Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2409.18948

X-arability of mixed quantum states

Harm Derksen, Nathaniel Johnston, Benjamin Lovitz

Published Sep 27, 2024• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The problem of determining when entanglement is present in a quantum system is one of the most active areas of research in quantum physics. Depending on the setting at hand, different notions of entanglement (or lack thereof) become relevant. Examples include separability (of bosons, fermions, and distinguishable particles), Schmidt number, biseparability, entanglement depth, and bond dimension. In this work, we propose and study a unified notion of separability, which we call X-arability, that captures a wide range of applications including these. For a subset (more specifically, an algebraic variety) of pure states X, we say that a mixed quantum state is X-arable if it lies in the convex hull of X. We develop unified tools and provable guarantees for X-arability, which already give new results for the standard separability problem. Our results include: -- An X-tensions hierarchy of semidefinite programs for X-arability (generalizing the symmetric extensions hierarchy for separability), and a new de Finetti theorem for fermionic separability. -- A hierarchy of eigencomputations for optimizing a Hermitian operator over X, with applications to X-tanglement witnesses and polynomial optimization. -- A hierarchy of linear systems for the X-tangled subspace problem, with improved polynomial time guarantees even for the standard entangled subspace problem, in both the generic and worst case settings.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2409.18948

Related papers

Applications of differential geometry and representation theory to description of quantum correlations

Michał Oszmaniec

One of the most important questions in quantum information theory is the so-called separability problem. It involves characterizing the set of separable (or, equivalently entangled) states among mixed states of a multipartite quantum system. In this thesis we study the generalization of this problem to types of quantum correlations that are defined in a manner analogous to entanglement. We start with the subset of set of pure states of a given quantum system and call states belonging to the convex hull of this subset "non-correlated" states. Consequently, the states laying outside the convex hull are referred to as "correlated". In this work we focus on cases when there exist a symmetry group that preserves the class of "non-correlated" pure states. The presence of symmetries allows to obtain a unified treatment of many types of seemingly unrelated types of correlations. We apply our general results to particular types of correlations: (i) entanglement of distinguishable particles, (ii) particle entanglement of bosons, (iii) "entanglement" of fermions, (iv) non-convex-Gaussian correlations in fermionic systems, (v) genuine multiparty entanglement, and finally (vi) refined notions of bipartite entanglement based on the concept of the Schmidt number. We investigate the natural problems and questions concerning the correlations defined above: (I) We provide explicit polynomial characterization of various types of correlations for pure states. (II) We examine cases in which it is possible to give a complete analytical characterization of correlated mixed states. (III) We derive a variety of polynomial criteria for detection of correlations in mixed states.(IV) We use the above criteria and the technique of measure concentration to study typical properties of correlations on sets of isospectral density matrices.

arXiv:1412.4657•Dec 15, 2014•2 citations

Entanglement and Quantumness - New Numerical Approaches -

Fabian Bohnet-Waldraff

The main topic of this compilation thesis is the investigation of multipartite entanglement of finite dimensional systems. We developed a numerical algorithm that detects if a multipartite state is entangled or separable in a finite number of steps of a semi-definite optimization task. This method is an extension of previously known semi-definite methods, which are inconclusive when the state is separable. In our case, if the state is separable, an explicit decomposition into a mixture of separable states can be extracted. This was achieved by mapping the entanglement problem onto the mathematically well studied truncated moment problem. Additionally, a new way of writing the partially transposed state for symmetric multi-qubit states was developed which simplifies many results previously known in entanglement theory. This new way of writing the partial transpose criterion unifies different interpretations and alternative formulations of the partial transpose criterion and it is also a part in the aforementioned semi-definite algorithm. The geometric properties of entangled symmetric states of two qubits were studied in detail: We could answer the question of how far a given pure state is from the convex hull of symmetric separable states, as measured by the Hilbert-Schmidt distance, by giving an explicit formula for the closest separable symmetric state. For mixed states we could provide a numerical upper and analytical lower bound for this distance. For a larger number of qubits we investigated the ball of absolutely classical states, i.e. symmetric multi-qubit states that stay separable under any unitary transformation. We found an analytical lower bound for the radius of this ball around the maximally mixed symmetric state and gave a numerical upper bound on this radius, by searching for an entangled state as close as possible to the maximally mixed symmetric state. The tensor representation of a symmetric multi-qubit state, or spin-j state, allowed us to study entanglement properties based on the spectrum of the tensor via tensor eigenvalues. The definiteness of this tensor relates to the entanglement of the state it represents and, hence, the smallest tensor eigenvalue can be used to detect entanglement. However, the tensor eigenvalues are more difficult to determine than the familiar matrix eigenvalues which made the investigation computationally more challenging. The relationship between the value of the smallest tensor eigenvalue and the amount of entanglement in the state was also investigated. It turned out that they are strongly correlated for small system sizes, i.e. for up to six qubits. However, to investigate this correlation we needed an independent way to gauge the amount of entanglement of a state and in order to do so we improved existing numerical methods to determine the distance of a state to the set of separable symmetric states, using a combination of linear and quadratic programming. The tensor representation of symmetric multi-qubit states was also used to formally define a new tensor class of regularly decomposable tensors that corresponds to the set of separable symmetric multi-qubit states.

•Sep 29, 2017•0 citations

Complete family of separability criteria

Andrew C. Doherty, Pablo A. Parrilo, Federico M. Spedalieri

We introduce a family of separability criteria that are based on the existence of extensions of a bipartite quantum state \ensuremath{\rho} to a larger number of parties satisfying certain symmetry properties. It can be easily shown that all separable states have the required extensions, so the nonexistence of such an extension for a particular state implies that the state is entangled. One of the main advantages of this approach is that searching for the extension can be cast as a convex optimization problem known as a semidefinite program. Whenever an extension does not exist, the dual optimization constructs an explicit entanglement witness for the particular state. These separability tests can be ordered in a hierarchical structure whose first step corresponds to the well-known positive partial transpose (Peres-Horodecki) criterion, and each test in the hierarchy is at least as powerful as the preceding one. This hierarchy is complete, in the sense that any entangled state is guaranteed to fail a test at some finite point in the hierarchy, thus showing it is entangled. The entanglement witnesses corresponding to each step of the hierarchy have well-defined and very interesting algebraic properties that, in turn, allow for a characterization of the interior of the set of positive maps. Coupled with some recent results on the computational complexity of the separability problem, which has been shown to be NP hard, this hierarchy of tests gives a complete and also computationally and theoretically appealing characterization of mixed bipartite entangled states.

arXiv:quant-ph/0308032•Physical Review A•Feb 18, 2004•416 citations

Entanglement and the shareability of quantum states

Andrew C. Doherty

This brief review discusses the problem of determining whether a given quantum state is separable or entangled. I describe an established approach to this problem that is based on the monogamy of entanglement, which is the observation that a pair of quantum systems that are strongly entangled must be uncorrelated with the rest of the world. Unentangled states on the other hand involve correlations that can be shared with many other parties. Checking whether a given quantum state is shareable involves constructing certain symmetric quantum state extensions and I discuss how to do this using a class of optimizations known as semidefinite programs. An attractive feature of this approach is that it generates explicit entanglement witnesses that can be measured to demonstrate the entanglement experimentally. In recent years analysis of this approach has greatly increased our understanding of the complexity of determining whether a given quantum state is entangled and this review aims to give a unified discussion of these developments. Specifically, I describe how to use finite quantum de Finetti theorems to prove that highly shareable states are nearly separable and use these results to understand the computational complexity of the problem. This article is part of a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical devoted to '50 years of Bell's theorem'.

Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical•Oct 9, 2014•19 citations

Entanglement in the Dicke subspace

Aabhas Gulati, Ion Nechita, Clément Pellegrini

We provide a complete mathematical theory for the entanglement of mixtures of Dicke states. These quantum states form an important subclass of bosonic states arising in the study of indistinguishable particles. We introduce a tensor-based parametrization where the diagonal entries of these states are encoded as a symmetric tensor, enabling a direct translation between entanglement properties and well-studied convex cones of tensors. Our results bridge multipartite entanglement theory with semialgebraic geometry and the theory of completely positive and copositive tensors. This dictionary maps separability to completely positive tensors, the PPT property to moment tensors, entanglement witnesses to copositive tensors, and decomposable witnesses to sum of squares tensors. Using this framework, we construct explicit PPT entangled states in three or more qutrits, disproving a recent conjecture. We establish that PPT entanglement exists for all multipartite systems with local dimension d >= 3 and n >= 3 parties. We also show that, for mixtures of Dicke states, the PPT condition with respect to the most balanced bipartition implies all other PPT conditions. We further connect bosonic extendibility of mixtures of Dicke states to the duals of known hierarchies for non-negative polynomials, such as the ones by Reznick and Polya. We thus provide semidefinite programming relaxations for separability and entanglement testing in the Dicke subspace.

quant-pharXiv:2602.15800•Quantum•Feb 18, 2026•1 citation

Entanglement Quantification Made Easy: Polynomial Measures Invariant under Convex Decomposition

Bartosz Regula, Gerardo Adesso

Quantifying entanglement in composite systems is a fundamental challenge, yet exact results are available in only a few special cases. This is because hard optimization problems are routinely involved, such as finding the convex decomposition of a mixed state with the minimal average pure-state entanglement, the so-called convex roof. We show that under certain conditions such a problem becomes trivial. Precisely, we prove by a geometric argument that polynomial entanglement measures of degree 2 are independent of the choice of pure-state decomposition of a mixed state, when the latter has only one pure unentangled state in its range. This allows for the analytical evaluation of convex roof extended entanglement measures in classes of rank-2 states obeying such a condition. We give explicit examples for the square root of the three-tangle in three-qubit states, and we show that several representative classes of four-qubit pure states have marginals that enjoy this property.

arXiv:1512.03326•Physical Review Letters•Feb 19, 2016•25 citations
The problem of determining when entanglement is present in a quantum system is one of the most active areas of research in quantum physics. Depending on the setting at hand, different notions of entanglement (or lack thereof) become relevant. Examples include separability (of bosons, fermions, and distinguishable particles), Schmidt number, biseparability, entanglement depth, and bond dimension. In this work, we propose and study a unified notion of separability, which we call X-arability, that captures a wide range of applications including these. For a subset (more specifically, an algebraic variety) of pure states X, we say that a mixed quantum state is X-arable if it lies in the convex hull of X. We develop unified tools and provable guarantees for X-arability, which already give new results for the standard separability problem. Our results include: -- An X-tensions hierarchy of semidefinite programs for X-arability (generalizing the symmetric extensions hierarchy for separability), and a new de Finetti theorem for fermionic separability. -- A hierarchy of eigencomputations for optimizing a Hermitian operator over X, with applications to X-tanglement witnesses and polynomial optimization. -- A hierarchy of linear systems for the X-tangled subspace problem, with improved polynomial time guarantees even for the standard entangled subspace problem, in both the generic and worst case settings.
One of the most important questions in quantum information theory is the so-called separability problem. It involves characterizing the set of separable (or, equivalently entangled) states among mixed states of a multipartite quantum system. In this thesis we study the generalization of this problem to types of quantum correlations that are defined in a manner analogous to entanglement. We start with the subset of set of pure states of a given quantum system and call states belonging to the convex hull of this subset "non-correlated" states. Consequently, the states laying outside the convex hull are referred to as "correlated". In this work we focus on cases when there exist a symmetry group that preserves the class of "non-correlated" pure states. The presence of symmetries allows to obtain a unified treatment of many types of seemingly unrelated types of correlations. We apply our general results to particular types of correlations: (i) entanglement of distinguishable particles, (ii) particle entanglement of bosons, (iii) "entanglement" of fermions, (iv) non-convex-Gaussian correlations in fermionic systems, (v) genuine multiparty entanglement, and finally (vi) refined notions of bipartite entanglement based on the concept of the Schmidt number. We investigate the natural problems and questions concerning the correlations defined above: (I) We provide explicit polynomial characterization of various types of correlations for pure states. (II) We examine cases in which it is possible to give a complete analytical characterization of correlated mixed states. (III) We derive a variety of polynomial criteria for detection of correlations in mixed states.(IV) We use the above criteria and the technique of measure concentration to study typical properties of correlations on sets of isospectral density matrices.
The main topic of this compilation thesis is the investigation of multipartite entanglement of finite dimensional systems. We developed a numerical algorithm that detects if a multipartite state is entangled or separable in a finite number of steps of a semi-definite optimization task. This method is an extension of previously known semi-definite methods, which are inconclusive when the state is separable. In our case, if the state is separable, an explicit decomposition into a mixture of separable states can be extracted. This was achieved by mapping the entanglement problem onto the mathematically well studied truncated moment problem. Additionally, a new way of writing the partially transposed state for symmetric multi-qubit states was developed which simplifies many results previously known in entanglement theory. This new way of writing the partial transpose criterion unifies different interpretations and alternative formulations of the partial transpose criterion and it is also a part in the aforementioned semi-definite algorithm. The geometric properties of entangled symmetric states of two qubits were studied in detail: We could answer the question of how far a given pure state is from the convex hull of symmetric separable states, as measured by the Hilbert-Schmidt distance, by giving an explicit formula for the closest separable symmetric state. For mixed states we could provide a numerical upper and analytical lower bound for this distance. For a larger number of qubits we investigated the ball of absolutely classical states, i.e. symmetric multi-qubit states that stay separable under any unitary transformation. We found an analytical lower bound for the radius of this ball around the maximally mixed symmetric state and gave a numerical upper bound on this radius, by searching for an entangled state as close as possible to the maximally mixed symmetric state. The tensor representation of a symmetric multi-qubit state, or spin-j state, allowed us to study entanglement properties based on the spectrum of the tensor via tensor eigenvalues. The definiteness of this tensor relates to the entanglement of the state it represents and, hence, the smallest tensor eigenvalue can be used to detect entanglement. However, the tensor eigenvalues are more difficult to determine than the familiar matrix eigenvalues which made the investigation computationally more challenging. The relationship between the value of the smallest tensor eigenvalue and the amount of entanglement in the state was also investigated. It turned out that they are strongly correlated for small system sizes, i.e. for up to six qubits. However, to investigate this correlation we needed an independent way to gauge the amount of entanglement of a state and in order to do so we improved existing numerical methods to determine the distance of a state to the set of separable symmetric states, using a combination of linear and quadratic programming. The tensor representation of symmetric multi-qubit states was also used to formally define a new tensor class of regularly decomposable tensors that corresponds to the set of separable symmetric multi-qubit states.
We introduce a family of separability criteria that are based on the existence of extensions of a bipartite quantum state \ensuremath{\rho} to a larger number of parties satisfying certain symmetry properties. It can be easily shown that all separable states have the required extensions, so the nonexistence of such an extension for a particular state implies that the state is entangled. One of the main advantages of this approach is that searching for the extension can be cast as a convex optimization problem known as a semidefinite program. Whenever an extension does not exist, the dual optimization constructs an explicit entanglement witness for the particular state. These separability tests can be ordered in a hierarchical structure whose first step corresponds to the well-known positive partial transpose (Peres-Horodecki) criterion, and each test in the hierarchy is at least as powerful as the preceding one. This hierarchy is complete, in the sense that any entangled state is guaranteed to fail a test at some finite point in the hierarchy, thus showing it is entangled. The entanglement witnesses corresponding to each step of the hierarchy have well-defined and very interesting algebraic properties that, in turn, allow for a characterization of the interior of the set of positive maps. Coupled with some recent results on the computational complexity of the separability problem, which has been shown to be NP hard, this hierarchy of tests gives a complete and also computationally and theoretically appealing characterization of mixed bipartite entangled states.
This brief review discusses the problem of determining whether a given quantum state is separable or entangled. I describe an established approach to this problem that is based on the monogamy of entanglement, which is the observation that a pair of quantum systems that are strongly entangled must be uncorrelated with the rest of the world. Unentangled states on the other hand involve correlations that can be shared with many other parties. Checking whether a given quantum state is shareable involves constructing certain symmetric quantum state extensions and I discuss how to do this using a class of optimizations known as semidefinite programs. An attractive feature of this approach is that it generates explicit entanglement witnesses that can be measured to demonstrate the entanglement experimentally. In recent years analysis of this approach has greatly increased our understanding of the complexity of determining whether a given quantum state is entangled and this review aims to give a unified discussion of these developments. Specifically, I describe how to use finite quantum de Finetti theorems to prove that highly shareable states are nearly separable and use these results to understand the computational complexity of the problem. This article is part of a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical devoted to '50 years of Bell's theorem'.
We provide a complete mathematical theory for the entanglement of mixtures of Dicke states. These quantum states form an important subclass of bosonic states arising in the study of indistinguishable particles. We introduce a tensor-based parametrization where the diagonal entries of these states are encoded as a symmetric tensor, enabling a direct translation between entanglement properties and well-studied convex cones of tensors. Our results bridge multipartite entanglement theory with semialgebraic geometry and the theory of completely positive and copositive tensors. This dictionary maps separability to completely positive tensors, the PPT property to moment tensors, entanglement witnesses to copositive tensors, and decomposable witnesses to sum of squares tensors. Using this framework, we construct explicit PPT entangled states in three or more qutrits, disproving a recent conjecture. We establish that PPT entanglement exists for all multipartite systems with local dimension d >= 3 and n >= 3 parties. We also show that, for mixtures of Dicke states, the PPT condition with respect to the most balanced bipartition implies all other PPT conditions. We further connect bosonic extendibility of mixtures of Dicke states to the duals of known hierarchies for non-negative polynomials, such as the ones by Reznick and Polya. We thus provide semidefinite programming relaxations for separability and entanglement testing in the Dicke subspace.
Quantifying entanglement in composite systems is a fundamental challenge, yet exact results are available in only a few special cases. This is because hard optimization problems are routinely involved, such as finding the convex decomposition of a mixed state with the minimal average pure-state entanglement, the so-called convex roof. We show that under certain conditions such a problem becomes trivial. Precisely, we prove by a geometric argument that polynomial entanglement measures of degree 2 are independent of the choice of pure-state decomposition of a mixed state, when the latter has only one pure unentangled state in its range. This allows for the analytical evaluation of convex roof extended entanglement measures in classes of rank-2 states obeying such a condition. We give explicit examples for the square root of the three-tangle in three-qubit states, and we show that several representative classes of four-qubit pure states have marginals that enjoy this property.