A notion of partial entanglement in multipartite systems is discussed. Some algorithms for detecting and localizing the introduced partial entanglement in general multipartite quantum states are presented. The main feature of the methods presented is that they are exclusively based on two-partite methods.
We describe a general methods to localize any sort of k-separability and therefore also the corresponding partial entanglement in genuinely multipartite mixed quantum states. Our methods are based exclusively on the known twopartite methods and some systematic procedures of combinatorial nature. Our methods are formalized in an algorithmic-like fashion and therefore they are easily implementable in a computer environments and might be effectively used for studying numerically these questions for sufficiently small systems
A concise introduction to quantum entanglement in multipartite systems is presented. We review entanglement of pure quantum states of three--partite systems analyzing the classes of GHZ and W states and discussing the monogamy relations. Special attention is paid to equivalence with respect to local unitaries and stochastic local operations, invariants along these orbits, momentum map and spectra of partial traces. We discuss absolutely maximally entangled states and their relation to quantum error correction codes. An important case of a large number of parties is also analysed and entanglement in spin systems is briefly reviewed.
The research field of quantum entanglement theory is comparatively new. While a basic understanding of the most simple systems in question (i.e. bipartite systems) has been established over the past few decades, multipartite entanglement still holds many unsolved questions and intriguing riddles. In particular, it is completely unclear how several concepts from the bipartite case can be generalised in a meaningful way to multipartite scenarios. In this work, the main issues of multipartite entanglement detection, characterisation and classification are discussed. The differences and similarities between the bipartite and the multipartite situation are reviewed, various possible generalisations are presented and results are obtained in several areas. The focus of this work particularly lies on a formalism - the so called HMGH framework, which has been developed and expanded for the past several years - which allows for construction of very specific separability criteria, capable of discriminating between different kinds of multipartite entanglement. By means of these criteria, the questions of partial separability, genuine multipartite entanglement and - ultimately - multipartite entanglement classification (which appear to contain the most striking differences to bipartite entanglement) are adressed and discussed. In order to illustrate the theoretical conclusions in these respects, several examples are given from different (and differently closely related) fields, showing the capabilities, strengths and weaknesses of the HMGH framework as well as giving insights into the current status of research in multipartite entanglement theory as a whole.
The main concern of this paper is how to define proper measures of multipartite entanglement for mixed quantum states. Since the structure of partial separability and multipartite entanglement is getting complicated if the number of subsystems exceeds two, one cannot expect the existence of an ultimate scalar entanglement measure, which grasps even a small part of the rich hierarchical structure of multipartite entanglement, and some higher-order structure characterizing that is needed. In this paper we make some steps in this direction. First, we reveal the lattice-theoretic structure of the partial separability classification, introduced earlier [Sz. Szalay and Z. K\"ok\'enyesi, Phys. Rev. A 86, 032341 (2012)]. It turns out that, mathematically, the structure of the entanglement classes is the up-set lattice of the structure of the different kinds of partial separability, which is the down-set lattice of the lattice of the partitions of the subsystems. It also turns out that, physically, this structure is related to the local operations and classical communication convertibility: If a state from a class can be mapped into another one, then that class can be found higher in the hierarchy. Second, we introduce the notion of multipartite monotonicity, expressing that a given set of entanglement monotones, while measuring the different kinds of entanglement, shows also the same hierarchical structure as the entanglement classes. Then we construct such hierarchies of entanglement measures and propose a physically well-motivated one, being the direct multipartite generalization of the entanglement of formation based on the entanglement entropy, motivated by the notion of statistical distinguishability. The multipartite monotonicity shown by this set of measures motivates us to consider the measures to be the different manifestations of some ``unified'' notion of entanglement.