In quantum information theory, an entanglement witness is a functional which distinguishes a specific entangled state from separable ones. Entanglement witnesses can be linear or nonlinear functionals of the density matrix. If linear, then they can also be viewed as observables for which the expectation value of the entangled state is strictly outside the range of possible expectation values of any separable state.
Details
Let a composite quantum system have state space
where
Theorem Let
This is a generalization of the fact that, in real Euclidean space, given a convex set and a point outside, there always exists an affine subspace separating the two. The affine subspace manifests itself as the functional f. In the present context, the family of separable states is a convex set in the space of trace class operators. If ρ is an entangled state (thus lying outside the convex set), then by theorem above, there is a functional f separating ρ from the separable states. It is this functional f, or its identification as an operator, that we call an entanglement witness. There are more than one hyperplane separating a closed convex set and a point lying outside of it. So for an entangled state there are more than one entanglement witnesses. Recall the fact that the dual space of the Banach space of trace-class operators is isomorphic to the set of bounded operators. Therefore we can identify f with a Hermitian operator A. Therefore, modulo a few details, we have shown the existence of an entanglement witness given an entangled state:
Theorem For every entangled state ρ, there exists a Hermitian operator A such that
When both
Theorem A mixed state σ is separable if and only if
for any bounded operator A satisfying
If a state is separable, clearly the desired implication from the theorem must hold. On the other hand, given an entangled state, one of its entanglement witnesses will violate the given condition.
Thus if a bounded functional f of the trace-class Banach space and f is positive on the product pure states, then f, or its identification as a Hermitian operator, is an entanglement witness. Such a f indicates the entanglement of some state.
Using the isomorphism between entanglement witnesses and non-completely positive maps, it was shown (by the Horodecki's) that
Theorem A mixed state