Inequalities for the Schmidt Number of Bipartite States

Abstract: In this short note we show two completely opposite methods of constructing entangled states. Given a bipartite state $\gamma\in M_k\otimes M_k$, define $\gamma_S=(Id+F)\gamma (Id+F)$, $\gamma_A=(Id-F)\gamma(Id-F)$, where $F\in M_k\otimes M_k$ is the flip operator. In the first method, entanglement is a consequence of the inequality $\text{rank}(\gamma_S)<\sqrt{\text{rank}(\gamma_A)}$. In the second method, there is no correlation between $\gamma_S$ and $\gamma_A$. These two methods show how diverse is quantum entanglement. We prove that any bipartite state $\gamma\in M_k\otimes M_k$ satisfies $\displaystyle SN(\gamma)\geq\max \left{ \frac{\text{rank}(\gamma_L)}{\text{rank}(\gamma)}, \frac{\text{rank}(\gamma_R)}{\text{rank}(\gamma)}, \frac{SN(\gamma_S)}{2}, \frac{SN(\gamma_A)}{2} \right},$ where $SN(\gamma)$ stands for the Schmidt number of $\gamma$ and $\gamma_L,\gamma_R$ are the marginal states of $\gamma$. We also present a family of PPT states in $M_k\otimes M_k$, whose members have Schmidt number equal to $n$, for any given $1\leq n\leq \left\lceil\frac{k-1}{2}\right\rceil$. This is a new contribution to the open problem of finding the best possible Schmidt number for PPT states.