In this paper, 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. In this class of states, we establish that PPT entanglement exists for all multipartite systems with three qutrits or more, disproving a recent conjecture in [J. Math. Phys. 66, 022203 (2025)]. We also show that, for mixtures of Dicke states, the PPT condition with respect to the most balanced bipartition implies PPT with respect to any other bipartition. 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.
In this paper, 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. In this class of states, we establish that PPT entanglement exists for all multipartite systems with three qutrits or more, disproving a recent conjecture in [J. Math. Phys. 66, 022203 (2025)]. We also show that, for mixtures of Dicke states, the PPT condition with respect to the most balanced bipartition implies PPT with respect to any other bipartition. 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.
We study the separability problem in mixtures of Dicke states i.e., the separability of the so-called Diagonal Symmetric (DS) states. First, we show that separability in the case of DS in Cd⊗Cd (symmetric qudits) can be reformulated as a quadratic conic optimization problem. This connection allows us to exchange concepts and ideas between quantum information and this field of mathematics. For instance, copositive matrices can be understood as indecomposable entanglement witnesses for DS states. As a consequence, we show that positivity of the partial transposition (PPT) is sufficient and necessary for separability of DS states for d≤4. Furthermore, for d≥5, we provide analytic examples of PPT-entangled states. Second, we develop new sufficient separability conditions beyond the PPT criterion for bipartite DS states. Finally, we focus on N-partite DS qubits, where PPT is known to be necessary and sufficient for separability. In this case, we present a family of almost DS states that are PPT with respect to each partition but nevertheless entangled.
We study the separability problem in mixtures of Dicke states i.e., the separability of the so-called Diagonal Symmetric (DS) states. First, we show that separability in the case of DS in C d ⊗ C d (symmetric qudits) can be reformulated as a quadratic conic optimization problem. This connection allows us to exchange concepts and ideas between quantum information and this field of mathematics. For instance, copositive matrices can be understood as indecomposable entanglement witnesses for DS states. As a consequence, we show that positivity of the partial transposition (PPT) is sufficient and necessary for separability of DS states for d ≤ 4 . Furthermore, for d ≥ 5 , we provide analytic examples of PPT-entangled states. Second, we develop new sufficient separability conditions beyond the PPT criterion for bipartite DS states. Finally, we focus on N -partite DS qubits, where PPT is known to be necessary and sufficient for separability. In this case, we present a family of almost DS states that are PPT with respect to each partition but nevertheless entangled.
We introduce and study bipartite quantum states that are invariant under the local action of the cyclic sign group. Due to symmetry, these states are sparse and can be parameterized by a triple of vectors. Their important semi-definite properties, such as positivity and positivity under partial transpose (PPT), can be simply characterized in terms of these vectors and their discrete Fourier transforms. We study in detail the entanglement properties of this family of symmetric states, showing that it contains PPT entangled states. For states that are diagonal in the Dicke basis, deciding separability is equivalent to a circulant version of the complete positivity problem. In local dimension d ≤ 5, we completely characterize these sets and construct entanglement witnesses; some partial results are also obtained for d = 6, 7. We construct a new family of states for which the properties of PPT and separability can be characterized for all dimensions, generalizing results from from the literature. Our results show that these states have a rich entanglement structure, even in the bosonic subspace.
While we possess a basic understanding of bipartite entangled systems, multipartite entanglement
remains mostly unexplored. Specifically, it is quite unclear how several concepts
developed for the bipartite case can be generalized in a meaningful way to study multipartite
scenarios. At the heart of this research on multiparty quantum states lies the problem
of testing the entanglement present in a given state. It has been proved, that in the most
general scenario, the question of determining the entanglement or separability of a state is
NP-hard.
From this perspective, it is desirable to have a construction of states for which
some prior knowledge about entanglement properties already exist. One particular approach
to this problem relies on the construction of Completely Entangled Subspaces
(CESes), i.e., subspaces void of product states. It follows that states in such subspaces
are necessarily entangled and form a convex set. This means we possess prior knowledge
of entanglement of all states in that subspace. In our study of multiparty systems, we have
constructed a specific subclass of the CESes such that all the states residing in the newly
constructed subspace is not only entangled but also Genuinely Entangled. A given state
is Genuinely Entangled if it is not just entangled for any pair among the multiparty but is
entangled with all the parties present and at the same time.
The notion of a CES is intimately connected with the idea of Unextendible Product
Bases (UPBs). UPBs are sets of twisted orthogonal product states/vectors spanning a
proper subset of a given Hilbert space. They have the property that no other product vector
exists in the ortho-complement of their span. While UPBs have been relatively well
studied for bipartite systems, no known multipartite orthogonal UPBs give rise to Genuinely
Entangled Subspace (GES). In our study, we provide schemes for the construction
of GES for a tripartite scenario. The construction proposed is linked to a Symmetric Block
structure such that it can be extended to any arbitrary dimension.One of the primary motivations for construction of UPBs is to create entangled
states which remain Positive under Partial Transposition (PPT). These classes of Entangled
States are known to be un-distillable and hence called Bound Entangled, i.e., states
in which the resource of Entanglement is not free to be used. These Bound Entangled states are essential to our understanding the basics of Entanglement Theory such as distillability,
quantification of entanglement, and the relationship between nonlocality and
entanglement (apart from their applications in other quantum information tasks). The
construction itself guarantees the PPTness of the state residing in the complementary subspace
i.e. formed by the equal mixture of the basis spanning the complementary space.
In our study, we propose a symmetric and an asymmetric construction of the Biseperable
and Genuinely Entangled states. Via the symmetric construction, we have derived two
subspaces, an eight-dimensional CES and a five-dimensional GES within the CES mentioned
above. The state formed by the equal mixtures of the CES is a Genuinely Bound
Entangled PPT state i.e., it entangled as well as PPT in each cut. To the best of author’s
knowledge, the proposed state is the only know Genuinely Entangled PPT state derived
from a UPB construction.
Additionally, the state lying in the ortho-complement of UPB (i.e., states formed
by an equal mixture of the basis of CES) is known to be a PPT Bound Entangled state.
However, unlike in case of UPBs, the state in the ortho-complement of Unextendible
Biseparable Product basis (i.e. states formed by an equal mixture of the basis of GES)
is found to be NPT states across all bipartitions. This is striking and prompts us to believe
that the state in the ortho-complement of CES is the only examples of bound entangled
state and distinct from other states in the space. We further expect that the state we obtain
must exhibit some distinctive features. We verify that this state is one copy undistillable.
However, the n-copy undistillablity needs to be probed further, and no conclusive
statement regarding the same can be made with our current analysis. The existence of
NPT-bound entangled state would prove that the distillable entanglement is nonadditive
and not convex.
The constructed subspace of Genuinely Entangled States in-turn reveals some
peculiar features. As mentioned above, unlike the Bennett et al., 1999 case, the state in the
ortho-complement is an NPT state across all bipartition. Furthermore, it was numerically
verified by taking one hundred thousand random probability distributions that the entire
five-dimensional genuine subspace obtained happens to be NPT. This leads us to conjecture
that the subspace obtained is a Genuinly Entangled NPT subspace. To the best of
the author’s knowledge, no known genuine NPT subspace exists for the multipartite scenario.
The exists only one other NPT subspace for Biseparable States and was suggested
by Johnston, 2013. Here, the construction is not related to UPBs. We further argue that
if our conjecture on the NPTness of the entire subspace is correct, any four-dimensional
subspace of the constructed tripartite NPT GES is also distillable. This would then be the
only known distillable subspace in a multipartite scenario. We believe that our study brings us closer to a systematic analysis of multipartite
entanglement and provides us with tools to probe further into the current mess of an
entangled (read communicating) world of multiple actors.
The structural relation between multipartite entanglement and symmetry is one of the central mysteries of quantum mechanics. In this paper, we study the separability of quantum states in the bosonic system. We show that a mixture of multiqubit Dicke states is separable if and only if its partial transpose is positive semidefinite, which confirms the hypothesis of Wolfe and Yelin [E. Wolfe and S. F. Yelin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 140402 (2014)]. We generalize this result to a class of bosonic states in the $d\ensuremath{\bigotimes}d$ system; and for general d, we determine its separability is NP-hard although verifiable conditions for separability are easily derived when d=3,4.
Abstract One of the fundamental questions in quantum information theory is determining entanglement of quantum states, which is generally an NP-hard problem. In this paper, we prove that all PPT ( π ― A ⊗ π B ) -invariant quantum states are separable if and only if all extremal unital positive ( π B , π A ) -covariant maps are decomposable where π A , π B are unitary representations of a compact group and π A is irreducible. Moreover, an extremal unital positive ( π B , π A ) -covariant map L is decomposable if and only if L is completely positive or completely copositive. We then apply these results to prove that all PPT quantum channels of the form Φ ( ρ ) = a Tr ( ρ ) d Id d + b ρ + c ρ T + ( 1 − a − b − c ) diag ( ρ ) are entanglement-breaking, and that there is no A-BC PPT-entangled ( U ⊗ U ― ⊗ U ) -invariant tripartite quantum state. The former strengthens some conclusions in (Vollbrecht and Werner 2001 Phys. Rev. A 64 062307; Kopszak et al 2020 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 53 395306), and the latter resolves some open questions raised in (Collins et al 2018 Linear Algebra Appl. 5