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arXiv:1811.09896 · npj Quantum Information

Mirrored entanglement witnesses

Joonwoo Bae, Dariusz Chruściński, Beatrix C. Hiesmayr

Published Feb 3, 2020• 27 citations
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Abstract

Abstract Entanglement detection, which signifies the task of distinguishing entangled states from separable states, can be generally performed by realizing entanglement witnesses via local measurements on a single-copy level and classical communication, and are known to be experimenter friendly. We introduce a framework of constructing mirrored entanglement witnesses by showing that an experimental observable is twice as effective since it generally provides bounds from above and below for separable states. Differently stated, a pair of witnesses, mirrored witnesses, exists for the characterization of the bounds, which are two faces of one observable. We show how to generally construct those witnesses and provide examples for bipartite and multipartite systems. We also show that both mirrored witnesses can be improved by introducing nonlinearities, by which a larger set of entangled states can be certified.

DOI
10.1038/s41534-020-0242-z

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Abstract Entanglement detection, which signifies the task of distinguishing entangled states from separable states, can be generally performed by realizing entanglement witnesses via local measurements on a single-copy level and classical communication, and are known to be experimenter friendly. We introduce a framework of constructing mirrored entanglement witnesses by showing that an experimental observable is twice as effective since it generally provides bounds from above and below for separable states. Differently stated, a pair of witnesses, mirrored witnesses, exists for the characterization of the bounds, which are two faces of one observable. We show how to generally construct those witnesses and provide examples for bipartite and multipartite systems. We also show that both mirrored witnesses can be improved by introducing nonlinearities, by which a larger set of entangled states can be certified.
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An entanglement witness is an observable detecting entanglement for a subset of states. We present a framework that makes an entanglement witness twice as powerful due to the general existence of a second (lower) bound, in addition to the (upper) bound of the very definition. This second bound, if non-trivial, is violated by another subset of entangled states. Differently stated, we prove via the structural physical approximation that two witnesses can be compressed into a single one. Consequently, our framework shows that any entanglement witness can be upgraded to a witness 2.02.02.0. The generality and its power are demonstrate by applications to bipartite and multipartite qubit/qudit systems.
We construct linear and nonlinear entanglement witnesses, by tensoring and partial tracing existing states and witnesses. We show that little shared quantum resources allow one to employ decomposable witnesses to obtain larger ones detecting locally undistillable states and find analytic witnesses for multipartite entangled states that are undistillable across all bipartitions. Crucially, we show how to efficiently optimize multicopy witnesses to desired states, which is a current challenge. As an example of both theoretical and experimental interest, existing trace polynomial witnesses are significantly improved while preserving their symmetries and implementability with randomized measurements. In addition to detecting entanglement, we also find new witnesses detecting k-copy distillability. A recipe for the single-copy case is shown to be effective for generic and Werner states.
Entanglement witnesses are invaluable for efficient quantum entanglement certification without the need for expensive quantum state tomography. Yet, standard entanglement witnessing requires multiple measurements and its bounds can be elusive as a result of experimental imperfections. Here, we introduce and demonstrate a novel procedure for entanglement detection which simply and seamlessly improves any standard witnessing procedure by using additional available information to tighten the witnessing bounds. Moreover, by relaxing the requirements on the witness operators, our method removes the general need for the difficult task of witness decomposition into local observables. We experimentally demonstrate entanglement detection with our approach using a separable test operator and a simple fixed measurement device for each agent. Finally, we show that the method can be generalized to higher-dimensional and multipartite cases with a complexity that scales linearly with the number of parties.
The entanglement witness is an important and experimentally applicable tool for entanglement detection. In this paper, we provide a nonlinear improvement of any entanglement witness for $2\ensuremath{\bigotimes}d$ quantum systems. Compared with any existing entanglement witness, the improved separability criterion only needs two more measurements on local observables. Detailed examples are employed to illustrate the efficiency of the nonlinear improvement for general, optimal, and nondecomposable entanglement witnesses.
Constructing optimal entanglement witnesses for arbitrary quantum systems remains a formidable challenge, hindered by the structural complexity of high-dimensional quantum state spaces. In this work, we overcome this barrier by introducing a unified framework for constructing geometrically optimal witnesses capable of identifying arbitrary entanglement structures. By leveraging the geometric properties of a target quantum state relative to a specific entanglement structure in Hilbert-Schmidt space, these witnesses are constructed in an efficient and effective manner. Among all nontrivial witnesses, they provide maximal distinguishability between the target state and the set of states without the desired entanglement structure. As a result, our approach enables the universal detection of bipartite, multipartite, and high-dimensional entanglement. To demonstrate its experimental feasibility, we apply the framework to a four-qubit nuclear spin quantum system. Compared to existing methods, our approach offers enhanced noise robustness, broader detection universality, and improved construction efficiency, providing a powerful and versatile tool for advancing the characterization and understanding of entanglement in quantum systems.