Entanglement molecules

We investigate the entanglement properties of multiparticle systems, concentrating on the case where the entanglement is robust against disposal of particles. Two qubits -belonging to a multipartite system- are entangled in this sense iff their reduced density matrix is entangled. We introduce a family of multiqubit states, for which one can choose for any pair of qubits independently whether they should be entangled or not as well as the relative strength of the entanglement, thus providing the possibility to construct all kinds of ''Entanglement molecules''. For some particular configurations, we also give the maximal amount of entanglement achievable.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Separable states to distribute entanglement

It was shown that two distant particles can be entangled by sending a third particle never entangled with the other two [T. S. Cubitt et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 037902 (2003)]. In this paper, we investigate a class of three-qubit separable states to distribute entanglement by the same way, and calculate the maximal amount of entanglement which two particles of separable states in the class can have after applying the way.Comment: 4 pages, no figures, Revised argumen

Equivalence classes of non-local unitary operations

We study when a multipartite non--local unitary operation can deterministically or probabilistically simulate another one when local operations of a certain kind -in some cases including also classical communication- are allowed. In the case of probabilistic simulation and allowing for arbitrary local operations, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the simulation to be possible. Deterministic and probabilistic interconversion under certain kinds of local operations are used to define equivalence relations between gates. In the probabilistic, bipartite case this induces a finite number of classes. In multiqubit systems, however, two unitary operations typically cannot simulate each other with non-zero probability of success. We also show which kind of entanglement can be created by a given non--local unitary operation and generalize our results to arbitrary operators.Comment: (1) 9 pages, no figures, submitted to QIC; (2) reference added, minor change

Stable macroscopic quantum superpositions

We study the stability of superpositions of macroscopically distinct quantum states under decoherence. We introduce a class of quantum states with entanglement features similar to Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states, but with an inherent stability against noise and decoherence. We show that in contrast to GHZ states, these so-called concatenated GHZ states remain multipartite entangled even for macroscopic numbers of particles and can be used for quantum metrology in noisy environments. We also propose a scalable experimental realization of these states using existing ion-trap set-ups.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure; v2: minor changes due to referee report

Quantum simulation of classical thermal states

We establish a connection between ground states of local quantum Hamiltonians and thermal states of classical spin systems. For any discrete classical statistical mechanical model in any spatial dimension, we find an associated quantum state such that the reduced density operator behaves as the thermal state of the classical system. We show that all these quantum states are unique ground states of a universal 5-body local quantum Hamiltonian acting on a (polynomially enlarged) system of qubits arranged on a 2D lattice. The only free parameters of the quantum Hamiltonian are coupling strengthes of two-body interactions, which allow one to choose the type and dimension of the classical model as well as the interaction strength and temperature.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur