Whenever
E is an eight dimensional subspace of the bi-qutrit quantum system whose orthogonal complement is spanned by a vector of Schmidt rank three, we show that there exist PPT entangled edge states with the range space
E whose partial transposes are of rank six, which is the largest possible rank. In this way, we exhibit a huge family of bi-qutrit PPT entangled edge states of type
(8,6). They make faces of the convex set of all PPT states, and we find bi-qutrit PPT entangled edge states of other types on the boundaries of such faces.
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 family of bipartite states of arbitrary dimension whose eigenvalues of thepartially transposed matrix can be inferred directly from the block structure of the globaldensity matrix. We identify from this several subfamilies in which the PPT criterion isboth necessary and sufficient. A sufficient criterion of separability is obtained, which isfundamental for the discussion. We show how several examples of states known to beclassifiable by the PPT criterion indeed belong to this general set. Possible uses of thesestates in numerical analysis of entanglement and in the search of PPT bound entangledstates are briefly discussed.
From both theoretical and experimental points of view symmetric states constitute an important class of multipartite states. Still, entanglement properties of these states, in particular those with positive partial transposition (PPT), lack a systematic study. Aiming at filling in this gap, we have recently affirmatively answered the open question of existence of four-qubit entangled symmetric states with PPT and thoroughly characterized entanglement properties of such states [J. Tura et al., Phys. Rev. A 85, 060302(R) (2012)]. With the present contribution we continue on characterizing PPT entangled symmetric states. On the one hand, we present all the results of our previous work in a detailed way. On the other hand, we generalize them to systems consisting of an arbitrary number of qubits. In particular, we provide criteria for separability of such states formulated in terms of their ranks. Interestingly, for most of the cases, the symmetric states are either separable or typically separable. Then, edge states in these systems are studied, showing in particular that to characterize generic PPT entangled states with four and five qubits, it is enough to study only those that assume few (respectively, two and three) specific configurations of ranks. Finally, we numerically search for extremal PPT entangled states in such systems consisting of up to 23 qubits. One can clearly notice regularity behind the ranks of such extremal states, and, in particular, for systems composed of odd numbers of qubits we find a single configuration of ranks for which there are extremal states.
We show that the length of a qubit-qutrit separable state is equal to
max(r,s), where
r is the rank of the state and
s the rank of its partial transpose. We refer to the ordered pair
(r,s) as the birank of this state. We also construct examples of qubit-qutrit separable states of any feasible birank
(r,s). We determine the closure of the set of normalized two-qutrit entangled states having positive partial transpose (PPT) of rank 4. The boundary of this set consists of all separable states of length at most 4. We prove that the length of any qubit-qudit separable state of birank
(d+1,d+1) is equal to
d+1. We also show that all qubit-qudit PPT entangled states of birank
(d+1,d+1) can be built in a simple way from edge states. If
V is a subspace of dimension
k<d in a $2\ensuremath{\bigotimes}d$ space such that
V contains no product vectors, we show that the set of all product vectors in ${V}^{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ is a vector bundle of rank $d\ensuremath{-}k$ over the projective line. Finally, we explicitly construct examples of qubit-qudit PPT states (both separable and entangled) of any feasible birank.