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arXiv:quant-ph/9908050 · Journal of Mathematical Physics

Optimal ensemble length of mixed separable states

Robert Lockhart

Published Oct 1, 2000• 18 citations
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Abstract

The optimal (pure state) ensemble length of a separable state A is the minimum number of (pure) states needed in convex combination to construct A. We study the set of all separable states with optimal (pure state) ensemble length equal to k or fewer. Lower bounds on k are found below which these sets have measure 0 in the set of separable states. In the bipartite case and the multiparticle case where one of the particles has significantly more quantum numbers than the rest the lower bounds are sharp. A consequence of our results is that for all two-particle systems, except possibly those with one qubit or those with a nine-dimensional Hilbert space, and for all systems with more than two particles the optimal pure state ensemble length for a randomly picked separable state is with probability 1 greater than the state’s rank. In bipartite systems with probabilty 1 it is greater than 1/4 the rank raised to the 3/2 power and in a system of p qubits with probability 1 it is greater than 22p/(1+2p), i.e., almost the square of the rank.

DOI
10.1063/1.1290055

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The optimal (pure state) ensemble length of a separable state A is the minimum number of (pure) states needed in convex combination to construct A. We study the set of all separable states with optimal (pure state) ensemble length equal to k or fewer. Lower bounds on k are found below which these sets have measure 0 in the set of separable states. In the bipartite case and the multiparticle case where one of the particles has significantly more quantum numbers than the rest the lower bounds are sharp. A consequence of our results is that for all two-particle systems, except possibly those with one qubit or those with a nine-dimensional Hilbert space, and for all systems with more than two particles the optimal pure state ensemble length for a randomly picked separable state is with probability 1 greater than the state’s rank. In bipartite systems with probabilty 1 it is greater than 1/4 the rank raised to the 3/2 power and in a system of p qubits with probability 1 it is greater than 22p/(1+2p), i.e., almost the square of the rank.
The optimal (pure state) ensemble length of a separable state, A, is the minimum number of (pure) product states needed in convex combination to construct A. We study the set of all separable states with optimal (pure state) ensemble length equal to k or fewer. Lower bounds on k are found below which these sets have measure 0 in the set of separable states. In the bipartite case and the multiparticle case where one of the particles has significantly more quantum numbers than the rest, the lower bounds are sharp. A consequence of our results is that for all two particle systems, except possibly those with a qubit and those with a nine dimensional Hilbert space, and for all systems with more than two particles the optimal pure state ensemble length for a randomly picked separable state is with probability 1 greater than the state’s rank. In bipartite systems with each particle having the same Hilbert space, with probablity 1 it is greater than 1/4 the rank raised to the 3/2 power and in a system with p qubits with probability 1 it is greater than 2 2p /(1 + 2p), which is almost the maximal rank squared. 1
Two families of bipartite mixed quantum states are studied for which it is proved that the number of members in the optimal-decomposition ensemble --- the ensemble realizing the entanglement of formation --- is greater than the rank of the mixed state. We find examples for which the number of states in this optimal ensemble can be larger than the rank by an arbitrarily large factor. In one case the proof relies on the fact that the partial transpose of the mixed state has zero eigenvalues; in the other case the result arises from the properties of product bases that are completable only by embedding in a larger Hilbert space.
Two families of bipartite mixed quantum states are studied for which it is proved that the number of members in the optimal-decomposition ensemble—the ensemble realizing the entanglement of formation—is greater than the rank of the mixed state. We find examples for which the number of states in this optimal ensemble can be larger than the rank by an arbitrarily large factor. In one case the proof relies on the fact that the partial transpose of the mixed state has zero eigenvalues; in the other case the result arises from the properties of product bases that are completable only by embedding in a larger Hilbert space.
Two families of bipartite mixed quantum states are studied for which it is proved that the number of members in the optimal-decomposition ensemble—the ensemble realizing the entanglement of formation—is greater than the rank of the mixed state. We find examples for which the number of states in this optimal ensemble can be larger than the rank by an arbitrarily large factor. In one case the proof relies on the fact that the partial transpose of the mixed state has zero eigenvalues; in the other case the result arises from the properties of product bases that are completable only by embedding in a larger Hilbert space.
We investigate the separable states ρ of an arbitrary multi-partite quantum system with Hilbert space H of dimension d . The length L ( ρ ) of ρ is defined as the smallest number of pure product states having ρ as their mixture. The length filtration of the set of separable states, S , is the increasing chain ∅ ⊊ S 1 ′ ⊆ S 2 ′ ⊆ ⋯ , where S i ′ = { ρ ∈ S : L ( ρ ) ≤ i } . We define the maximum length, L max = max ρ ∈ S L ( ρ ) , critical length, L crit , and yet another special length, L c , which was defined by a simple formula in one of our previous papers. The critical length indicates the first term in the length filtration whose dimension is equal to Dim S . We show that in general d ≤ L c ≤ L crit ≤ L max ≤ d 2 . We conjecture that the equality L crit = L c holds for all finite-dimensional multi-partite quantum systems. Our main result is that L crit = L c for the bipartite systems having a single qubit as one of the parties. This is accomplished by computing the rank of the Jacobian matrix of a suitable map having S as its range.
This paper deals with estimating the volume of the set of separable mixed quantum states when the dimension of the state space grows to infinity. This has been studied recently for qubits; here we consider larger particles and conclude that, in all cases, the proportion of the states that are separable is superexponentially small in the dimension of the set. We also show that the partial transpose criterion becomes imprecise when the dimension increases, and that the lower bound ${6}^{\ensuremath{-}N∕2}$ on the (Hilbert-Schmidt) inradius of the set of separable states on NNN qubits obtained recently by Gurvits and Barnum is essentially optimal. We employ standard tools of classical convexity, high-dimensional probability, and geometry of Banach spaces. One relatively nonstandard point is a formal introduction of the concept of projective tensor products of convex bodies, and an initial study of this concept.