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arXiv:quant-ph/9902050 · Physical Review A

Volume of the set of separable states. II

Karol Życzkowski

Published Nov 1, 1999• 261 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The problem of how many entangled or, respectively, separable states there are in the set of all quantum states is investigated. We study to what extent the choice of a measure in the space of density matrices $\ensuremath{\varrho}$ describing N-dimensional quantum systems affects the results obtained. We demonstrate that the link between the purity of the mixed states and the probability of entanglement is not sensitive to the measure chosen. Since the criterion of partial transposition is not sufficient to distinguish all separable states for $N>~8$, we develop an efficient algorithm to calculate numerically the entanglement of formation of a given mixed quantum state, which allows us to compute the volume of separable states for $N=8$ and to estimate the volume of the bound entangled states in this case.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.60.3496

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The problem of how many entangled or, respectively, separable states there are in the set of all quantum states is investigated. We study to what extent the choice of a measure in the space of density matrices \ensuremathϱ\ensuremath{\varrho}\ensuremathϱ describing N-dimensional quantum systems affects the results obtained. We demonstrate that the link between the purity of the mixed states and the probability of entanglement is not sensitive to the measure chosen. Since the criterion of partial transposition is not sufficient to distinguish all separable states for N> 8N>~8N> 8, we develop an efficient algorithm to calculate numerically the entanglement of formation of a given mixed quantum state, which allows us to compute the volume of separable states for N=8N=8N=8 and to estimate the volume of the bound entangled states in this case.
The question of how many entangled or, respectively, separable states there are in the set of all quantum states is considered. We propose a natural measure in the space of density matrices $\ensuremath{\varrho}$ describing NNN-dimensional quantum systems. We prove that, under this measure, the set of separable states possesses a nonzero volume. Analytical lower and upper bounds of this volume are also derived for $N=2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}2$ and $N=2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}3$ cases. Finally, numerical Monte Carlo calculations allow us to estimate the volume of separable states, providing numerical evidence that it decreases exponentially with the dimension of the composite system. We have also analyzed a conditional measure of separability under the condition of fixed purity. Our results display a clear dualism between purity and separability: entanglement is typical of pure states, while separability is connected with quantum mixtures. In particular, states of sufficiently low purity are necessarily separable.
The main topic of this compilation thesis is the investigation of multipartite entanglement of finite dimensional systems. We developed a numerical algorithm that detects if a multipartite state is entangled or separable in a finite number of steps of a semi-definite optimization task. This method is an extension of previously known semi-definite methods, which are inconclusive when the state is separable. In our case, if the state is separable, an explicit decomposition into a mixture of separable states can be extracted. This was achieved by mapping the entanglement problem onto the mathematically well studied truncated moment problem. Additionally, a new way of writing the partially transposed state for symmetric multi-qubit states was developed which simplifies many results previously known in entanglement theory. This new way of writing the partial transpose criterion unifies different interpretations and alternative formulations of the partial transpose criterion and it is also a part in the aforementioned semi-definite algorithm. The geometric properties of entangled symmetric states of two qubits were studied in detail: We could answer the question of how far a given pure state is from the convex hull of symmetric separable states, as measured by the Hilbert-Schmidt distance, by giving an explicit formula for the closest separable symmetric state. For mixed states we could provide a numerical upper and analytical lower bound for this distance. For a larger number of qubits we investigated the ball of absolutely classical states, i.e. symmetric multi-qubit states that stay separable under any unitary transformation. We found an analytical lower bound for the radius of this ball around the maximally mixed symmetric state and gave a numerical upper bound on this radius, by searching for an entangled state as close as possible to the maximally mixed symmetric state. The tensor representation of a symmetric multi-qubit state, or spin-j state, allowed us to study entanglement properties based on the spectrum of the tensor via tensor eigenvalues. The definiteness of this tensor relates to the entanglement of the state it represents and, hence, the smallest tensor eigenvalue can be used to detect entanglement. However, the tensor eigenvalues are more difficult to determine than the familiar matrix eigenvalues which made the investigation computationally more challenging. The relationship between the value of the smallest tensor eigenvalue and the amount of entanglement in the state was also investigated. It turned out that they are strongly correlated for small system sizes, i.e. for up to six qubits. However, to investigate this correlation we needed an independent way to gauge the amount of entanglement of a state and in order to do so we improved existing numerical methods to determine the distance of a state to the set of separable symmetric states, using a combination of linear and quadratic programming. The tensor representation of symmetric multi-qubit states was also used to formally define a new tensor class of regularly decomposable tensors that corresponds to the set of separable symmetric multi-qubit states.
In quantum systems, entanglement corresponds to nonclassical correlation of nonlocal observables. Thus, entanglement (or, to the contrary, separability) of a given quantum state is not uniquely determined by properties of the state, but may depend on the choice of the factorization of the algebra of observables. In the present work, we expose and systematize some recently reported results about the possibility to represent a single quantum state as either entangled or separable. We will distinguish in particular the cases of pure and mixed states. For pure states, it has been shown that observables can always be constructed such that any state has any amount of entanglement possible. For mixed states, the situation is more complex and only partial results are known: while it is always possible to choose a factorization such that a state appears separable, a general criterion to determine whether a state can be represented as entangled is not known. These results will be illustrated by several examples, the phenomenon of quantum teleportation, and the geometry of the states of two qubits.
From the consideration of measuring bipartite mixed states by separable pure states, we introduce algebraic sets in complex projective spaces for bipartite mixed states as the degenerating locus of the measurement. These algebraic sets are independent of the eigenvalues and only measure the "position" of eigenvectors of bipartite mixed states. They are nonlocal invariants ie., remaining invariant after local unitary transformations. The algebraic sets have to be the sum of the linear subspaces if the mixed states are separable, and thus we give a "eigenvalue-free" criterion of separability.Based on our criterion, examples are given to illustrate that entangled mixed states which are invariant under partial transposition or fufill entropy and disorder criterion of separability can be constructed systematically.We reveal that a large part of quantum entanglement is independent of eigenvalue spectra and develop a method to measure this part of quantum enatnglement.The results are extended to multipartite case.