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arXiv:2212.01286 · Scientific Reports

Bound entanglement is not Lorentz invariant

Paweł Caban, Beatrix C. Hiesmayr

Published Jul 11, 2023• 8 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Bound entanglement, in contrast to free entanglement, cannot be distilled into maximally entangled states by two local observers applying measurements and utilizing classical communication. In this paper we ask whether a relativistic observer classifies states according to being separable, bound or free entangled in the same manner as an unboosted observer. Surprisingly, this turns out not to be the case. And that even if the system in a given inertial frame of reference is separable with respect to the partition momenta versus spins. In detail, we show that if the spin state is initially bound entangled, some boosted observers observe their spin states to be either bound entangled, separable or free entangled. This also explains why a general measure of the entanglement property is difficult to find.

DOI
10.1038/s41598-023-38217-3

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Bound entanglement, in contrast to free entanglement, cannot be distilled into maximally entangled states by two local observers applying measurements and utilizing classical communication. In this paper we ask whether a relativistic observer classifies states according to being separable, bound or free entangled in the same manner as an unboosted observer. Surprisingly, this turns out not to be the case. And that even if the system in a given inertial frame of reference is separable with respect to the partition momenta versus spins. In detail, we show that if the spin state is initially bound entangled, some boosted observers observe their spin states to be either bound entangled, separable or free entangled. This also explains why a general measure of the entanglement property is difficult to find.
We describe the spin and momentum degrees of freedom of a system of two massive spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ particles as a four-qubit system. Then we explicitly show how the entanglement changes between different partitions of the qubits, when considered by different inertial observers. Although the two particle entanglement corresponding to a partition into Alice's and Bob's subsystems is, as often stated in the literature, invariant under Lorentz boosts, the entanglement with respect to other partitions of the Hilbert space on the other hand, is not. It certainly does depend on the chosen inertial frame and on the initial state considered. The change of entanglement arises, because a Lorentz boost on the momenta of the particles causes a Wigner rotation of the spin, which in certain cases entangles the spin with the momentum states. We systematically investigate the situation for different classes of initial spin states and different partitions of the four-qubit space. Furthermore, we study the behavior of Bell inequalities for different observers and demonstrate how the maximally possible degree of violation, using the Pauli-Lubanski spin observable, can be recovered by any inertial observer.
We analyze the entanglement change, as seen by different relativistic observers, for a system consisting of two spin-1 particles, considering different partitions of the Hilbert space, which has spin and momentum degrees of freedom. We show that there exists a complete set of states of the spin subspace in which the entanglement change of any state in the set is zero for all partitions and all values of the Wigner angle. Moreover, these states only change by a global phase factor under the Lorentz boost. Within this basis, maximally entangled invariant states, interesting for quantum information purposes, are explicitly obtained. On the other hand, the entanglement in the particle-particle partition isisis Lorentz invariant, thus protecting the consistency of quantum correlations and teleportation results. We show how our results may be generalized to arbitrary spin.
To understand the characteristics of quantum entanglement of massive particles under Lorentz boost, we first introduce a relevant relativistic spin observable, and evaluate its expectation values for the Bell states under Lorentz boost. Then we show that maximal violation of the Bell's inequality can be achieved by properly adjusting the directions of the spin measurement even in a relativistically moving inertial frame. Based on this we infer that the entanglement information is preserved under Lorentz boost as a form of correlation information determined by the transformation characteristic of the Bell state in use.
In order to understand the characteristics of quantum entanglement of massive particles under Lorentz boost, we first introduce a relevant relativistic spin observable, and evaluate its expectation values for the Bell states under Lorentz boost. Then we show that maximal violation of the Bell's inequality can be achieved by properly adjusting the directions of the spin measurement even in a relativistically moving inertial frame. Based on this we infer that the entanglement information is preserved under Lorentz boost as a form of correlation information determined by the transformation characteristic of the Bell state in use.
We study the properties of quantum entanglement in moving frames, and show that, because spin and momentum become mixed when viewed by a moving observer, the entanglement between the spins of a pair of particles is not invariant. We give an example of a pair, fully spin entangled in the rest frame, which has its spin entanglement reduced in all other frames. Similarly, we show that there are pairs whose spin entanglement increases from zero to maximal entanglement when boosted. While spin and momentum entanglement separately are not Lorentz invariant, the joint entanglement of the wave function is.
In this work we study the entanglement properties under a Lorentz boost of a pair of spin- 1 massive particles, with spin and momentum as the sole degrees of freedom of the system. Different cases for entanglement between spins and momenta are considered as initial states and it is shown that entanglement between the different degrees of freedom is, in general, not invariant. We analyze the entanglement change in terms of the Wigner rotation induced by the transformation and show that, for the case of spin-1 particles, the relative entanglement change between different states depends strongly on the boost velocity.