QUBIT4MATLAB V3.0: A program package for quantum information science and quantum optics for MATLAB

The entanglement of a pure state of a pair of quantum systems is defined as the entropy of either member of the pair. The entanglement of formation of a mixed state is defined as the minimum average entanglement of an ensemble of pure states that represents the given mixed state. An earlier paper [Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 5022 (1997)] conjectured an explicit formula for the entanglement of formation of a pair of binary quantum objects (qubits) as a function of their density matrix, and proved the formula to be true for a special class of mixed states. The present paper extends the proof to arbitrary states of this system and shows how to construct entanglement-minimizing pure-state decompositions.

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.