Robust and Fragile Entanglement of Three Qubits: Relation to Permutation Symmetry

Entanglement properties of a basic set of eight entangled three particle pure states possessing certain permutation symmetries are studied. They fall into four sets of two entangled states, differing in their patterns of robustness to entanglement when one of the states is lost. These features are related to the permutation symmetries of the spin states of the three particles and their corresponding marginal two-particle states. It is interesting to note that the eight entangled three-qubit states discussed here are eigenstates of a three-spin Heisenberg Hamiltonian.