6–11 Dec 2026
Stellenbosch University
Africa/Johannesburg timezone

Triangle Criterion: a mixed-state magic criterion with applications in distillation and detection

Not scheduled
20m
Jan Mouton Learning Centre (Stellenbosch University)

Jan Mouton Learning Centre

Stellenbosch University

Poster

Speaker

Zhenhuan Liu

Description

We introduce a mixed-state magic criterion, the Triangle Criterion, which plays a role for magic analogous to the Positive Partial Transposition (PPT) Criterion for entanglement: it combines strong detection capability, a clear geometric interpretation, and an operational link to magic distillation. Using this criterion, we uncover several new features of multi-qubit magic distillation and detection. We prove that genuinely multi-qubit magic distillation protocols are strictly more powerful than all single-qubit schemes by showing that the Triangle Criterion is not stable under tensor products. Moreover, we show that, with overwhelming probability, multi-qubit magic states with relatively low rank cannot be distilled by any single-qubit distillation protocol. We derive an upper bound on the minimal purity of magic states, which is conjectured to be tight with both numerical and constructive evidence. Using this minimal-purity result, we predict the existence of unfaithful magic states, namely states that cannot be detected by any fidelity-based magic witness, and reveal fundamental limitations of mixed-state magic detection in any single-copy scheme.

Topic Theoretical foundations of quantum learning

Authors

Ingo Roth (Technology Innovation Institute) Qi Ye (Tsinghua University) Tobias Haug (Technology Innovation Institute) Zhenhuan Liu Zi-Wen Liu (Tsinghua University)

Presentation materials