The state of a quantum system, consisting of two distinct subsystems, is called separable if it can be prepared by two distant experimenters who receive instructions from a common source, via classical communication channels. A necessary condition is derived and is shown to be more sensitive than Bell's inequality for detecting quantum inseparability. Moreover, collective tests of Bell's inequality (namely, tests that involve several composite systems simultaneously) may sometimes lead to a violation of Bell's inequality, even if the latter is satisfied when each composite system is tested separately.
The state of a quantum system, consisting of two distinct subsystems, is called separable if it can be prepared by two distant experimenters who receive instructions from a common source, via classical communication channels. A necessary condition is derived and is shown to be more sensitive than Bell's inequality for detecting quantum inseparability. Moreover, collective tests of Bell's inequality (namely, tests that involve several composite systems simultaneously) may sometimes lead to a violation of Bell's inequality, even if the latter is satisfied when each composite system is tested separately.
A quantum system consisting of two subsystems is separable if its density matrix can be written as $\ensuremath{\rho}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\Sigma}{A}^{}{w}_{A}{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{A}^{\ensuremath{'}}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{A}^{\ensuremath{'}\ensuremath{'}},$ where ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{A}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ and ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{A}^{\ensuremath{'}\ensuremath{'}}$ are density matrices for the two subsystems, and the positive weights wA satisfy $\ensuremath{\Sigma}{w}_{A}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1$. In this Letter, it is proved that a necessary condition for separability is that a matrix, obtained by partial transposition of \ensuremath{\rho}, has only non-negative eigenvalues. Some examples show that this criterion is more sensitive than Bell's inequality for detecting quantum inseparability.
It is one of the most remarkable features of quantum physics that measurements on spatially separated systems cannot always be described by a locally causal theory. In such a theory, the outcomes of local measurements are determined in advance solely by some unknown (or hidden) variables and the choice of local measurements. Correlations that are allowed within the framework of a locally causal theory are termed classical. Typically, the fact that quantum mechanics does not always result in classical correlations is revealed by the violation of Bell inequalities, which are constraints that have to be satisfied by any classical correlations. It has been known for a long time that entanglement is necessary to demonstrate nonclassical correlations, and hence a Bell inequality violation. However, since some entangled quantum states are known to admit explicit locally causal models, the exact role of entanglement in Bell inequality violation has remained obscure. This thesis provides both a comprehensive review on these issues as well as a report on new discoveries made to clarify the relationship between entanglement and Bell inequality violation. In particular, within the framework of a standard Bell experiment, i.e., a Bell inequality test that is directly performed on a single copy of a quantum state r, we have derived two algorithms to determine, respectively, a lower bound and an upper bound on the strength of correlations that r can offer for any given Bell inequality. Both of these algorithms make use convex optimization techniques in the form of a semidefinite program. By examples, we show that these algorithms can often be used in tandem, in conjunction with convexity arguments, to determine if a quantum state can offer nonclassical correlations and hence violates a given Bell inequality. On the other hand, since a standard Bell experiment typically involves measurements over many copies of the quantum systems, we have also investigated the possibility of enhancing the strength of nonclassical correlation by, instead, performing collective measurements on multiple copies of the quantum systems. Our findings show that even without postselection, such joint measurements may also lead to stronger nonclassical correlations, and hence a better Bell inequality violation. Meanwhile, previous studies have indicated that entangled state admitting locally causal models may still lead to observable nonclassical correlations if, prior to a standard Bell experiment, the state is subjected to some appropriate local preprocessing. This phenomenon of hidden nonlocality was discovered more than a decade ago, but to date, it is still not known if all entangled states can demonstrate nonclassical correlations through these more sophisticated Bell experiments. A key result in this thesis then consists of showing that for all bipartite entangled states, observable nonclassical correlations, in the form of a Bell-CHSH inequality violation, can indeed be derived if we allow both local preprocessing and the usage of shared ancillary state which by itself does not violate the Bell-CHSH inequality. This establishes a kind of equivalence between bipartite entanglement and states that cannot be simulated by classical correlations. In summary, for a standard Bell experiment where no local preprocessing on a quantum state r is allowed, we have provided two algorithms that can be used in tandem to determine if r can be simulated by a locally causal theory, whereas in the scenario where local preprocessing is allowed, we have demonstrated that bipartite entangled states are precisely those which cannot always be simulated classically.
In contrast to the widespread opinion that any separable quantum state satisfies every classical probabilistic constraint, we present a simple example where separable quantum state does not satisfy the original Bell inequality although the latter inequality, in its perfect correlation form, is valid for all joint classical measurements. In a very general setting, we discuss inequalities for joint experiments upon a bipartite quantum system. For any separable quantum state, we derive quantum analogs of the original Bell inequality and specify the conditions sufficient for a separable state to satisfy the original Bell inequality. We introduce the extended Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality and prove that, for any separable quantum state, this inequality holds for a variety of linear combinations.
We derive tight quadratic inequalities for all kinds of hybrid separable-inseparable n-particle density operators on an arbitrary dimensional space. This methodology enables us to derive a tight quadratic inequality as tests for full n-partite entanglement in various Bell-type correlation experiments on the systems that may not be identified as a collection of qubits, e.g., those involving photons measured by incomplete detectors. It is also proved that when the two measured observables are assumed to precisely anticommute, a stronger quadratic inequality can be used as a witness of full n-partite entanglement.
Entanglement, or quantum inseparability, is a crucial resource in quantum information applications, and therefore the experimental generation of separated yet entangled systems is of paramount importance. Experimental demonstrations of inseparability with light are not uncommon, but such demonstrations in physically well-separated massive systems, such as distinct gases of atoms, are new and present significant challenges and opportunities. Rigorous theoretical criteria are needed for demonstrating that given data are sufficient to confirm entanglement. Such criteria for experimental data have been derived for the case of continuous-variable systems obeying the Heisenberg-Weyl (position-momentum) commutator. To address the question of experimental verification more generally, we develop a sufficiency criterion for arbitrary states of two arbitrary systems. When applied to the recent study by Julsgaard, Kozhekin, and Polzik [Nature 413, 400 (2001)] of spin-state entanglement of two separate, macroscopic samples of atoms, our criterion confirms the presence of spin entanglement.
When developing and operating quantum computers, it is necessary to be able to check quantum registers for the presence of quantum entanglement between its subsystems, due to which quantum computers gain computational advantage in solving many problems over classical computers. The state in which a quantum system consists of two or more subsystems that are not entangled with each other is called separable.In this article, we provide an overview of various existing approaches to solving the problem of determining separability in a quantum system. To do this, we provide an overview of works on this topic, describing both established and new approaches, highlighting directions in which new possibilities for solving the problem can be explored. We provide a definition of the problem of checking a system for separability, based on which we describe several applicable separability criteria. We provide a model-theoretic approach to solving the separability problem, describing a quantum system as a blurry model.