This thesis presents a study of the structure of bipartite quantum states. In the first part, the representation theory of the unitary and symmetric groups is used to analyse the spectra of quantum states. In particular, it is shown how to derive a one-to-one relation between the spectra of a bipartite quantum state and its reduced states, and the Kronecker coefficients of the symmetric group. In the second part, the focus lies on the entanglement of bipartite quantum states. Drawing on an analogy between entanglement distillation and secret-key agreement in classical cryptography, a new entanglement measure, `squashed entanglement', is introduced.
This thesis presents a study of the structure of bipartite quantum states. In the first part, the representation theory of the unitary and symmetric groups is used to analyse the spectra of quantum states. In particular, it is shown how to derive a one-to-one relation between the spectra of a bipartite quantum state and its reduced states, and the Kronecker coefficients of the symmetric group. In the second part, the focus lies on the entanglement of bipartite quantum states. Drawing on an analogy between entanglement distillation and secret-key agreement in classical cryptography, a new entanglement measure, `squashed entanglement', is introduced.
We explore the set of unitary matrices characterized by a given structure in the context of their applications in the field of Quantum Information. In the first part of the Thesis we focus on classification of special classes of unitary matrices and possibility of introducing certain internal parameterizations. Several new results and conjectures are discussed. Second part of the Thesis is devoted to the concept of multipartite quantum entanglement. We present a solution to the problem of absolutely maximally entangled states of four subsystems with six levels each. Finally, we analyze the excess of a matrix and the corresponding Bell inequalities. This combination allows us to draw new conclusions related to quantum nonlocality.
Abstract Entanglement is a striking feature of quantum mechanics, and it has a key property called unextendibility. In this paper, we present a framework for quantifying and investigating the unextendibility of general bipartite quantum states. First, we define the unextendible entanglement, a family of entanglement measures based on the concept of a state-dependent set of free states. The intuition behind these measures is that the more entangled a bipartite state is, the less entangled each of its individual systems is with a third party. Second, we demonstrate that the unextendible entanglement is an entanglement monotone under two-extendible quantum operations, including local operations and one-way classical communication as a special case. Normalization and faithfulness are two other desirable properties of unextendible entanglement, which we establish here. We further show that the unextendible entanglement provides efficiently computable benchmarks for the rate of exact entanglement or secret key distillation, as well as the overhead of probabilistic entanglement or secret key distillation.
In this thesis we study the behavior of bipartite entanglement of a large quantum system, by analyzing the distribution of the Schmidt coefficients of the reduced density matrix. Applying the general methods of classical statistical mechanics, we develop a canonical approach for the study of the distribution of these coefficients for a fixed value of the average entanglement. We introduce a partition function depending on a fictitious temperature, which localizes the measure on the set of states with higher and lower entanglement, if compared to typical (random) states with respect to the Haar measure. The purity of one subsystem, which is our entanglement measure/indicator, plays the role of energy in the partition function. This thesis consists of two parts. In the first part, we completely characterize the distribution of the purity and of the eigenvalues for pure states. The global picture unveils several locally stable solutions exchange stabilities, through the presence of first and second order phase transitions. We also detect the presence of metastable states. In the second part, we focus on mixed states. Through the same statistical approach, we determine the exact expression of the first two moments of the local purity and the high temperature expansion of the first moment. We also bridge our problem with the theory of quantum channels, more precisely we exploit the symmetry properties of the twirling transformations in order to compute the exact expression for the first moment of the local purity.
Quantum cryptography is one of the most important quantum information applications. The present thesis covers several topics on quantum cryptography, such as the security analysis of quantum channels for key distribution protocols and the study of quantum cloning. First, we introduce a general formalism to characterize the cryptographic properties of quantum channels in the realistic scenario where the two honest parties employ prepare and measure protocols and the known two-way communication reconciliation techniques. We derive a necessary and sufficient condition to distill a secret key using this type of schemes for arbitrary bipartite quantum systems of finite dimension. The obtained results suggest that there may exist weakly entangling channels useless for key distribution using prepare and measure schemes. Next, we consider Gaussian states and Gaussian operations for cryptographic tasks and derive a new security condition. As it happens for quantum systems of finite dimension, our results suggest that there may also exist weakly entangled Gaussian states useless for key distribution, using Gaussian operations. Finally, we study the connection between cloning and state estimation. It was a long-standing problem to show whether state estimation becomes equivalent to quantum cloning in the asymptotic limit of an infinite number of clones. The equivalence is proven here using two known results in quantum information theory, the monogamy of quantum states and the properties of entanglement-breaking channels.
1. For mathematical point of view, Quantum Information Theory deals with finite dimensional Hilbert spaces, the state spaces of finite k-bipartite systems. In the case of pure k-bipartite systems, this space has the special form 2. H=V1 ⊗ ... ⊗ Vk, 3. where Vi denotes a finite dimensional state space of the ith particle of the system (most of the time, one assumes that it is a qubit, i.e. dim Vi = 2). The interesting non-classical behavior already occurs for two-qubit systems, for the so-called entangled states: the states which cannot be written in the form v1 ⊗ v2. There is no general agreement on the definition of entanglement for system with more than two parts. Klyachko has proposed to regard as entangled the states which are semi-stable for the action of the SLOCC group (G=SL(V1) × ... × SL(Vk)) in the sense of geometric invariant theory. Geometric invariant theory provides 4. methods for characterizing such states without explicitly computing the invariants. In order to test the significance of this property, we have explicitly computed the invariants in the simplest cases. 5. The non-locality properties of an entangled states does not change under unitary operations acting independently on each of its subsystem. The idea to construct entanglement measure by means of unitary invariant have been explored for example by Grassl et al. (1998), Schlienz and Mahler (1996). We have proved in 2006, that such invariants can be deduced from SLOCC-covariants. The knowledge of all the covariants and hence, the classification of the SLOCC orbits seems to be relevant in this context. However, except for simplest systems there are far too many orbits and the complete classification is out of reach. 6. 7. The aim of the series of four lectures given by Jean-Gabriel Luque and Jean-Yves Thibon is to explain a subproblem: how to compute the Hilbert series of the algebraic invariants for the pure k-qubit systems. 8. 9. In the two first lectures, Jean-Gabriel Luque will give a brief account on the symmetric functions and the characters of the symmetric groups. The first two talks will be meant for an audience of beginner in the area of symmetric functions. In the 10. two remaining lectures, Jean-Yves Thibon will explore the links between symmetric functions and Kronecker product (Lecture 3) in order to explain how to compute the Hilbert series (Lecture 4).
One of the key manifestations of quantum mechanics is the phenomenon of quantum entanglement. While the entanglement of bipartite systems is already well understood, our knowledge of entanglement in multipartite systems is still limited. This dissertation covers various aspects of the quantification of entanglement in multipartite states and the role of symmetry in such systems. Firstly, we establish a connection between the classification of multipartite entanglement and knot theory and investigate the family of states that are resistant to particle loss. Furthermore, we construct several examples of such states using the Majorana representation as well as some combinatorial methods. Secondly, we introduce classes of highly-symmetric but not fully-symmetric states and investigate their entanglement properties. Thirdly, we study the well-established class of Absolutely Maximally Entangled (AME) quantum states. On one hand, we provide construction of new states belonging to this family, for instance, an AME state of 4 subsystems with six levels each, on the other, we tackle the problem of equivalence of such states. Finally, we present a novel approach for the general problem of verification of the equivalence between any pair of arbitrary quantum states based on a single polynomial entanglement measure.