state by local operations and classical communication (LOCC). There, being able to apply operations probabilistically (stochastic LOCC) does not increase the Schmidt number. Our findings show that certain non-entangling operations become entangling when selecting on specific measurement outcomes. This naturally leads us to the class of stochastically non-entangling maps, being those that cannot generate entanglement even probabilistically. Intrigued by this finding, we devise a Schmidt number for quantum channels that quantifies whether a channel can generate entanglement probabilistically. Moreover, we show that a channel is non-entangling if and only if its dual map is witness-preserving -- it takes entanglement witnesses to witnesses. Based on this finding, we derive Bell-like inequalities whose violation signals that a process generates entanglement.
We present a measure of quantum entanglement which is capable of quantifying the degree of entanglement of a multipartite quantum system. This measure, which is based on a generalization of the Schmidt rank of a pure state, is defined on the full state space, and is shown to be an entanglement monotone, that is, it cannot increase under local quantum operations with classical communication and under mixing. For a large class of mixed states this measure of entanglement can be calculated exactly, and it provides a detailed classification of mixed states.
I consider the deterministic distinguishability of a set of orthogonal, bipartite states when only a single copy is available and the parties are restricted to local operations and classical communication, but with the additional requirement that entanglement must be preserved in the process. Several general theorems aimed at characterizing sets of states with which the parties can succeed in such a task are proven. These include (i) a maximum for the number of states when the Schmidt rank of every outcome must be at least a given minimum, (ii) an upper bound (equal to the dimension of Hilbert space if entanglement need not be preserved) for the sum over Schmidt ranks of the initial states when only one-way classical communication is allowed, and (iii) separately, a necessary and a sufficient condition on the states such that their original Schmidt ranks can always be preserved. Two additional theorems explicitly demonstrate a trade-off between the extent to which the set of states fill Hilbert space, as measured by their Schmidt ranks, and how refined the parties must make their measurements, an important factor in determining the Schmidt rank the state can retain after it has been identified. It is shown that our bound on the sum of Schmidt ranks can be exceeded if two-way communication is permitted, and this includes the case that entanglement need not be preserved, so that this sum can exceed the dimension of Hilbert space. Such questions, concerning how the various results are affected by the resources used by the parties (amount of classical communication and types of local operations), are addressed for each theorem. This subject is closely related to the problem of locally purifying an entangled state from a mixed state, which is of direct relevance to teleportation and dense coding using a mixed-state resource. In an appendix, I give an extremely simple and transparent proof of ``nonlocality without entanglement,'' a phenomenon originally discussed by Bennett and co-workers several years ago.
The dimensionality of entanglement, quantified by the Schmidt number, is a valuable resource for a wide range of quantum information processing tasks. In this work, we introduce the notion of the absolute Schmidt number, referring to states whose Schmidt number cannot be increased by any global unitary transformation. We provide a characterization of the set of arbitrary-dimensional states whose Schmidt number is invariant under all global unitaries. Our approach enables us to develop both witness-based and moment-based techniques to detect nonabsolute Schmidt number states which could provide significant operational advantages through Schmidt number enhancement by global unitaries. We next formulate two resource-theoretic measures of nonabsolute Schmidt number states, based respectively on Schmidt number witness and robustness, and demonstrate an operational utility of the latter in a channel discrimination task. Finally, we extend our analysis to quantum channels by introducing a new class of channels that possess the absolute Schmidt number property. We derive a necessary and sufficient condition for identifying when a channel has the absolute Schmidt number property, confining our analysis to the class of covariant channels.
We quantify the one-shot entanglement cost of an arbitrary bipartite state, that is, the minimum number of singlets needed by two distant parties to create a single copy of the state up to a finite accuracy, by using local operations and classical communication only. This analysis, in contrast to the traditional one, pertains to scenarios of practical relevance, in which resources are finite and transformations can be achieved only approximately. Moreover, it unveils a fundamental relation between two well-known entanglement measures, namely, the Schmidt number and the entanglement of formation. Using this relation, we are able to recover the usual expression of the entanglement cost as a special case.
We present a measure of quantum entanglement which is capable of quantifying the degree of entanglement of a multi-partite quantum system. This measure, which is based on a generalization of the Schmidt rank of a pure state, is defined on the full state space and is shown to be an entanglement monotone, that is, it cannot increase under local quantum operations with classical communication and under mixing. For a large class of mixed states this measure of entanglement can be calculated exactly, and it provides a detailed classification of mixed states. We also present a connection to the best separable approximation of an entangled state of a two-qubit system.