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arXiv:2605.22713

Self-testing of exact entanglement embezzlement

Samuel J. Harris

math.OAquant-phSubmitted May 21, 2026• Announced May 22, 2026• 0 citations• Revised Aug 3, 2026 (v2)
v1 · May 21, 2026v2 · Aug 3, 2026
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Abstract

We consider bipartite exact entanglement embezzlement with a catalyst state vector $ψ$ in a Hilbert space $\mathcal{H}$ using unitaries (or more generally, contractions). If $\mathcal{M} \subseteq \mathcal{B}(\mathcal{H})$ is a von Neumann algebra and $U \in M_d \otimes \mathcal{M}$ and $V \in \mathcal{M}' \otimes M_d$ are unitaries (or more generally contractions), then such a protocol is of the form $(U \otimes I_d)(I_d \otimes V)(e_0 \otimes ψ\otimes e_0)=\sum_{i=0}^{d-1} α_i e_i \otimes ψ\otimes e_i$, where each $α_i>0$ and $\sum_{i=0}^{d-1} α_i^2=1$. We show that any such protocol must arise from a unique state on the tensor product $\mathcal{O}_d \otimes \mathcal{O}_d$ of the Cuntz algebra with itself. As a result, we prove that exact entanglement embezzlement is a self-test for a collection of $d$ Cuntz isometries for each party and a unique quasi-free state on the Cuntz algebra $\mathcal{O}_d$ in the sense of \cite{Iz93}. Moreover, we use modular theory to show that the von Neumann algebra generated by the copy of $\mathcal{O}_d$ is the unique separable approximately finite-dimensional Type $\text{III}_λ$ factor for some $0<λ\leq 1$, where $λ$ can be determined by an algebraic condition on the Schmidt coefficients of the state $\varphi=\sum_{i=0}^{d-1} α_i e_i \otimes e_i$.

Comments
31 pages, fixed mistake in Theorem 4.15

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We consider bipartite exact entanglement embezzlement with a catalyst state vector ψψψ in a Hilbert space H\mathcal{H}H using unitaries (or more generally, contractions). If M⊆B(H)\mathcal{M} \subseteq \mathcal{B}(\mathcal{H})M⊆B(H) is a von Neumann algebra and U∈Md⊗MU \in M_d \otimes \mathcal{M}U∈Md​⊗M and V∈M′⊗MdV \in \mathcal{M}' \otimes M_dV∈M′⊗Md​ are unitaries (or more generally contractions), then such a protocol is of the form (U⊗Id)(Id⊗V)(e0⊗ψ⊗e0)=∑i=0d−1αiei⊗ψ⊗ei(U \otimes I_d)(I_d \otimes V)(e_0 \otimes ψ\otimes e_0)=\sum_{i=0}^{d-1} α_i e_i \otimes ψ\otimes e_i(U⊗Id​)(Id​⊗V)(e0​⊗ψ⊗e0​)=∑i=0d−1​αi​ei​⊗ψ⊗ei​, where each αi>0α_i>0αi​>0 and ∑i=0d−1αi2=1\sum_{i=0}^{d-1} α_i^2=1∑i=0d−1​αi2​=1. We show that any such protocol must arise from a unique state on the tensor product Od⊗Od\mathcal{O}_d \otimes \mathcal{O}_dOd​⊗Od​ of the Cuntz algebra with itself. As a result, we prove that exact entanglement embezzlement is a self-test for a collection of ddd Cuntz isometries for each party and a unique quasi-free state on the Cuntz algebra Od\mathcal{O}_dOd​ in the sense of \cite{Iz93}. Moreover, we use modular theory to show that the von Neumann algebra generated by the copy of Od\mathcal{O}_dOd​ is the unique separable approximately finite-dimensional Type IIIλ\text{III}_λIIIλ​ factor for some 0<λ≤10<λ\leq 10<λ≤1, where λλλ can be determined by an algebraic condition on the Schmidt coefficients of the state φ=∑i=0d−1αiei⊗ei\varphi=\sum_{i=0}^{d-1} α_i e_i \otimes e_iφ=∑i=0d−1​αi​ei​⊗ei​.
We show that the optimal commuting operator correlation for a variant of Coladangelo's two-player generalized nonlocal game, based on the embezzlement of entanglement, is a commuting operator self-test. Our result gives the first correlation self-test for an exact entanglement embezzlement protocol in the commuting operator framework. Because the unique optimal correlation necessitates the exact embezzlement of entanglement, the correlation is unrealizable using quantum tensor-product models, even if the local spaces are allowed to be infinite dimensional. As such, our result provides an example of a commuting operator self-test where the Hilbert space shared by the two parties cannot be factored into a tensor-product of local spaces that is compatible with the local measurement operators. Our main proof technique relies on Harris' unique abstract state characterization of exact embezzlement of entanglement involving Cuntz algebras.
Quantum information has the potential to disrupt the present computational landscape. Much of this potential rests on the existence of efficient quantum algorithms for classically intractable problems and of quantum cryptographic protocols for tasks that are provably impossible to realize classically. At the heart of many quantum advantages is one of the most counterintuitive features of quantum mechanics, known as entanglement. The central motivating question of this thesis is the following: if quantum devices will perform tasks that are beyond the reach of classical devices, can we hope to certify that they are performing these tasks correctly? Bell's theorem, a landmark result in physics, provides a partial answer to this question: it asserts that measurements on spatially isolated, but entangled, particles can result in outcomes that are correlated in a way that cannot be explained by any local hidden variable theory (such as Newtonian physics). A direct operational consequence of this theorem is that one can devise a statistical test to certify the presence of entanglement (and hence of genuine quantumness). Remarkably, nature allows us to take this certification one step further: in some cases, the correlation of measurement outcomes is sufficient to single out a unique quantum setup compatible with this correlation. This phenomenon is often referred to as self-testing, and is the central topic of this thesis. In the first part of this thesis, we review the basic terminology and results in the theory of self-testing. We then explore a concrete application to the problem of verifiably delegating a quantum computation. Our main technical contribution is a test that robustly certifies products of single-qubit Clifford measurements on many EPR pairs. We employ this test to obtain a protocol which allows a classical user to verifiably delegate her quantum computation to two spatially isolated quantum servers. The overall complexity of our protocol is near-optimal, requiring resources that scale almost linearly in the size of the circuit being delegated. In the second part of this thesis, the driving question is the following: what is the class of quantum states and measurements that can be certified through self-testing? Does self-testing only apply to a few special cases, like EPR pairs or copies of EPR pairs, or are these instances of a more general phenomenon? One of the main results of this thesis is that we settle this question for the case of bipartite states. We show the existence of a self-testing correlation for any pure bipartite entangled state of any finite local dimension. We then move on to explore the multipartite case, and we show that a significantly larger class of states can be self-tested than was previously known. This includes all multipartite partially entangled GHZ states, and more generally all multipartite qudit states which admit a Schmidt decomposition. In the final part of this thesis, we explore connections of the theory of self-testing to basic questions about entanglement and quantum correlation sets. In particular, we set out to understand the expressive power of infinite-dimensional quantum systems. We consider two questions: can spatially isolated quantum systems of infinite dimension produce correlations that are unattainable by finite-dimensional systems? Does there exist a correlation that cannot be attained exactly by spatially isolated quantum systems (not even infinite-dimensional ones), but can be approximated arbitrarily well by a sequence of finite or infinite-dimensional systems? The first question was posed by Tsirelson in 1993, and its answer has been elusive. One of the main results of this thesis is a resolution of this question. The second question is better known as the "non-closure of the set of quantum correlations", and was answered affirmatively in a breakthrough of Slofstra. We give a new elementary proof of this result which leverages one of our self-testing results and a phenomenon known as embezzlement.
We investigate the operator-algebraic structure underlying entanglement embezzlement, a phenomenon where a fixed entangled state (the catalyst) can be used to generate arbitrary target entangled states without being consumed. We show that the ability to embezzle a target state ggg imposes strong internal constraints on the catalyst state fff: specifically, fff must contain infinitely many mutually commuting, locally structured copies of ggg. This property is formalized using C*-algebraic tools and is analogous to a form of self-testing, certifying the presence of infinite copies of ggg within fff. Using this infinite-copy certification. Our results clarify the structural requirements for embezzlement and provide new conceptual tools for analyzing state certification in infinite-dimensional quantum systems.
Monogamy of bipartite correlations leads, for arbitrary pure multiqubit states, to simple conditions able to indicate various types of multipartite entanglement by being capable of excluding the possibility of kkk separability.
We present an explicit construction of a universal embezzlement protocol in the C*-algebraic model of quantum information, that is equivalent to the commuting operator model. Our protocol enables exact embezzlement of arbitrary bipartite pure states using a single, fixed catalyst state. Unlike prior constructions that achieve only approximate embezzlement or require state-dependent catalysts, our approach is both exact and state-independent. The construction is explicit, based on simple *-automorphisms acting locally on infinite tensor products of CAR algebras with the underlying idea of the Hilbert hotel. In the dense-state case, the protocol naturally recovers the Type III_1 factor via the GNS construction, consistent with recent classification results. We further extend the construction to allow exact embezzlement of all states, at the cost of working with a non-separable C*-algebra. Despite the increase in algebraic size, the operational structure remains simple and localized. This offers a conceptually intuitive model for universal entanglement embezzlement in infinite-dimensional settings.
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.