We derive energy minima for biseparable states in three- and four-spin systems, with Heisenberg Hamiltonian and s <= 5/2. These provide lower bounds for tripartite and quadripartite entanglement in chains and rings with larger spin number N. We demonstrate that the ground state of an $N$-spin Heisenberg chain is $N$-partite entangled, and compute the energy gap with respect to biseparable states for N <= 8.
We describe an entanglement witness for $N$-qubit mixed states based on the properties of $N$-point correlation functions. Depending on the degree of violation, this witness can guarantee that no more than $M$ qubits are separable from the rest of the state for any $Mleq N$, or that there is some genuine $M$-party or greater multipartite entanglement present. We illustrate the use our criterion by investigating the existence of entanglement in thermal stabilizer states, where we demonstrate that the witness is capable of witnessing bound-entangled states. Intriguingly, this entanglement can be shown to persist in the thermodynamic limit at arbitrary temperature.
Genuine multipartite entanglement underlies correlation experiments corroborating quantum mechanics and it is an expedient empowering many quantum technologies. One of many counterintuitive facets of genuine multipartite entanglement is its ability to exhibit an emergent character, that is, one can infer its presence in some multipartite states merely from a set of its separable marginals. Here, we show that the effect can be found also in the context of Gaussian states of bosonic systems. Specifically, we construct examples of multimode Gaussian states carrying genuine multipartite entanglement which can be verified solely from separable nearest-neighbour two-mode marginals. The key tool of our construction is a genuine multipartite entanglement witness acting only on some two-mode reductions of the global covariance matrix, which we find by a numerical solution of a semi-definite programme. We also propose an experimental scheme for preparation of the simplest three-mode state, which requires interference of three correlatively displaced squeezed beams on two beam splitters. Besides revealing the concept of emergent genuine multipartite entanglement in the Gaussian scenario and bringing it closer to experimentally testable form, our results pave the way to effective diagnostics methods of global properties of multipartite states without complete tomography.
We show how a property of dualism, which can exist in the entanglement of identical particles, can be tested in the usual photonic Bell measurement apparatus with minor modifications. Two different sets of coincidence measurements on the same experimental setup consisting of a Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer demonstrate how the same two-photon state can emerge entanglement in the polarization or the momentum degree of freedom depending on the dynamical variables used for labeling the particles. Our experiment demonstrates how the same source can be used as both a polarization entangled state, as well as a dichotomic momentum entangled state shared between distant users Alice and Bob in accordance to which sets of detectors they access. When the particles become distinguishable by letting the information about one of the variables to be imprinted in yet another (possibly inaccessible) system or degree of freedom, the feature of dualism is expected to vanish. We verify this feature by polarization decoherence (polarization information in environment) or arrival time difference, which both respectively destroy one of the dual forms of entanglement.
Understanding gravity in the framework of quantum mechanics is one of the great challenges in modern physics. Along this line, a prime question is to find whether gravity is a quantum entity subject to the rules of quantum mechanics. It is fair to say that there are no feasible ideas yet to test the quantum coherent behaviour of gravity directly in a laboratory experiment. Here, we introduce an idea for such a test based on the principle that two objects cannot be entangled without a quantum mediator. We show that despite the weakness of gravity, the phase evolution induced by the gravitational interaction of two micron size test masses in adjacent matter-wave interferometers can detectably entangle them even when they are placed far apart enough to keep Casimir-Polder forces at bay. We provide a prescription for witnessing this entanglement, which certifies gravity as a quantum coherent mediator, through simple correlation measurements between two spins: one embedded in each test mass. Fundamentally, the above entanglement is shown to certify the presence of non-zero off-diagonal terms in the coherent state basis of the gravitational field modes.
In order to engineer an open quantum system and its evolution, it is essential to identify and control the memory effects. These are formally attributed to the non-Markovianity of dynamics that manifests itself by the evolution being indivisible in time, a property which can be witnessed by a non-monotonic behavior of contractive functions or correlation measures. We show that by monitoring directly the entanglement behavior of a system in a tripartite setting it is possible to witness all invertible non-Markovian dynamics, as well as all (also non-invertible) qubit evolutions. This is achieved by using negativity, a computable measure of entanglement, which in the usual bipartite setting is not a universal non-Markovianity witness. We emphasize further the importance of multipartite states by showing that non-Markovianity cannot be faithfully witnessed by any contractive function of single qubits. We support our statements by an explicit example of eternally non-Markovian qubit dynamics, for which negativity can witness non-Markovianity at arbitrary time scales.