Localizing entanglement in high-dimensional states

Abstract: In this work, we study the asymptotic behavior of protocols that localize entanglement in large multi-qubit states onto a subset of qubits by measuring the remaining qubits. We use the maximal average n-tangle that can be generated on a fixed subsystem by measuring its complement -- either with local or global measurements -- as our key figure of merit. These quantities are known respectively as the localizable entanglement (LE) and the entanglement of assistance (EA). We build upon the work of [arXiv:2411.04080] that proposed a polynomial-time test, based on the EA, for whether it is possible to transform certain graph states into others using local measurements. We show, using properties of the EA, that this test is effective and useful in large systems for a wide range of sizes of the measured subsystem. In particular, we use this test to demonstrate the surprising result that general local unitaries and global measurements will typically not provide an advantage over the more experimentally feasible local Clifford unitaries and local Pauli measurements in transforming large linear cluster states into GHZ states. Finally, we derive concentration inequalities for the LE and EA over Haar-random states which indicate that the localized entanglement structure has a striking dependence on the locality of the measurement. In deriving these concentration inequalities, we develop several technical tools that may be of independent interest.