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We propose a unifying approach to the separability problem using covariance matrices of locally measurable observables. From a practical point of view, our approach leads to strong entanglement criteria that allow us to detect the entanglement of many bound entangled states in higher dimensions and which are at the same time necessary and sufficient for two qubits. From a fundamental perspective, our approach leads to insights into the relations between several known entanglement criteria--such as the computable cross-norm and local uncertainty criteria--as well as their limitations.

The entanglement entropy of a distinguished region of a quantum many-body system reflects the entanglement in its pure ground state. Here we establish scaling laws for this entanglement in critical quasifree fermionic and bosonic lattice systems, without resorting to numerical means. We consider the setting of D-dimensional half-spaces which allows us to exploit a connection to the one-dimensional case. Intriguingly, we find a difference in the scaling properties depending on whether the system is bosonic-where an area law is proven to hold-or fermionic where we determine a logarithmic correction to the area law, which depends on the topology of the Fermi surface. We find Lifshitz quantum phase transitions accompanied with a nonanalyticity in the prefactor of the leading order term.

We establish a framework which allows one to construct novel schemes for measurement-based quantum computation. The technique develops tools from many-body physics-based on finitely correlated or projected entangled pair states-to go beyond the cluster-state based one-way computer. We identify resource states radically different from the cluster state, in that they exhibit nonvanishing correlations, can be prepared using nonmaximally entangling gates, or have very different local entanglement properties. In the computational models, randomness is compensated in a different manner. It is shown that there exist resource states which are locally arbitrarily close to a pure state. We comment on the possibility of tailoring computational models to specific physical systems.

The density matrix renormalization group approach is arguably the most successful method to numerically find ground states of quantum spin chains. It amounts to iteratively locally optimizing matrix-product states, aiming at better and better approximating the true ground state. To date, both a proof of convergence to the globally best approximation and an assessment of its complexity are lacking. Here we establish a result on the computational complexity of an approximation with matrix-product states: The surprising result is that when one globally optimizes over several sites of local Hamiltonians, avoiding local optima, one encounters in the worst case a computationally difficult NP-hard problem (hard even in approximation). The proof exploits a novel way of relating it to binary quadratic programming. We discuss intriguing ramifications on the difficulty of describing quantum many-body systems.

We establish a general scaling law for the entanglement of a large class of ground states and dynamically evolving states of quantum spin chains: we show that the geometric entropy of a distinguished block saturates, and hence follows an entanglement-boundary law. These results apply to any ground state of a gapped model resulting from dynamics generated by a local Hamiltonian, as well as, dually, to states that are generated via a sudden quench of an interaction as recently studied in the case of dynamics of quantum phase transitions. We achieve these results by exploiting ideas from quantum information theory and tools provided by Lieb-Robinson bounds. We also show that there exist noncritical fermionic systems and equivalent spin chains with rapidly decaying interactions violating this entanglement-boundary law. Implications for the classical simulatability are outlined.

In this Letter, the problem of finding optimal success probabilities of linear optics quantum gates is linked to the theory of convex optimization. It is shown that by exploiting this link, upper bounds for the success probability of networks realizing single-mode gates can be derived, which hold in generality for postselected networks of arbitrary size, any number of auxiliary modes, and arbitrary photon numbers. As a corollary, the previously formulated conjecture is proven that the optimal success probability of a nonlinear sign shift without feedforward is 1/4, a gate playing the central role in the scheme of Knill-Laflamme-Milburn for quantum computation. The concept of Lagrange duality is shown to be applicable to provide rigorous proofs for such bounds, although the original problem is a difficult nonconvex problem in infinitely many objective variables. The versatility of this approach is demonstrated.

We revisit the question of the relation between entanglement, entropy, and area for harmonic lattice Hamiltonians corresponding to discrete versions of real free Klein-Gordon fields. For the ground state of the d-dimensional cubic harmonic lattice we establish a strict relationship between the surface area of a distinguished hypercube and the degree of entanglement between the hypercube and the rest of the lattice analytically, without resorting to numerical means. We outline extensions of these results to longer ranged interactions, finite temperatures, and for classical correlations in classical harmonic lattice systems. These findings further suggest that the tools of quantum information science may help in establishing results in quantum field theory that were previously less accessible.

We study arrays of mechanical oscillators in the quantum domain and demonstrate how the motions of distant oscillators can be entangled without the need for control of individual oscillators and without a direct interaction between them. These oscillators are thought of as being members of an array of nanoelectromechanical resonators with a voltage being applicable between neighboring resonators. Sudden nonadiabatic switching of the interaction results in a squeezing of the states of the mechanical oscillators, leading to an entanglement transport in chains of mechanical oscillators. We discuss spatial dimensions, Q factors, temperatures and decoherence sources in some detail, and find a distinct robustness of the entanglement in the canonical coordinates in such a scheme. We also briefly discuss the challenging aspect of detection of the generated entanglement.

We determine the ground state properties of inhomogeneous mixtures of bosons and fermions in cubic lattices and parabolic confining potentials. For finite hopping we determine the domain boundaries between Mott-insulator plateaux and hopping-dominated regions for lattices of arbitrary dimension within mean-field and perturbation theory. The results are compared with a new numerical method that is based on a Gutzwiller variational approach for the bosons and an exact treatment for the fermions. The findings can be applied as a guideline for future experiments with trapped atomic Bose-Fermi mixtures in optical lattices.

In this Letter it is shown that exact decoherence to minimal uncertainty Gaussian pointer states is generic for free quantum particles coupled to a heat bath. More specifically, the Letter is concerned with damped free particles linearly coupled under product initial conditions to a heat bath at arbitrary temperature, with arbitrary coupling strength and spectral densities covering the Ohmic, sub-Ohmic, and supra-Ohmic regime. Then it is true that there exists a time t(c) such that for times t>t(c) the state can always be exactly represented as a mixture (convex combination) of particular minimal uncertainty Gaussian states, regardless of and independent from the initial state. This exact "localization" is hence not a feature specific to high temperature and weak damping limit, but is a generic property of damped free particles.

We investigate the entangling capability of passive optical elements, both qualitatively and quantitatively. We present a general necessary and sufficient condition for the possibility of creating distillable entanglement in an arbitrary multimode Gaussian state with the help of passive optical elements, thereby establishing a general connection between squeezing and the entanglement that is attainable by nonsqueezing operations. Special attention is devoted to general two-mode Gaussian states, for which we provide the optimal entangling procedure, present an explicit formula for the attainable degree of entanglement, and discuss several practically important special cases.

We study the entanglement cost under quantum operations preserving the positivity of the partial transpose (PPT operations). We demonstrate that this cost is directly related to the logarithmic negativity, thereby providing the operational interpretation for this entanglement measure. As examples we discuss general Werner states and arbitrary bipartite Gaussian states. Then we prove that for the antisymmetric Werner state PPT cost and PPT entanglement of distillation coincide. This is the first example of a truly mixed state for which entanglement manipulation is asymptotically reversible, which points towards a unique entanglement measure under PPT operations.

We show that no distillation protocol for Gaussian quantum states exists that relies on (i) arbitrary local unitary operations that preserve the Gaussian character of the state and (ii) homodyne detection together with classical communication and postprocessing by means of local Gaussian unitary operations on two symmetric identically prepared copies. This is in contrast to the finite-dimensional case, where entanglement can be distilled in an iterative protocol using two copies at a time. The ramifications for the distribution of Gaussian states over large distances will be outlined. We also comment on the generality of the approach and sketch the most general form of a Gaussian local operation with classical communication in a bipartite setting.

We investigate the entanglement properties of the joint state of a distinguished quantum system and its environment in the quantum Brownian motion model. This model is a frequent starting point for investigations of environment-induced superselection. Using recent methods from quantum information theory, we show that there exists a large class of initial states for which no entanglement will be created at all times between the system of salient interest and the environment. If the distinguished system has been initially prepared in a pure Gaussian state, then entanglement is created immediately, regardless of the temperature of the environment and the nonvanishing coupling.

We present a general necessary and sufficient criterion for the possibility of a state transformation from one mixed Gaussian state to another of a bipartite continuous-variable system with two modes. The class of operations that will be considered is the set of local Gaussian completely positive trace-preserving maps.

We present an analytical formula for the asymptotic relative entropy of entanglement with respect to positive partial transpose states for Werner states of arbitrary dimension. We then demonstrate its validity using methods from convex optimization. This is the first case in which the asymptotic value of a subadditive entanglement measure has been calculated.

We consider entanglement-assisted remote quantum state manipulation of bipartite mixed states. Several aspects are addressed: we present a class of mixed states of rank two that can be transformed into another class of mixed states under entanglement-assisted local operations with classical communication, but for which such a transformation is impossible without assistance. Furthermore, we demonstrate enhancement of the efficiency of purification protocols with the help of entanglement-assisted operations. Finally, transformations from one mixed state to mixed target states which are sufficiently close to the source state are contrasted with similar transformations in the pure-state case.

We establish a quantitative connection between the amount of lost classical information about a quantum state and the concomitant loss of entanglement. Using methods that have been developed for the optimal purification of mixed states, we find a class of mixed states with known distillable entanglement. These results can be used to determine the quantum capacity of a quantum channel which randomizes the order of transmitted signals.

SBE manifests many skin findings including petechiae, splinter hemorrhages of the nails, Osler's and laneway lesions, clubbing of the fingers, and findings suggestive of angiitis. Another case with similar histopathologic findings to those originally described by Tappeiner and Pfleger is described, but with positive blood cultures to corroborate the clinical identification of SBE.