We present a measure of quantum entanglement which is capable of quantifying the degree of entanglement of a multi-partite quantum system. This measure, which is based on a generalization of the Schmidt rank of a pure state, is defined on the full state space and is shown to be an entanglement monotone, that is, it cannot increase under local quantum operations with classical communication and under mixing. For a large class of mixed states this measure of entanglement can be calculated exactly, and it provides a detailed classification of mixed states. We also present a connection to the best separable approximation of an entangled state of a two-qubit system.
The degree to which a pure quantum state is entangled can be characterized by the distance or angle to the nearest unentangled state. This geometric measure of entanglement, already present in a number of settings [A. Shimony, Ann. NY. Acad. Sci. 755, p.675 (1995) and H. Barnum and N. Linden, J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 34, p.6787 (2001)], is explored for bipartite and multipartite pure and mixed states. It is determined for arbitrary two-qubit mixed states and for generalized Werner and isotropic states, and is also applied to certain multipartite mixed states.
A natural way of quantifying the degree of entanglement for a pure quantum state is to compare how far this state is from the set of all unentangled pure states. This geometric measure of entanglement is explored for bipartite and multipartite pure and mixed states. It is determined analytically for arbitrary two‐qubit mixed states and for generalized Werner and isotropic states. It is also applied to certain multipartite mixed states, including two multipartite bound entangled states discovered by Smolin and Dür. Moreover, the geometric measure of entanglement is applied to the ground state of the Ising model in a transverse magnetic field. From this model the entanglement is shown to exhibit singular behavior at the quantum critical point.