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arXiv:quant-ph/0109033 · Physical Review A

Four qubits can be entangled in nine different ways

Frank Verstraete, Jeroen Dehaene, Bart De Moor, Henri Verschelde

Published Apr 25, 2002• 661 citations
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Abstract

We consider a single copy of a pure four-partite state of qubits and investigate its behavior under the action of stochastic local quantum operations assisted by classical communication (SLOCC). This leads to a complete classification of all different classes of pure states of four qubits. It is shown that there exist nine families of states corresponding to nine different ways of entangling four qubits. The states in the generic family give rise to Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger-like entanglement. The other ones contain essentially two-or three-qubit entanglement distributed among the four parties. The concept of concurrence and 3-tangle is generalized to the case of mixed states of four qubits, giving rise to a seven-parameter family of entanglement monotones. Finally, the SLOCC operations maximizing all these entanglement monotones are derived, yielding the optimal single-copy distillation protocol.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.65.052112

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We consider a single copy of a pure four-partite state of qubits and investigate its behavior under the action of stochastic local quantum operations assisted by classical communication (SLOCC). This leads to a complete classification of all different classes of pure states of four qubits. It is shown that there exist nine families of states corresponding to nine different ways of entangling four qubits. The states in the generic family give rise to Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger-like entanglement. The other ones contain essentially two-or three-qubit entanglement distributed among the four parties. The concept of concurrence and 3-tangle is generalized to the case of mixed states of four qubits, giving rise to a seven-parameter family of entanglement monotones. Finally, the SLOCC operations maximizing all these entanglement monotones are derived, yielding the optimal single-copy distillation protocol.
We construct coefficient matrices of size ${2}^{\ensuremath{\ell}}$ by ${2}^{n\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\ell}}$ associated with pure nnn-qubit states and prove the invariance of the ranks of the coefficient matrices under stochastic local operations and classical communication (SLOCC). The ranks give rise to a simple way of partitioning pure nnn-qubit states into inequivalent families and distinguishing degenerate families from one another under SLOCC. Moreover, the classification scheme via the ranks of coefficient matrices can be combined with other schemes to build a more refined classification scheme. To exemplify we classify the nine families of four qubits introduced by Verstraete et al. [Phys. Rev. A 65, 052112 (2002)] further into inequivalent subfamilies via the ranks of coefficient matrices, and as a result, we find 28 genuinely entangled families and all the degenerate classes can be distinguished up to permutations of the four qubits. We also discuss the completeness of the classification of four qubits into nine families.
We solve the entanglement classification under stochastic local operations and classical communication (SLOCC) for general n-qubit states. For two arbitrary pure n-qubit states connected via local operations, we establish an equation between the two coefficient matrices associated with the states. The rank of the coefficient matrix is preserved under SLOCC and gives rise to a simple way of partitioning all the pure states of n qubits into different families of entanglement classes, as exemplified here. When applied to the symmetric states, this approach reveals that all the Dicke states |ℓ,n> with ℓ=1,…,[n/2] are inequivalent under SLOCC.
It is a recent observation that entanglement classification for qubits is closely related to stochastic local operations and classical communication (SLOCC) invariants. Verstraete et al.[ Phys. Rev. A 65 (2002) 052112 ] showed that for pure states of four qubits there are nine different degenerate SLOCC entanglement classes. Li et al.[ Phys. Rev. A 76 (2007) 052311 ] showed that there are at feast 28 distinct true SLOCC entanglement classes for four qubits by means of the SLOCC invariant and semi-invariant. We give 16 different entanglement classes for four qubits by means of basic SLOCC invariants.
The number of entanglement classes in stochastic local operations and classical communication (SLOCC) classifications increases with the number of qubits and is already infinite for four qubits. Criteria for explicitly discriminating and classifying pure states of four and more qubits are highly desirable and therefore at the focus of intense theoretical research. We develop a general criterion for the discrimination of pure $N\text{\ensuremath{-}}$partite entangled states in terms of polynomial $\mathrm{SL}(d,\mathrm{C}){}^{\ensuremath{\bigotimes}N}$ invariants. By means of this criterion, existing SLOCC classifications of four-qubit entanglement are reproduced. Based on this we propose a polynomial classification scheme in which entanglement types are identified through ``tangle patterns.'' This scheme provides a practicable way to classify states of arbitrary multipartite systems. Moreover, the use of polynomials induces a corresponding quantification of the different types of entanglement.
It was shown by Verstraete et al. [Phys. Rev. A 65, 052112 (2002)] that by stochastic local operations and classical communication, a pure state of four qubits can be transformed to a state belonging to one of a set of nine families of states. By using selective partial transposition, we construct partial KKK-way negativities to measure the genuine four-partite, tripartite, and bipartite entanglements of single-copy states belonging to the nine families of four-qubit states. Partial KKK-way negativities are polynomial functions of local invariants characterizing each family of states, as such, entanglement monotones.