Essentially All Gaussian Two-Party Quantum States are a priori Nonclassical but Classically Correlated

Duan, Giedke, Cirac and Zoller (quant-ph/9908056) and, independently, Simon (quant-ph/9909044) have recently found necessary and sufficient conditions for the separability (classical correlation) of the Gaussian two-party (continuous variable) states. Duan et al remark that their criterion is based on a "much stronger bound" on the total variance of a pair of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-type operators than is required simply by the uncertainty relation. Here, we seek to formalize and test this particular assertion in both classical and quantum-theoretic frameworks. We first attach to these states the classical a priori probability (Jeffreys' prior), proportional to the volume element of the Fisher information metric on the Riemannian manifold of Gaussian (quadrivariate normal) probability distributions. Then, numerical evidence indicates that more than ninety-nine percent of the Gaussian two-party states do, in fact, meet the more stringent criterion for separability. We collaterally note that the prior probability assigned to the classical states, that is those having positive Glauber-Sudarshan P-representations, is less than one-thousandth of one percent. We, then, seek to attach as a measure to the Gaussian two-party states, the volume element of the associated (quantum-theoretic) Bures (minimal monotone) metric. Our several extensive analyses, then, persistently yield probabilities of separability and classicality that are, to very high orders of accuracy, unity and zero, respectively, so the two apparently quite distinct (classical and quantum-theoretic) forms of analysis are rather remarkably consistent in their findings.Comment: Seven pages, one table. Expanded introduction, additional references include

Exact Bures Probabilities that Two Quantum Bits are Classically Correlated

In previous studies, we have explored the ansatz that the volume elements of the Bures metrics over quantum systems might serve as prior distributions, in analogy to the (classical) Bayesian role of the volume elements ("Jeffreys' priors") of Fisher information metrics. Continuing this work, we obtain exact Bures probabilities that the members of certain low-dimensional subsets of the fifteen-dimensional convex set of 4 x 4 density matrices are separable or classically correlated. The main analytical tools employed are symbolic integration and a formula of Dittmann (quant-ph/9908044) for Bures metric tensors. This study complements an earlier one (quant-ph/9810026) in which numerical (randomization) --- but not integration --- methods were used to estimate Bures separability probabilities for unrestricted 4 x 4 or 6 x 6 density matrices. The exact values adduced here for pairs of quantum bits (qubits), typically, well exceed the estimate (.1) there, but this disparity may be attributable to our focus on special low-dimensional subsets. Quite remarkably, for the q = 1 and q = 1/2 states inferred using the principle of maximum nonadditive (Tsallis) entropy, the separability probabilities are both equal to 2^{1/2} - 1. For the Werner qubit-qutrit and qutrit-qutrit states, the probabilities are vanishingly small, while in the qubit-qubit case it is 1/4.Comment: Seventeen pages, LaTeX, eleven postscript figures. In this version, subsequent (!) to publication in European Physical Journal B, we correct the (1,1)-entries of the 4 x 4 matrices given in formulas (6) and (7), that is, the numerators should both read v^2 - x^2 - y^2 - z^2, rather than v^2 - x^2 + y^2 + z^