We present a measure of entanglement that can be computed effectively for any mixed state of an arbitrary bipartite system. We show that it does not increase under local manipulations of the system, and use it to obtain a bound on the teleportation capacity and on the distillable entanglement of mixed states.

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We study a construction that yields a class of translation invariant states on quantum spin chains, characterized by the property that the correlations across any bond can be modeled on a finite-dimensional vector space. These states can be considered as generalized valence bond states, and they are dense in the set of all translation invariant states. We develop a complete theory of the ergodic decomposition of such states, including the decomposition into periodic "Neel ordered" states. The ergodic components have exponential decay of correlations. All states considered can be obtained as "local functions" of states of a special kind, so-called "purely generated states," which are shown to be ground states for suitably chosen finite range VBS interactions. We show that all these generalized VBS models have a spectral gap. Our theory does not require symmetry of the state with respect to a local gauge group. In particular we illustrate our results with a one-parameter family of examples which are not isotropic except for one special case. This isotropic model coincides with the one-dimensional antiferromagnet, recently studied by Affleck, Kennedy, Lieb, and Tasaki.

We show how to compute or at least to estimate various capacity-related quantities for Bosonic Gaussian channels. Among these are the coherent information, the entanglement assisted classical capacity, the one-shot classical capacity, and a new quantity involving the transpose operation, shown to be a general upper bound on the quantum capacity, even allowing for finite errors. All bounds are explicitly evaluated for the case of a one-mode channel with attenuation/amplification and classical noise.

We study the entanglement properties of a closed chain of harmonic oscillators that are coupled via a translationally invariant Hamiltonian, where the coupling acts only on the position operators. We consider the ground state and thermal states of this system, which are Gaussian states. The entanglement properties of these states can be completely characterized analytically when one uses the logarithmic negativity as a measure of entanglement.

Abstract. We construct the unique optimal quantum device for turning a finite number of d-level quantum systems in the same unknown pure state σ into M systems of the same kind, in an approximation of the M -fold tensor product of the state σ.

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We discuss the entanglement properties of bipartite states with Gaussian Wigner functions. Separability and the positivity of the partial transpose are characterized in terms of the covariance matrix of the state, and it is shown that for systems composed of a single oscillator for Alice and an arbitrary number for Bob, positivity of the partial transpose implies separability. However, this implications fails with two oscillators on each side, as we show by a five parameter family of explicit counterexamples.03.65.Bz, 03.67.-a