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arXiv:1911.00004 · New Journal of Physics

Measurement outcomes that do not occur and their role in entanglement transformations

Martin Hebenstreit, Matthias Englbrecht, Cornelia Spee, Julio I. de Vicente, Barbara Kraus

Published Feb 12, 2021• 10 citations
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Abstract

Abstract The characterization of transformations among entangled pure states via local operations assisted by classical communication (LOCC) is a crucial problem in quantum information theory for both theoretical and practical reasons. As LOCC has a highly intricate structure, sometimes the larger set of separable (SEP) maps is considered, which has a mathematically much simpler description. In the literature, mainly SEP maps consisting of invertible Kraus operators have been taken into account. In this paper we show that the consideration of those maps is not sufficient when deciding whether a state can be mapped to another via general SEP transformations. This is done by providing explicit examples of transformations among pure three- and five-qubit states, which are feasible via SEP maps containing singular Kraus operators, however, not possible via SEP maps containing solely regular Kraus operators. The key point that allows to construct the SEP maps is to introduce projective measurements that occur with probability zero on the input state. The fact that it is not sufficient to consider SEP maps composed out of regular Kraus operators even in the case of pure state transformations, also affects the results on LOCC transformations among pure states. However, we show that non-invertible Kraus operators do not help in state transformations under LOCC with finitely many rounds of classical communication, i.e. the necessary and sufficient condition for SEP transformations with invertible Kraus operators is still a necessary condition for convertibility under finite-round LOCC. Moreover, we show that the results on transformations via SEP that are not possible with LOCC (including infinitely many rounds of classical communication) presented in Hebenstreit et al 2016 Phys. Rev. A 93, 012339 are not affected.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/abe60c

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Abstract The characterization of transformations among entangled pure states via local operations assisted by classical communication (LOCC) is a crucial problem in quantum information theory for both theoretical and practical reasons. As LOCC has a highly intricate structure, sometimes the larger set of separable (SEP) maps is considered, which has a mathematically much simpler description. In the literature, mainly SEP maps consisting of invertible Kraus operators have been taken into account. In this paper we show that the consideration of those maps is not sufficient when deciding whether a state can be mapped to another via general SEP transformations. This is done by providing explicit examples of transformations among pure three- and five-qubit states, which are feasible via SEP maps containing singular Kraus operators, however, not possible via SEP maps containing solely regular Kraus operators. The key point that allows to construct the SEP maps is to introduce projective measurements that occur with probability zero on the input state. The fact that it is not sufficient to consider SEP maps composed out of regular Kraus operators even in the case of pure state transformations, also affects the results on LOCC transformations among pure states. However, we show that non-invertible Kraus operators do not help in state transformations under LOCC with finitely many rounds of classical communication, i.e. the necessary and sufficient condition for SEP transformations with invertible Kraus operators is still a necessary condition for convertibility under finite-round LOCC. Moreover, we show that the results on transformations via SEP that are not possible with LOCC (including infinitely many rounds of classical communication) presented in Hebenstreit et al 2016 Phys. Rev. A 93, 012339 are not affected.
Abstract The characterization of transformations among entangled pure states via local operations assisted by classical communication (LOCC) is a crucial problem in quantum information theory for both theoretical and practical reasons. As LOCC has a highly intricate structure, sometimes the larger set of separable (SEP) maps is considered, which has a mathematically much simpler description. In the literature, mainly SEP maps consisting of invertible Kraus operators have been taken into account. In this paper we show that the consideration of those maps is not sufficient when deciding whether a state can be mapped to another via general SEP transformations. This is done by providing explicit examples of transformations among pure three- and five-qubit states, which are feasible via SEP maps containing singular Kraus operators, however, not possible via SEP maps containing solely regular Kraus operators. The key point that allows to construct the SEP maps is to introduce projective measurements that occur with probability zero on the input state. The fact that it is not sufficient to consider SEP maps composed out of regular Kraus operators even in the case of pure state transformations, also affects the results on LOCC transformations among pure states. However, we show that non-invertible Kraus operators do not help in state transformations under LOCC with finitely many rounds of classical communication, i.e. the necessary and sufficient condition for SEP transformations with invertible Kraus operators is still a necessary condition for convertibility under finite-round LOCC. Moreover, we show that the results on transformations via SEP that are not possible with LOCC (including infinitely many rounds of classical communication) presented in Hebenstreit et al 2016 Phys. Rev. A 93, 012339 are not affected.
The study of state transformations under local operations and classical communication (LOCC) plays a crucial role in entanglement theory. While this has been long ago characterized for pure bipartite states, the situation is drastically different for systems of more parties: generic pure qudit states cannot be obtained from nor transformed to any state (i.e., they are isolated), which contains a different amount of entanglement. We consider here the question of LOCC convertibility for permutation-symmetric pure states of an arbitrary number of parties and local dimension, a class of clear interest both for physical and mathematical reasons and for which the aforementioned result does not apply given that it is a zero-measure subset in the state space. While it turns out that generic nnn-qubit symmetric states are also isolated, we consider particular families for which we can determine to be, on the contrary, endowed with a rich local stabilizer, a necessary requirement for LOCC convertibility to be possible. This allows us to identify classes in which LOCC transformations among permutation-symmetric states are possible. Notwithstanding, we provide several results that indicate severe obstructions to LOCC convertibility in general even within these highly symmetrical classes. In the course of the study of LOCC transformations, we also characterize the local symmetries of symmetric states.
We consider generic pure nnn-qubit states and a general class of pure states of arbitrary dimensions and arbitrary many subsystems. We characterize those states which can be reached from some other state via Local Operations assisted by finitely many rounds of Classical Communication (LOCCNLOCC_{\mathbb{N}}LOCCN​). For qubits we show that this set of states is of measure zero, which implies that the maximally entangled set is generically of full measure if restricted to the practical scenario of finite-round LOCC. Moreover, we identify a class of states for which any LOCCNLOCC_{\mathbb{N}}LOCCN​ protocol can be realized via a concatenation of deterministic steps. We show, however, that in general there exist state transformations which require a probabilistic step within the protocol, which highlights the difference between bipartite and multipartite LOCC.
We studied pure state transformations using local operations assisted by finitely many rounds of classical communication (LOCCIN{\text{LOCC}}_{I\phantom{\rule{-0.30em}{0ex}}N}LOCCIN​) [C. Spee, J. I. de Vicente, D. Sauerwein, and B. Kraus [Phys. Rev. Lett. (to be published)], arXiv:1606.04418]. Here, we present the details of some of the proofs and generalize the construction of examples of state transformations via LOCCIN{\text{LOCC}}_{I\phantom{\rule{-0.30em}{0ex}}N}LOCCIN​ which require a probabilistic step. However, we also present explicit examples of SLOCC classes where any separable transformation can be realized by a protocol in which each step is deterministic (all-det-LOCCIN{\text{LOCC}}_{I\phantom{\rule{-0.30em}{0ex}}N}LOCCIN​). Such transformations can be considered as natural generalizations of bipartite transformations. Furthermore, we provide examples of pure state transformations which are possible via separable transformations, but not via LOCCIN{\text{LOCC}}_{I\phantom{\rule{-0.30em}{0ex}}N}LOCCIN​. We also analyze an interesting genuinely multipartite effect which we call locking or unlocking the power of other parties. This means that one party can prevent or enable the implementation of LOCC transformations by other parties. Moreover, we investigate the maximally entangled set restricted to LOCCIN{\text{LOCC}}_{I\phantom{\rule{-0.30em}{0ex}}N}LOCCIN​ and show how easily computable bounds on some entanglement measures can be derived by restricting to LOCCIN{\text{LOCC}}_{I\phantom{\rule{-0.30em}{0ex}}N}LOCCIN​.
The conditions for transforming pure entangled states under local operations and classical communication (LOCC) are well understood. A natural question then arises: Can we determine the transformation conditions for mixed entangled states under LOCC based on the properties of their pure-state ensembles? While much effort has been devoted to this issue, in this paper, we rule out this possibility. Our findings address several open questions, including: (i) The conditions Efcr(ρ)≥Efcr(σ) E_f^{cr}(ρ) \geq E_f^{cr}(σ) Efcr​(ρ)≥Efcr​(σ) for all convex roof entanglement measures EfcrE_f^{cr}Efcr​ is insufficient to guarantee the existence of an LOCC transformation ΛL(⋅)Λ^L(\cdot)ΛL(⋅) from ρρρ to σσσ; and (ii) The inequalities ∑jpjE(φj)≥∑lqlE(ψl)\sum_j p_j E(\varphi_j) \geq \sum_l q_l E(ψ_l)∑j​pj​E(φj​)≥∑l​ql​E(ψl​) for all entanglement monotones EEE are not sufficient to ensure the existence of an LOCC transformation from {pj,∣φj⟩}\{p_j, \ket{\varphi_j}\}{pj​,∣φj​⟩} to {ql,∣ψl⟩}\{q_l, \ket{ψ_l}\}{ql​,∣ψl​⟩}.