Reduction criterion
In quantum information theory, the reduction criterion is a necessary condition a mixed state must satisfy in order for it to be separable. In other words, the reduction criterion is a separability criterion. It was fist proved in [1] and independently formulated in.[2] Violation of the reduction criterion is closely related to the distillability of the state in question.[1]
Details
Let H1 and H2 be Hilbert spaces of finite dimensions n and m respectively. L(Hi) will denote the space of linear operators acting on Hi. Consider a bipartite quantum system whose state space is the tensor product
An (un-normalized) mixed state ρ is a positive linear operator (density matrix) acting on H.
A linear map Φ: L(H2) → L(H1) is said to be positive if it preserves the cone of positive elements, i.e. A is positive implied Φ(A) is also.
From the one-to-one correspondence between positive maps and entanglement witnesses, we have that a state ρ is entangled if and only if there exists a positive map Φ such that
is not positive. Therefore, if ρ is separable, then for all positive map Φ,
Thus every positive, but not completely positive, map Φ gives rise to a necessary condition for separability in this way. The reduction criterion is a particular example of this.
Suppose H1 = H2. Define the positive map Φ: L(H2) → L(H1) by
It is known that Φ is positive but not completely positive. So a mixed state ρ being separable implies
Direct calculation shows that the above expression is the same as
where ρ1 is the partial trace of ρ with respect to the second system. The dual relation
is obtained in the analogous fashion. The reduction criterion consists of the above two inequalities. The reduction criterion is
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 M. Horodecki and P. Horodecki (1999). "Reduction criterion of separability and limits for a class of distillation protocols". Phys. Rev. A. 59: 4206. arXiv:quant-ph/9708015. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.59.4206.
- ↑ N. Cerf et al. (1999). "Reduction criterion for separability". Phys. Rev. A. 60: 898. arXiv:quant-ph/9710001. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.60.898.