Universal Multipartite D-Level Entanglement Witnesses for Realistic Measurement Settings

Entanglement is an essential resource in quantum information science [1] and its presence in any quantum system can be experimentally detected through entanglement witness operators [2]. In particular, measuring a negative expectation value of a witness with high statistical confidence provides a necessary and sufficient condition to confirm the generation of a genuine multipartite [3] and/or d-level entangled state [4]. In recent years, the experimental generation of complex quantum states has intensified the need for witnesses that are capable of detecting such systems and are experimentally optimal at the same time. This means that the witness should require the least measurement effort (in terms of number and complexity of the measurement settings), include only projections on single qudits, while at the same time possessing a high noise tolerance (Fig. 1a). However, "experimentally-friendly" witnesses capable of accomplishing these tasks have not been derived yet.