English

A measure for genuine tripartite entanglement

Quantum Physics 2026-05-05 v1

Abstract

We introduce a single real-valued functional I(n1,n2)I(\vec{n}_1,\vec{n}_2), built from four three-qubit correlation expectation values, that turns the Greenberger--Horne--Zeilinger (GHZ) algebraic paradox into a \emph{quantitative} witness of genuine tripartite entanglement. We prove that for every three-qubit state ρ\rho and every pair of measurement directions I(n1,n2;ρ)2|I(\vec{n}_1,\vec{n}_2;\rho)|\le 2, with the bound saturated if and only if the two measurement bases are mutually unbiased and ρ\rho is locally unitarily equivalent to the GHZ state. We obtain a closed-form expression for I(x^,y^)I(\hat{x},\hat{y}) on the five-parameter Ac\'in canonical family of three-qubit pure states. For the W state we show that I(x^,y^)=0I(\hat{x},\hat{y})=0 and that maxn1,n2IW=35/271.296\max_{\vec{n}_1,\vec{n}_2}| I_{W}|=35/27\approx 1.296, strictly below the GHZ value. The induced quantity ranges in [0,1][0,1], equals one only on the GHZ class, and is therefore a device-independent indicator of GHZ-type genuine tripartite correlation. We also outline a generalisation of II to three-qudit systems built from the Heisenberg--Weyl operators, recovering the standard qubit construction when d=2d=2.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.02876,
  title  = {A measure for genuine tripartite entanglement},
  author = {Shengjun Wu and Kaichen Zhong and Jeffery Wu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.02876},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

8 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-07-01T12:49:00.113Z