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arXiv:2303.17749 · Quantum

Complete Characterization of Entanglement Embezzlement

Elia Zanoni, Thomas Theurer, Gilad Gour

Published Jun 13, 2024• 8 citations
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Abstract

Using local operations and classical communication (LOCC), entanglement can be manipulated but not created. However, entanglement can be embezzled . In this work, we completely characterize universal embezzling families and demonstrate how this singles out the original family introduced by van Dam and Hayden. To achieve this, we first give a full characterization of pure to mixed state LOCC-conversions. Then, we introduce a new conversion distance and derive a closed-form expression for it. These results might be of independent interest.

DOI
10.22331/q-2024-06-13-1368

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Using local operations and classical communication (LOCC), entanglement can be manipulated but not created. However, entanglement can be embezzled . In this work, we completely characterize universal embezzling families and demonstrate how this singles out the original family introduced by van Dam and Hayden. To achieve this, we first give a full characterization of pure to mixed state LOCC-conversions. Then, we introduce a new conversion distance and derive a closed-form expression for it. These results might be of independent interest.
Quantum state embezzlement is the transformation $|\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\rangle}\ensuremath{\mapsto}|\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\rangle}|\ensuremath{\varphi}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ using only local operations, where $|\ensuremath{\varphi}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ and $|\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ are multipartite quantum states. Exact embezzlement is an impossible task since it implies the increase of entanglement without communication. Surprisingly, van Dam and Hayden [Phys. Rev. A 67, 060302 (2003)] find a universal embezzling family of states $|\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ that enables embezzlement in the bipartite setting with arbitrary precision as the dimension of $|\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ increases. Furthermore, the family is independent of the state $|\ensuremath{\varphi}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ to be embezzled. We study embezzlement in the bipartite setting. We present various requirements and consequences, and infinitely many universal embezzling families inequivalent to that proposed by van Dam and Hayden. We include numerical studies of up to 33-qubit large local systems.
Embezzlement of entanglement refers to the task of extracting entanglement from an entanglement resource via local operations and without communication while perturbing the resource arbitrarily little. Recently, the existence of embezzling states of bipartite systems of type III von Neumann algebras was shown. However, both the multipartite case and the precise relation between embezzling states and the notion of embezzling families, as originally defined by van Dam and Hayden, was left open. Here, we show that finite-dimensional approximations of multipartite embezzling states form multipartite embezzling families. In contrast, not every embezzling family converges to an embezzling state. We identify an additional consistency condition that ensures that an embezzling family converges to an embezzling state. This criterion distinguishes the embezzling family of van Dam and Hayden from the one by Leung, Toner, and Watrous. The latter generalizes to the multipartite setting. By taking a limit, we obtain a multipartite system of commuting type III 1 factors on which every state is an embezzling state. We discuss our results in the context of quantum field theory and quantum many-body physics. As open problems, we ask whether vacua of relativistic quantum fields in more than two spacetime dimensions are multipartite embezzling states and whether multipartite embezzlement allows for an operator-algebraic characterization.
Van Dam and Hayden introduced a concept commonly referred to as embezzlement, where, for any entangled quantum state ϕ, there is an entangled catalyst state ψ, from which a high fidelity approximation of ϕ ⊗ ψ can be produced using only local operations. We investigate a version of this where the embezzlement is perfect (i.e., the fidelity is 1). We prove that perfect embezzlement is impossible in a tensor product framework, even with infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces and infinite entanglement entropy. Then we prove that perfect embezzlement is possible in a commuting operator framework. We prove this using the theory of C*-algebras and we also provide an explicit construction. Next, we apply our results to analyze perfect versions of a nonlocal game introduced by Regev and Vidick. Finally, we analyze the structure of perfect embezzlement protocols in the commuting operator model, showing that they require infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces.
Entanglement is a key resource in the emerging field of Quantum Information. The strong correlations between systems described by an entangled state allow us to perform certain tasks more efficiently than it would be possible by using only classical resources. This is why the characterization of entanglement is one of the most important problems in Quantum Information. In this thesis, we analyze several aspects of entanglement. First, we introduce a new family of criteria to determine if a bipartite mixed state is entangled or not. This family consists of a sequence of tests that can be implemented efficiently, and has the property that all entangled states can be detected by some test in the sequence. Each test in the family can be stated as a semidefinite program, which is a class of convex optimization problems. The duality structure of these programs allows us to explicitly construct an entanglement witness that proves entanglement of a state, whenever the state fails one of the tests in the sequence. The entanglement witnesses constructed in this manner have well-defined algebraic properties that can be used to give a characterization of the interior of the set of all possible entanglement witnesses, as well as the set of strictly positive bihermitian forms and the set of strictly positive maps. We also study deterministic transformations of three-qubit pure state when only local operations and classical communication (LOCC) are allowed. We derive strong constraints that the operations and states involved must satisfy, and we apply these results to characterize the set of real states that can be obtained from the GHZ state by LOCC.
Local operations assisted by classical communication (LOCC) play a fundamental role in the resource-theoretic formulation of entanglement theory inducing an operationally meaningful ordering in the set of entangled states. The particular class within LOCC of local unitary (LU) transformations is obviously closed under inversion. Thus, LU-equivalent states are interconvertible by LOCC and have therefore the same entanglement. For this reason LU-equivalence has been thoroughly studied in the context of entanglement theory. However, as I note here with a simple example, the converse is not true: there exist entangled states that are interconvertible by LOCC but which are not LU-equivalent. This motivates studying under which conditions LOCC interconvertibility is characterized by LU-equivalence. I provide a sufficient condition for this to hold. When one considers multipartite states with full entanglement dimensionality (as quantified by the Schmidt number vector) LOCC interconvertibility can only hold under LU-equivalence.
Embezzlement of entanglement allows to extract arbitrary entangled states from a suitable embezzling state using only local operations while perturbing the resource state arbitrarily little. A natural family of embezzling states is given by ground states of non-interacting, critical fermions in one spatial dimension. This raises the question of whether the embezzlement operations can be restricted to Gaussian operations whenever one only wishes to extract Gaussian entangled states. We show that this is indeed the case and prove that the embezzling property is in fact a generic property of fermionic Gaussian states. Our results provide a fine-grained understanding of embezzlement of entanglement for fermionic Gaussian states in the finite-size regime and thereby bridge finite-size systems to abstract characterizations based on the classification of von Neumann algebras. To prove our results, we establish novel bounds relating the distance of covariances to the trace-distance of Gaussian states, which may be of independent interest.