0404051v4

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{state, states, entangled}
{let, theorem, proof}
{bell, inequality, local}
{classical, space, random}
{operator, operators, space}
{measurement, state, measurements}
{theory, mechanics, state}
{algorithm, log, probability}
{cos, sin, state}
{temperature, thermal, energy}
{entanglement, phys, rev}
{time, decoherence, evolution}
{error, code, errors}
{observables, space, algebra}
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Macroscopic objects in quantum mechanics: A combinatorial approach

Itamar Pitowsky

abstract: Why we do not see large macroscopic objects in entangled states? There are two ways to approach this question. The first is dynamic: the coupling of a large object to its environment cause any entanglement to decrease considerably. The second approach, which is discussed in this paper, puts the stress on the difficulty to observe a large scale entanglement. As the number of particles n grows we need an ever more precise knowledge of the state, and an ever more carefully designed experiment, in order to recognize entanglement. To develop this point we consider a family of observables, called witnesses, which are designed to detect entanglement. A witness W distinguishes all the separable (unentangled) states from some entangled states. If we normalize the witness W to satisfy |tr(W\rho)| \leq 1 for all separable states \rho, then the efficiency of W depends on the size of its maximal eigenvalue in absolute value; that is, its operator norm ||W||. It is known that there are witnesses on the space of n qbits for which ||W|| is exponential in n. However, we conjecture that for a large majority of n-qbit witnesses ||W|| \leq O(\sqrt{n logn}). Thus, in a non ideal measurement, which includes errors, the largest eigenvalue of a typical witness lies below the threshold of detection. We prove this conjecture for the family of extremal witnesses introduced by Werner and Wolf (Phys. Rev. A 64, 032112 (2001)).

oai_identifier:
oai:arXiv.org:quant-ph/0404051
categories:
quant-ph cond-mat.stat-mech
comments:
RevTeX, 14 pages, some additions to the published version: A second conjecture added, discussion expanded, and references added
doi:
10.1103/PhysRevA.70.022103
arxiv_id:
quant-ph/0404051
journal_ref:
Physical Review A 70, 022103-1-6 (2004)
created:
2004-04-08
updated:
2006-03-18

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