Supercatalysis

We show that entanglement-assisted transformations of bipartite entangled states can be more efficient than catalysis [D. Jonathan and M. B. Plenio, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 3566 (1999)}, i.e., given two incomparable bipartite states not only can the transformation be enabled by performing collective operations with an auxiliary entangled state, but the entanglement of the auxiliary state itself can be enhanced. We refer to this phenomenon as supercatalysis. We provide results on the properties of supercatalysis and its relationship with catalysis. In particular, we obtain a useful necessary and sufficient condition for catalysis, provide several sufficient conditions for supercatalysis and study the extent to which entanglement of the auxiliary state can be enhanced via supercatalysis.Comment: Latex, 5 page

Classification of multipartite entangled states by multidimensional determinants

We find that multidimensional determinants "hyperdeterminants", related to entanglement measures (the so-called concurrence or 3-tangle for the 2 or 3 qubits, respectively), are derived from a duality between entangled states and separable states. By means of the hyperdeterminant and its singularities, the single copy of multipartite pure entangled states is classified into an onion structure of every closed subset, similar to that by the local rank in the bipartite case. This reveals how inequivalent multipartite entangled classes are partially ordered under local actions. In particular, the generic entangled class of the maximal dimension, distinguished as the nonzero hyperdeterminant, does not include the maximally entangled states in Bell's inequalities in general (e.g., in the $n \geq 4$ qubits), contrary to the widely known bipartite or 3-qubit cases. It suggests that not only are they never locally interconvertible with the majority of multipartite entangled states, but they would have no grounds for the canonical n-partite entangled states. Our classification is also useful for the mixed states.Comment: revtex4, 10 pages, 4 eps figures with psfrag; v2 title changed, 1 appendix added, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Mean Field Approximations and Multipartite Thermal Correlations

The relationship between the mean-field approximations in various interacting models of statistical physics and measures of classical and quantum correlations is explored. We present a method that allows us to bound the total amount of correlations (and hence entanglement) in a physical system in thermal equilibrium at some temperature in terms of its free energy and internal energy. This method is first illustrated using two qubits interacting through the Heisenberg coupling, where entanglement and correlations can be computed exactly. It is then applied to the one dimensional Ising model in a transverse magnetic field, for which entanglement and correlations cannot be obtained by exact methods. We analyze the behavior of correlations in various regimes and identify critical regions, comparing them with already known results. Finally, we present a general discussion of the effects of entanglement on the macroscopic, thermodynamical features of solid-state systems. In particular, we exploit the fact that a $d$ dimensional quantum system in thermal equilibrium can be made to corresponds to a d+1 classical system in equilibrium to substitute all entanglement for classical correlations.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure

A Concentration/Purification Scheme for Two Partially Entangled Photon Pairs

An experimental scheme for concentrating entanglement in partially entangled photon pairs is proposed. In this scheme, two separated parties obtain one maximally entangled photon pair from previously shared two partially entangled photon pairs by local operations and classical communication. A practical realization of the proposed scheme is discussed, which uses imperfect photon detectors and spontaneous parametric down-conversion as a photon source. This scheme also works for purifying a class of mixed states.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

A reversible theory of entanglement and its relation to the second law

We consider the manipulation of multipartite entangled states in the limit of many copies under quantum operations that asymptotically cannot generate entanglement. As announced in [Brandao and Plenio, Nature Physics 4, 8 (2008)], and in stark contrast to the manipulation of entanglement under local operations and classical communication, the entanglement shared by two or more parties can be reversibly interconverted in this setting. The unique entanglement measure is identified as the regularized relative entropy of entanglement, which is shown to be equal to a regularized and smoothed version of the logarithmic robustness of entanglement. Here we give a rigorous proof of this result, which is fundamentally based on a certain recent extension of quantum Stein's Lemma proved in [Brandao and Plenio, Commun. Math. 295, 791 (2010)], giving the best measurement strategy for discriminating several copies of an entangled state from an arbitrary sequence of non-entangled states, with an optimal distinguishability rate equal to the regularized relative entropy of entanglement. We moreover analyse the connection of our approach to axiomatic formulations of the second law of thermodynamics.Comment: 21 pages. revised versio

Schrodinger's cat meets Einstein's twins: A superposition of different clock times

The phenomenon of quantum superposition, which allows a physical system to exist in different states 'simultaneously', is one of the most bizarre notions in physics. Here we illustrate an even more bizarre example of it: a superposed state of a physical system consisting of both an 'older' version and a 'younger' version of that system. This can be accomplished by exploiting the special relativistic effect of time dilation featuring in Einstein's famous twin paradox. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

Error exponents for entanglement concentration

Consider entanglement concentration schemes that convert n identical copies of a pure state into a maximally entangled state of a desired size with success probability being close to one in the asymptotic limit. We give the distillable entanglement, the number of Bell pairs distilled per copy, as a function of an error exponent, which represents the rate of decrease in failure probability as n tends to infinity. The formula fills the gap between the least upper bound of distillable entanglement in probabilistic concentration, which is the well-known entropy of entanglement, and the maximum attained in deterministic concentration. The method of types in information theory enables the detailed analysis of the distillable entanglement in terms of the error rate. In addition to the probabilistic argument, we consider another type of entanglement concentration scheme, where the initial state is deterministically transformed into a (possibly mixed) final state whose fidelity to a maximally entangled state of a desired size converges to one in the asymptotic limit. We show that the same formula as in the probabilistic argument is valid for the argument on fidelity by replacing the success probability with the fidelity. Furthermore, we also discuss entanglement yield when optimal success probability or optimal fidelity converges to zero in the asymptotic limit (strong converse), and give the explicit formulae for those cases.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX2e, iopart.cls, minor correction