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arXiv:quant-ph/0009118 · Physical Review Letters

Bound Entangled Gaussian States

Reinhard F. Werner, Michael M. Wolf

Published Apr 16, 2001• 459 citations
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Abstract

We discuss the entanglement properties of bipartite states with Gaussian Wigner functions. For the separability, and the positivity of the partial transpose, we establish explicit necessary and sufficient criteria in terms of the covariance matrix of the state. It is shown that, for systems composed of a single oscillator for Alice and an arbitrary number for Bob, positivity of the partial transpose implies separability. However, this implication fails with two oscillators on each side, as we show by constructing a five parameter family of bound entangled Gaussian states.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.86.3658

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We discuss the entanglement properties of bipartite states with Gaussian Wigner functions. For the separability, and the positivity of the partial transpose, we establish explicit necessary and sufficient criteria in terms of the covariance matrix of the state. It is shown that, for systems composed of a single oscillator for Alice and an arbitrary number for Bob, positivity of the partial transpose implies separability. However, this implication fails with two oscillators on each side, as we show by constructing a five parameter family of bound entangled Gaussian states.
The positivity of the partial transpose is in general only a necessary condition for separability. There exist quantum states that are not separable, but nevertheless are positive under the partial transpose. States of this type are known as bound entangled states, meaning that these states are entangled but they do not allow distillation of pure entanglement by means of local operations and classical communication. We present a parametrization of a class of $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}2$ bound entangled Gaussian states for bipartite continuous-variable quantum systems with two modes on each side. We propose an experimental protocol for preparing a particular bound entangled state in quantum optics. We then discuss the robustness properties of this protocol with respect to the occupation number of thermal inputs and the degrees of squeezing.
We construct a family of bipartite states of arbitrary dimension whose eigenvalues of the partially transposed matrix can be inferred directly from the block structure of the global density matrix. We identify from this several subfamilies in which the PPT criterion is both necessary and sufficient. A sufficient criterion of separability is obtained, which is fundamental for the discussion. We show how several examples of states known to be classifiable by the PPT criterion indeed belong to this general set. Possible uses of these states in numerical analysis of entanglement and in the search of PPT bound entangled states are briefly discussed.
Abstract On the one hand we present necessary and sufficient conditions for both the separability and the distillability of bipartite Gaussian states of an arbitrary number of modes. On the other hand we classify tripartite three‐mode Gaussian states according to their separability properties and provide necessary and sufficient conditions for separability of those states . All the conditions presented here can be easily checked by direct calculations, thus providing operational criteria. This solves the separability problem for all bipartite as well as tripartite three‐mode Gaussian states and the distillability problem for all bipartite Gaussian states.
We present a novel approach to the separability problem for Gaussian quantum states of bosonic continuous variable systems. We derive a simplified necessary and sufficient separability criterion for arbitrary Gaussian states of m versus n modes, which relies on convex optimisation over marginal covariance matrices on one subsystem only. We further revisit the currently known results stating the equivalence between separability and positive partial transposition (PPT) for specific classes of Gaussian states. Using techniques based on matrix analysis, such as Schur complements and matrix means, we then provide a unified treatment and compact proofs of all these results. In particular, we recover the PPT-separability equivalence for: (i) Gaussian states of 1 versus n modes; and (ii) isotropic Gaussian states. In passing, we also retrieve (iii) the recently established equivalence between separability of a Gaussian state and and its complete Gaussian extendability. Our techniques are then applied to progress beyond the state of the art. We prove that: (iv) Gaussian states that are invariant under partial transposition are necessarily separable; (v) the PPT criterion is necessary and sufficient for separability for Gaussian states of m versus n modes that are symmetric under the exchange of any two modes belonging to one of the parties; and (vi) Gaussian states which remain PPT under passive optical operations can not be entangled by them either. This is not a foregone conclusion per se (since Gaussian bound entangled states do exist) and settles a question that had been left unanswered in the existing literature on the subject. This paper, enjoyable by both the quantum optics and the matrix analysis communities, overall delivers technical and conceptual advances which are likely to be useful for further applications in continuous variable quantum information theory, beyond the separability problem.
We construct a family of bipartite states of arbitrary dimension whose eigenvalues of the partially transposed matrix can be inferred directly from the block structure of the global density matrix. We identify from this several subfamilies in which the PPT criterion is both necessary and sufficient. A sufficient criterion of separability is obtained, which is fundamental for the discussion. We show how several examples of states known to be classifiable by the PPT criterion indeed belong to this general set. Possible uses of these states in numerical analysis of entanglement and in the search of PPT bound entangled states are briefly discussed.