Indistinguishability of bipartite states by positive-partial-transpose operations in the many-copy scenario
Yinan Li, Xin Wang, Runyao Duan · Physical Review A · 2017
A bipartite subspace $S$ is called strongly positive-partial-transpose (PPT) unextendible if for every positive integer $k$, there is no PPT operator supporting on the orthogonal complement of ${S}^{\ensuremath{\bigotimes}k}$. We show that a subspace is strongly PPT unextendible if it contains a PPT-definite operator (a positive semidefinite operator whose partial transpose is positive definite). Based on these, we are able to propose a simple criterion for verifying whether a set of bipartite orthogonal quantum states is indistinguishable by PPT operations in the many-copy scenario. Utilizing this criterion, we further point out that any entangled pure state and its orthogonal complement cannot be distinguished by PPT operations in the many-copy scenario. On the other hand, we investigate that the minimum dimension of strongly PPT-unextendible subspaces in an $m\ensuremath{\bigotimes}n$ system is $m+n\ensuremath{-}1$, which involves a generalization of the result that non-positive-partial-transpose subspaces can be as large as any entangled subspace [N. Johnston, Phys. Rev. A 87, 064302 (2013)].