$su(d)$-squeezing and many-body entanglement geometry in finite-dimensional systems

Abstract

Generalizing the well-known spin-squeezing inequalities, we study the relation between squeezing of collective $N$-particle $su(d)$ operators and many-body entanglement geometry in multi-particle systems. For that aim, we define the set of pseudo-separable states, which are mixtures of products of single-particle states that lie in the $(d^2-1)$-dimensional Bloch sphere but are not necessarily positive semidefinite. We obtain a set of necessary conditions for states of $N$ qudits to be of the above form. Any state that violates these conditions is entangled. We also define a corresponding $su(d)$-squeezing parameter that can be used to detect entanglement in large particle ensembles. Geometrically, this set of conditions defines a convex set of points in the space of first and second moments of the collective $N$-particle $su(d)$ operators. We prove that, in the limit $N\gg 1$, such set is filled by pseudo-separable states, while any state corresponding to a point outside of this set is necessarily entangled. We also study states that are detected by these inequalities: We show that states with a bosonic symmetry are detected if and only if the two-body reduced state violates the positive partial transpose (PPT) criterion. On the other hand, highly mixed states states close to the $su(d)$ singlet are detected which have a separable two-body reduced state and are also PPT with respect to all possible bipartitions. We also provide numerical examples of thermal equilibrium states that are detected by our set of inequalities, comparing the spin-squeezing inequalities with the $su(3)$-squeezing inequalities.