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Physical Review A

Probabilistic interpretation of the reduction criterion for entanglement

Zhengmin Zhang, Shunlong Luo

Published Mar 9, 2007• 8 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Inspired by the idea of conditional probabilities, we introduce a variant of conditional density operators. But unlike the conditional probabilities which are bounded by 1, the conditional density operators may have eigenvalues exceeding 1 for entangled states. This has the consequence that although any bivariate classical probability distribution has a natural separable decomposition in terms of conditional probabilities, we do not have a quantum analogue of this separable decomposition in general. The ``nonclassical'' eigenvalues of conditional density operators are indications of entanglement. The resulting separability criterion turns out to be equivalent to the reduction criterion introduced by Horodecki [Phys. Rev. A 59, 4206 (1999)] and Cerf et al. [Phys. Rev. A 60, 898 (1999)]. This supplies an intuitive probabilistic interpretation for the reduction criterion. The conditional density operators are also used to define a form of quantum conditional entropy which provides an alternative mechanism to reveal quantum discord.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.75.032312

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Inspired by the idea of conditional probabilities, we introduce a variant of conditional density operators. But unlike the conditional probabilities which are bounded by 1, the conditional density operators may have eigenvalues exceeding 1 for entangled states. This has the consequence that although any bivariate classical probability distribution has a natural separable decomposition in terms of conditional probabilities, we do not have a quantum analogue of this separable decomposition in general. The ``nonclassical'' eigenvalues of conditional density operators are indications of entanglement. The resulting separability criterion turns out to be equivalent to the reduction criterion introduced by Horodecki [Phys. Rev. A 59, 4206 (1999)] and Cerf et al. [Phys. Rev. A 60, 898 (1999)]. This supplies an intuitive probabilistic interpretation for the reduction criterion. The conditional density operators are also used to define a form of quantum conditional entropy which provides an alternative mechanism to reveal quantum discord.
We analyze properties of the quantum conditional amplitude operator [Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 5194 (1997)], which plays a role similar to that of the conditional probability in classical information theory. The spectrum of the conditional operator that characterizes a quantum bipartite system is shown to be invariant under local unitary transformations and reflects its inseparability. More specifically, it is proven that the conditional amplitude operator of a separable state cannot have an eigenvalue exceeding 1, which results in a necessary condition for separability. A related separability criterion based on the non-negativity of the von Neumann conditional entropy is also exhibited.
Quantum discord, as defined by Olliver and Zurek (2002 Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 017901) as the difference of two natural quantum extensions of the classical mutual information, plays an interesting role in characterizing quantumness of correlations. Inspired by this idea, we will study quantumness of bipartite states arising from different quantum analogs of the classical conditional entropy. Our approach is intrinsic, in contrast to the Olliver–Zurek method that involves extrinsic local measurements. For this purpose, we introduce two alternative variants of quantum conditional entropies via conditional density operators, which in turn are intuitive quantum extensions of equivalent classical expressions for the conditional probability. The significance of these quantum conditional entropies in characterizing quantumness of bipartite states is illustrated through several examples.
The quantum relative R\'enyi entropy of two noncommuting density matrices was recently defined from which its conditional entropy is deduced. This framework is here extended to the corresponding Tsallis relative entropy and to its conditional form. This expression of Tsallis conditional entropy is shown to witness entanglement beyond the method based on global and local spectra of composite quantum states. When the reduced density matrix happens to be a maximally mixed state, this conditional entropy coincides with the expression in terms of Tsallis entropies derived earlier by Abe and Rajagopal [Physica A 289, 157 (2001)]. The separability range in a noisy one-parameter family of WWW and Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states with three and four qubits is explored here and it is shown that the results inferred from negative Tsallis conditional entropy matches that obtained through Peres's partial transpose criterion for one-parameter family of WWW states, in one of its partitions. The criterion is shown to be nonspectral through its usefulness in identifying entanglement in isospectral density matrices.
We discuss the entropic criterion for separability of compound quantum systems for general nonadditive entropic forms based on arbitrary concave functions f. For any separable state, the generalized entropy of the whole system is shown to be not smaller than that of the subsystems, for any choice of f, providing thus a necessary criterion for separability. Nevertheless, the criterion is not sufficient and examples of entangled states with the same property are provided. This entails, in particular, that the conjecture about the positivity of the conditional Tsallis entropy for all q, a more stringent requirement than the positivity of the conditional von Neumann entropy, is actually a necessary but not sufficient condition for separability in general. The direct relation between the entropic criterion and the largest eigenvalues of the full and reduced density operators of the system is also discussed.
This work is an enquiry into the circumstances under which entropy methods can give an answer to the questions of both quantum separability and classical correlations of a composite state. Several entropy functionals are employed to examine the entanglement and correlation properties guided by the corresponding calculations of concurrence. It is shown that the entropy difference between that of the composite and its marginal density matrices may be of arbitrary sign except under special circumstances when conditional probability can be defined appropriately. This ambiguity is a consequence of the fact that the overlap matrix elements of the eigenstates of the composite density matrix with those of its marginal density matrices also play important roles in the definitions of probabilities and the associated entropies, along with their respective eigenvalues. The general results are illustrated using pure- and mixed-state density matrices of two-qubit systems. Two classes of density matrices are found for which the conditional probability can be defined: (1) density matrices with commuting decompositions and (2) those that are decohered in the representation where the density matrices of the marginals are diagonal. The first class of states encompass those whose separability is currently understood as due to particular symmetries of the states. The second are a class of states that are expected to be useful for understanding separability. Examples of entropy functionals of these decohered states including the crucial isospectral case are discussed.