Compact set of invariants characterizing graph states of up to eight qubits

TL;DR

This paper identifies a minimal set of four invariants that can effectively classify graph states of up to eight qubits, simplifying the process of distinguishing inequivalent entanglement classes.

Contribution

The authors demonstrate that only four specific invariants are necessary to distinguish all inequivalent classes of graph states with fewer than nine qubits, reducing complexity.

Findings

Four invariants suffice for classifying all inequivalent graph states up to eight qubits.

The method simplifies entanglement classification by reducing the number of invariants needed.

The approach improves practical feasibility for analyzing complex quantum states.

Abstract

The set of entanglement measures proposed by Hein, Eisert, and Briegel for n-qubit graph states [Phys. Rev. A 69, 062311 (2004)] fails to distinguish between inequivalent classes under local Clifford operations if n > 6. On the other hand, the set of invariants proposed by van den Nest, Dehaene, and De Moor (VDD) [Phys. Rev. A 72, 014307 (2005)] distinguishes between inequivalent classes, but contains too many invariants (more than 2 10^{36} for n=7) to be practical. Here we solve the problem of deciding which entanglement class a graph state of n < 9 qubits belongs to by calculating some of the state's intrinsic properties. We show that four invariants related to those proposed by VDD are enough for distinguishing between all inequivalent classes with n < 9 qubits.