Entanglement Breaking Channels

Abstract

This paper studies the class of stochastic maps, or channels, for which (I⊗Φ)(Γ) is always separable (even for entangled Γ). Such maps are called entanglement breaking, and can always be written in the form Φ(ρ)=∑kRkTr Fkρ where each Rkis a density matrix and Fk>0. If, in addition, Φ is trace-preserving, the {Fk} must form a positive operator valued measure (POVM). Some special classes of these maps are considered and other characterizations given.Since the set of entanglement-breaking trace-preserving maps is convex, it can be characterized by its extreme points. The only extreme points of the set of completely positive trace preserving maps which are also entanglement breaking are those known as classical-quantum or CQ. However, for d≥3, the set of entanglement breaking maps has additional extreme points which are not extreme CQ maps.