Extremal entanglement witnesses (1305.2385v2)

Abstract: We study extremal entanglement witnesses on a bipartite quantum system. We define the cone of witnesses as the dual of the set of separable density matrices, thus $\textrm{Tr}\,\Omega\rho\geq 0$ when $\Omega$ is a witness and $\rho$ a pure product state, $\rho=\psi\psi^{\dagger}$ with $\psi=\phi\otimes\chi$. The set of witnesses of unit trace is a compact convex set, defined by its extremal points. The expectation value $f(\phi,\chi)=\mathrm{Tr}\,\Omega\rho$ as a function of $\phi$ and $\chi$ is a nonnegative biquadratic form. Every zero of $f(\phi,\chi)$ imposes real-linear constraints on $f$ and $\Omega$. The Hessian matrix at the zero must be nonnegative. Its eigenvectors with zero eigenvalue, if any, we call Hessian zeros. A zero of $f(\phi,\chi)$ is quadratic if it has no Hessian zeros, otherwise it is quartic. We call a witness quadratic if it has only quadratic zeros, and quartic otherwise. We prove that a witness is extremal if and only if no other witness has the same, or a larger, set of zeros and Hessian zeros. A quadratic extremal witness has a minimum number of isolated zeros depending on dimensions. If a witness is not extremal, the constraints defined by its zeros and Hessian zeros determine all directions in which to search for witnesses having more zeros or Hessian zeros. A finite number of iterated searches in random directions lead to an extremal witness which is usually quadratic with the minimum number of zeros. We discuss some topics related to extremal witnesses, in particular the relation between the facial structures of the dual sets of witnesses and separable states. We discuss the relation between extremality and optimality of witnesses, and a conjecture of separability of the structural physical approximation (SPA) of an optimal witness. We discuss how to treat the entanglement witnesses on a complex Hilbert space as witnesses on a real Hilbert space.