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arXiv:quant-ph/9707038 · Physical Review A

Concentrating entanglement by local actions: Beyond mean values

Hoi‐Kwong Lo, Sandu Popescu

Published Jan 4, 2001• 331 citations
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Abstract

Suppose two distant observers Alice and Bob share a pure bipartite quantum state. By applying local operations and communicating with each other using a classical channel, Alice and Bob can manipulate it into some other states. Previous investigations of entanglement manipulations have been largely limited to a small number of strategies and their average outcomes. Here we consider a general entanglement manipulation strategy, and go beyond the average property. For a pure entangled state shared between two separated persons Alice and Bob, we show that the mathematical interchange symmetry of the Schmidt decomposition can be promoted into a physical symmetry between the actions of Alice and Bob. Consequently, the most general (multistep two-way-communications) strategy of entanglement manipulation of a pure state is, in fact, equivalent to a strategy involving only a single (generalized) measurement by Alice followed by one-way communications of its result to Bob. We also prove that strategies with one-way communications are generally more powerful than those without communications. In summary, one-way communications is necessary and sufficient for entanglement manipulations of a pure bipartite state. The supremum probability of obtaining a maximally entangled state (of any dimension) from an arbitrary state is determined, and a strategy for achieving this probability is constructed explicitly. One important question is whether collective manipulations in quantum mechanics can greatly enhance the probability of large deviations from the average behavior. We answer this question in the negative by showing that, given n pairs of identical partly entangled pure states $(|\ensuremath{\Psi}〉)$ with entropy of entanglement $E(|\ensuremath{\Psi}〉),$ the probability of getting $\mathrm{nK}$ $[K>E(|\ensuremath{\Psi}〉)]$ singlets out of entanglement concentration tends to zero as n tends to infinity.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.63.022301

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Suppose two distant observers Alice and Bob share a pure bipartite quantum state. By applying local operations and communicating with each other using a classical channel, Alice and Bob can manipulate it into some other states. Previous investigations of entanglement manipulations have been largely limited to a small number of strategies and their average outcomes. Here we consider a general entanglement manipulation strategy, and go beyond the average property. For a pure entangled state shared between two separated persons Alice and Bob, we show that the mathematical interchange symmetry of the Schmidt decomposition can be promoted into a physical symmetry between the actions of Alice and Bob. Consequently, the most general (multistep two-way-communications) strategy of entanglement manipulation of a pure state is, in fact, equivalent to a strategy involving only a single (generalized) measurement by Alice followed by one-way communications of its result to Bob. We also prove that strategies with one-way communications are generally more powerful than those without communications. In summary, one-way communications is necessary and sufficient for entanglement manipulations of a pure bipartite state. The supremum probability of obtaining a maximally entangled state (of any dimension) from an arbitrary state is determined, and a strategy for achieving this probability is constructed explicitly. One important question is whether collective manipulations in quantum mechanics can greatly enhance the probability of large deviations from the average behavior. We answer this question in the negative by showing that, given n pairs of identical partly entangled pure states (∣\ensuremathΨ〉)(|\ensuremath{\Psi}〉)(∣\ensuremathΨ〉) with entropy of entanglement E(∣\ensuremathΨ〉),E(|\ensuremath{\Psi}〉),E(∣\ensuremathΨ〉), the probability of getting nK\mathrm{nK}nK [K>E(∣\ensuremathΨ〉)][K>E(|\ensuremath{\Psi}〉)][K>E(∣\ensuremathΨ〉)] singlets out of entanglement concentration tends to zero as n tends to infinity.
Suppose two distant observers Alice and Bob share a pure biparticle entangled state secretly chosen from a set, it is shown that Alice (Bob) can probabilistic concentrate the state to a maximally entangled state by applying local operations and classical communication (LQCC) if and only if the states in the set share the same marginal density operator for her (his) subsystem. Applying this result, we present probabilistic superdense coding and show that perfect purification of mixed state is impossible using only LQCC on individual particles.
Suppose two distant observers, Alice and Bob, share some form of entanglement - quantum correlations - in some bipartite pure quantum states. They may apply local operations and classical communication to convert one form of entanglement to another. Since entanglement is regarded as a resource in quantum information processing, it is an important question to ask how much classical communication, which is also a resource, is needed in the inter-conversion process of entanglement. In this paper, we address this important question in the many-copy case. The inter-conversion process of entanglement is usually divided into two types: concentrating the entanglement from many partially entangled states into a smaller number of maximally entangled states (i.e., singlets) and the reverse process of diluting singlets into partially entangled states. It is known that entanglement concentration requires no classical communication, but the best prior art result for diluting to N copies of a partially entangled state requires an amount of communication on the order of /spl radic/N. Our main result is to prove that this prior art result is optimal up to a constant factor; any procedure for approximately creating N partially entangled states from singlets requires /spl Omega/(/spl radic/N) bits of classical communication. Previously not even a constant bound was known for approximate entanglement transformations. We also prove a lower bound on the inefficiency of the process: to dilute singlets to N copies of a partially entangled state, the entropy of entanglement must decrease by /spl Omega/(/spl radic/N). Moreover, we introduce two new tools - /spl delta/-significant subspaces and the standard form protocol reduction in entanglement manipulations. We hope that these two new tools will be useful in other work in quantum information theory.
We consider the problem of how to manipulate the entanglement properties of a general two-particle pure state, shared between Alice and Bob, by using only local operations at each end and classical communication between Alice and Bob. A method is developed in which this type of problem is found to be equivalent to a problem involving the cutting and pasting of certain shapes along with certain coloring problems. We consider two problems. First, we find the most general way of manipulating the state to obtain maximally entangled states. After such a manipulation, the entangled states $|11〉+|22〉+\ensuremath{\cdot}\ensuremath{\cdot}\ensuremath{\cdot}+|\mathrm{mm}〉$ are obtained with probability pm.{p}_{m}.pm​. We obtain an expression for the optimal average entanglement obtainable. Also, some results of Lo and Popescu (e-print quant-ph/9707038) pertaining to this problem are given simple geometric proofs. Second, we consider how to manipulate one two-particle entangled state $|\ensuremath{\psi}〉$ to another $|{\ensuremath{\psi}}^{\ensuremath{'}}〉$ with certainty. We derive Nielsen's theorem (which states a necessary and sufficient condition for this to be possible) using the method of areas.
If two separated observers are supplied with entanglement, in the form of n pairs of particles in identical partly entangled pure states, one member of each pair being given to each observer, they can, by local actions of each observer, concentrate this entanglement into a smaller number of maximally entangled pairs of particles, for example, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen singlets, similarly shared between the two observers. The concentration process asymptotically conserves entropy of entanglement---the von Neumann entropy of the partial density matrix seen by either observer---with the yield of singlets approaching, for large n, the base-2 entropy of entanglement of the initial partly entangled pure state. Conversely, any pure or mixed entangled state of two systems can be produced by two classically communicating separated observers, drawing on a supply of singlets as their sole source of entanglement. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
Auxiliary pure quantum entangled states shared between two parties can act as catalysts in bipartite entanglement transformations. The participation of a catalyst state in the transformation can enhance its success probability. We consider transformations involving entanglement concentration of a finite number of copies of arbitrary two-qubit pure states into a single copy of a maximally entangled two-qubit pure state using bipartite local quantum operations and classical communication aided by a catalyst state. We show the enhancement of success probabilities of the catalyst-assisted procedure compared to the case where no catalysts are used. The optimal two-qubit catalyst and the maximum probability of the transformation using such catalysts can be obtained analytically. The enhancement of concentration success probability using catalysts of higher dimensions is demonstrated numerically. Finally, catalyst aided strategies for obtaining multiple maximally entangled two-qubit states are discussed.
We analyze approximate transformations of pure entangled quantum states by local operations and classical communication, finding explicit conversion strategies which optimize the fidelity of transformation. These results allow us to determine the most faithful teleportation strategy via an initially shared partially entangled pure state. They also show that procedures for entanglement manipulation such as entanglement catalysis [Jonathan and Plenio, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 3566 (1999)] are robust against perturbation of the states involved, and motivate the notion of nonlocal fidelity, which quantifies the difference in the entangled properties of two quantum states.