Distribution of Bipartite and Tripartite Entanglement within a Spin-1/2 Heisenberg Star in a Magnetic Field

Abstract

The spatial distribution of entanglement within a spin-1/2 Heisenberg star composed from a single central spin and three peripheral spins is examined in the presence of an external magnetic field using the Kambe projection method, which allows an exact calculation of the bipartite and tripartite negativity serving as a measure of the bipartite and tripartite entanglement. Apart from a fully separable polarized ground state emergent at high-enough magnetic fields, the spin-1/2 Heisenberg star exhibits at lower magnetic fields three outstanding nonseparable ground states. The first quantum ground state exhibits the bipartite and tripartite entanglement over all possible decompositions of the spin star into any pair or triad of spins, whereby the bipartite and tripartite entanglement between the central and peripheral spins dominates over that between the peripheral spins. The second quantum ground state has a remarkably strong tripartite entanglement between any triad of spins in spite of the lack of bipartite entanglement. The central spin of the spin star is separable from the remaining three peripheral spins within the third quantum ground state, where the peripheral spins are subject to the strongest tripartite entanglement arising from a two-fold degenerate W-state.