The capacity of a quantum gate to produce entangled states on a bipartite system is quantified in terms of the entangling power. This quantity is defined as the average of the linear entropy of entanglement of the states produced after applying a quantum gate over the whole set of separable states. Here we focus on symmetric two-qubit quantum gates, acting on the symmetric two-qubit space, and calculate the entangling power in terms of the appropriate local-invariant. A geometric description of the local equivalence classes of gates is given in terms of the $mathfrak{su}(3)$ Lie algebra root vectors. These vectors define a primitive cell with hexagonal symmetry on a plane, and through the Weyl group the minimum area on the plane containing the whole set of locally equivalent quantum gates is identified. We give conditions to determine when a given quantum gate produces maximally entangled states from separable ones (perfect entanglers). We found that these gates correspond to one fourth of the whole set of locally-distinct quantum gates. The theory developed here is applicable to three-level systems in general, where the non-locality of a quantum gate is related to its capacity to perform non-rigid transformations on the Majorana constellation of a state. The results are illustrated by an anisotropic Heisenberg model, the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model, and two coupled quantized oscillators with cross-Kerr interaction.
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