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If I have a bipartite system of two qubits $A$ and $B$, and the density matrix $\rho$ is separable, how do I decompose it into its separable parts?

That is, give $\rho$, expand it as follows:

$$\rho = \sum_{i=0}^Np_i \ \rho_{i}^A \otimes \rho_{i}^B $$

Where $0 \le p_i \le 1$ and $\rho^{A,\ B}_i$ are density matrices on the two subsystems $A$ and $B $ for some $N$.


Cross-posted on physics.SE

glS
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Bard
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    it's nontrivial in general. Though it depends a lot on whether further assumptions are considered (eg whether you're asking for a minimal decomposition, a decomposition using only pure states, etc). Numerically there should be a way to obtain a decomposition, following the proof of the minimum number of terms sufficient to decompose any state via Caratheodory (though it will probably scale badly with the state dimension). Related posts are https://quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com/q/11525/55, https://quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com/q/5956/55 – glS Nov 06 '22 at 19:10
  • also related: https://quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com/q/5564/55, https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/399675/58382, https://quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com/q/25810/55, https://quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com/q/13031/55 – glS Nov 06 '22 at 19:11
  • I've offered a solution for the question on physics.SE, which you may like to check out (I'm not sure if it's appropriate to Answer here with a link to that answer). – pip Feb 08 '23 at 08:05

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