The detection power of real entanglement witnesses under local unitary equivalence

Abstract

The imaginary unit $i$ has recently been experimentally proven to be indispensable for quantum mechanics. We study the differences in detection power between real and complex entanglement witnesses (EWs) distinguished by whether their matrix expressions incorporate imaginary parts. We show that a real EW (REW), denoted by a real Hermitian matrix, must detect one entangled state of a real density matrix, and conversely an entangled state of a real density matrix must be detected by one REW. We present a necessary and sufficient condition for the entangled states detected by REWs, and give a specific example implying the detection limitations of REWs. From an operational perspective, we investigate whether all entangled states are detected by the EWs locally equivalent to some REWs. We prove the validity for all NPT (non-positive partial transpose) states. We also derive a necessary and sufficient condition of the validity for the PPT (positive partial transpose) entangled states of complex density matrices. By this condition we show the validity for a family of two-qutrit PPT entangled states of rank four. Another way to figure out the problem is to check whether a counterexample exists. We propose a method to examine the existence from a set-theoretic perspective, and provide some supporting evidence of non-existence. Finally, we derive some results on local projections of EWs with product projectors.

15 pages, two-column, 2 figures

References in corpus (16)

• Entanglement detection
• Quantum theory based on real numbers can be experimentally falsified
• Operational Resource Theory of Imaginarity
• Ruling out real-valued standard formalism of quantum theory
• Resource theory of imaginarity: Quantification and state conversion
• Simulating quantum systems using real Hilbert spaces
• Experimental refutation of real-valued quantum mechanics under strict locality conditions
• Measures of imaginarity and quantum state order
• Weaker entanglement guarantees stronger entanglement
• Resource Theory of Imaginarity: New Distributed Scenarios
• Spectral properties of entanglement witnesses
• Decomposition of bipartite and multipartite unitary gates into the product of controlled unitary gates
• Separability of Completely Symmetric States in Multipartite System
• Inertias of entanglement witnesses
• Equivalence classes and canonical forms for two-qutrit entangled states of rank four having positive partial transpose
• Classification of Schmidt-rank-two multipartite unitary gates by singular number