Separability and distillability in composite quantum systems -a primer-

Quantum mechanics is already 100 years old, but remains alive and full of challenging open problems. On one hand, the problems encountered at the frontiers of modern theoretical physics like Quantum Gravity, String Theories, etc. concern Quantum Theory, and are at the same time related to open problems of modern mathematics. But even within non-relativistic quantum mechanics itself there are fundamental unresolved problems that can be formulated in elementary terms. These problems are also related to challenging open questions of modern mathematics; linear algebra and functional analysis in particular. Two of these problems will be discussed in this article: a) the separability problem, i.e. the question when the state of a composite quantum system does not contain any quantum correlations or entanglement and b) the distillability problem, i.e. the question when the state of a composite quantum system can be transformed to an entangled pure state using local operations (local refers here to component subsystems of a given system). Although many results concerning the above mentioned problems have been obtained (in particular in the last few years in the framework of Quantum Information Theory), both problems remain until now essentially open. We will present a primer on the current state of knowledge concerning these problems, and discuss the relation of these problems to one of the most challenging questions of linear algebra: the classification and characterization of positive operator maps.Comment: 11 pages latex, 1 eps figure. Final version, to appear in J. Mod. Optics, minor typos corrected, references adde

Concurrence classes for general pure multipartite states

We propose concurrence classes for general pure multipartite states based on an orthogonal complement of a positive operator valued measure on quantum phase. In particular, we construct $W^{m}$ class, $GHZ^{m}$, and $GHZ^{m-1}$ class concurrences for general pure $m$-partite states. We give explicit expressions for $W^{3}$ and $GHZ^{3}$ class concurrences for general pure three-partite states and for $W^{4}$, $GHZ^{4}$, and $GHZ^{3}$ class concurrences for general pure four-partite states.Comment: 14 page

Concurrence classes for an arbitrary multi-qubit state based on positive operator valued measure

In this paper, we propose concurrence classes for an arbitrary multi-qubit state based on orthogonal complement of a positive operator valued measure, or POVM in short, on quantum phase. In particular, we construct concurrence for an arbitrary two-qubit state and concurrence classes for the three- and four-qubit states. And finally, we construct $W^{m}$ and $GHZ^{m}$ class concurrences for multi-qubit states. The unique structure of our POVM enables us to distinguish different concurrence classes for multi-qubit states.Comment: 8 page

Many body physics from a quantum information perspective

The quantum information approach to many body physics has been very successful in giving new insight and novel numerical methods. In these lecture notes we take a vertical view of the subject, starting from general concepts and at each step delving into applications or consequences of a particular topic. We first review some general quantum information concepts like entanglement and entanglement measures, which leads us to entanglement area laws. We then continue with one of the most famous examples of area-law abiding states: matrix product states, and tensor product states in general. Of these, we choose one example (classical superposition states) to introduce recent developments on a novel quantum many body approach: quantum kinetic Ising models. We conclude with a brief outlook of the field.Comment: Lectures from the Les Houches School on "Modern theories of correlated electron systems". Improved version new references adde