Majorana representation of symmetric multiqubit states

As early as 1932, Majorana had proposed that a pure permutation symmetric state of N spin-${\frac{1}{2}}$ particles can be represented by N spinors, which correspond geometrically to N points on the Bloch sphere. Several decades after its conception, the Majorana representation has recently attracted a great deal of attention in connection with multiparticle entanglement. A novel use of this representation led to the classification of entanglement families of permutation symmetric qubits—based on the number of distinct spinors and their arrangement in constituting the multiqubit state. An elegant approach to explore how correlation information of the whole pure symmetric state gets imprinted in its parts is developed for specific entanglement classes of symmetric states. Moreover, an elegant and simplified method to evaluate geometric measure of entanglement in N-qubit states obeying exchange symmetry has been developed based on the distribution of the constituent Majorana spionors over the unit sphere. Multiparticle entanglement being a key resource in several quantum information processing tasks, its deeper understanding is essential. In this review, we present a detailed description of the Majorana representation of pure symmetric states and its applicability in investigating various aspects of multiparticle entanglement

Connections of geometric measure of entanglement of pure symmetric states to quantum state estimation

We study the geometric measure of entanglement (GM) of pure symmetric states related to rank-one positive-operator-valued measures (POVMs) and establish a general connection with quantum state estimation theory, especially the maximum likelihood principle. Based on this connection, we provide a method for computing the GM of these states and demonstrate its additivity property under certain conditions. In particular, we prove the additivity of the GM of pure symmetric multiqubit states whose Majorana points under Majorana representation are distributed within a half sphere, including all pure symmetric three-qubit states. We then introduce a family of symmetric states that are generated from mutually unbiased bases (MUBs), and derive an analytical formula for their GM. These states include Dicke states as special cases, which have already been realized in experiments. We also derive the GM of symmetric states generated from symmetric informationally complete POVMs (SIC~POVMs) and use it to characterize all inequivalent SIC~POVMs in three-dimensional Hilbert space that are covariant with respect to the Heisenberg--Weyl group. Finally, we describe an experimental scheme for creating the symmetric multiqubit states studied in this article and a possible scheme for measuring the permanent of the related Gram matrix.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, published versio

Anticoherence of spin states with point group symmetries

We investigate multiqubit permutation-symmetric states with maximal entropy of entanglement. Such states can be viewed as particular spin states, namely anticoherent spin states. Using the Majorana representation of spin states in terms of points on the unit sphere, we analyze the consequences of a point-group symmetry in their arrangement on the quantum properties of the corresponding state. We focus on the identification of anticoherent states (for which all reduced density matrices in the symmetric subspace are maximally mixed) associated with point-group symmetric sets of points. We provide three different characterizations of anticoherence, and establish a link between point symmetries, anticoherence and classes of states equivalent through stochastic local operations with classical communication (SLOCC). We then investigate in detail the case of small numbers of qubits, and construct infinite families of anticoherent states with point-group symmetry of their Majorana points, showing that anticoherent states do exist to arbitrary order.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Multiqubit symmetric states with maximally mixed one-qubit reductions

We present a comprehensive study of maximally entangled symmetric states of arbitrary numbers of qubits in the sense of the maximal mixedness of the one-qubit reduced density operator. A general criterion is provided to easily identify whether given symmetric states are maximally entangled in that respect or not. We show that these maximally entangled symmetric (MES) states are the only symmetric states for which the expectation value of the associated collective spin of the system vanishes, as well as in corollary the dipole moment of the Husimi function. We establish the link between this kind of maximal entanglement, the anticoherence properties of spin states, and the degree of polarization of light fields. We analyze the relationship between the MES states and the classes of states equivalent through stochastic local operations with classical communication (SLOCC). We provide a nonexistence criterion of MES states within SLOCC classes of qubit states and show in particular that the symmetric Dicke state SLOCC classes never contain such MES states, with the only exception of the balanced Dicke state class for even numbers of qubits. The 4-qubit system is analyzed exhaustively and all MES states of this system are identified and characterized. Finally the entanglement content of MES states is analyzed with respect to the geometric and barycentric measures of entanglement, as well as to the generalized N-tangle. We show that the geometric entanglement of MES states is ensured to be larger than or equal to 1/2, but also that MES states are not in general the symmetric states that maximize the investigated entanglement measures.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Canonical steering ellipsoids of pure symmetric multiqubit states with two distinct spinors and volume monogamy of steering

Quantum steering ellipsoid formalism provides a faithful representation of all two-qubit states and helps in obtaining correlation properties of the state through the steering ellipsoid. The steering ellipsoids corresponding to the two-qubit subsystems of permutation symmetric $N$-qubit states is analysed here. The steering ellipsoids of two-qubit states that have undergone local operations on both the qubits so as to bring the state to its canonical form are the so-called canonical steering ellipsoids. We construct and analyze the geometric features of the canonical steering ellipsoids corresponding to pure permutation symmetric $N$-qubit states with two distinct spinors. Depending on the degeneracy of the two spinors in the pure symmetric $N$-qubit state, there arise several families which cannot be converted into one another through Stochastic Local Operations and Classical Communications (SLOCC). The canonical steering ellipsoids of the two-qubit states drawn from the pure symmetric $N$-qubit states with two distinct spinors allow for a geometric visualization of the SLOCC-inequivalent class of states. We show that the states belonging to the W-class correspond to oblate spheroid centered at $(0,0,1/(N-1))$ with fixed semiaxes lengths $1/\sqrt{N-1}$ and $1/(N-1)$. The states belonging to all other SLOCC inequivalent families correspond to ellipsoids centered at the origin of the Bloch sphere. We also explore volume monogamy relations of states belonging to these families, mainly the W-class of states.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures; Revised version; Comments welcom

Entanglement robustness against particle loss in multiqubit systems

When some of the parties of a multipartite entangled pure state are lost, the question arises whether the residual mixed state is also entangled, in which case the initial entangled pure state is said to be robust against particle loss. In this paper, we investigate this entanglement robustness for $N$-qubit pure states. We identify exhaustively all entangled states that are fragile, i.e., not robust, with respect to the loss of any single qubit of the system. We also study the entanglement robustness properties of symmetric states and put these properties in the perspective of the classification of states with respect to stochastic local operations assisted with classic communication (SLOCC classification).Comment: Published version, 7 page