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# Physics Signatures at CLIC

## 1 Introduction

The Clic concept aims for a linear collider providing collisions at centre-of-mass energies in the range 1 TeV $`<\sqrt{s}<`$ 5 TeV, with a luminosity of $`10^{35}`$ cm-2 s-1 at $`\sqrt{s}`$ = 3 TeV, based on the two-beam acceleration scheme . While opening a new domain for experimentation at $`e^+e^{}`$ colliders, Clic also presents new challenges compared to any other linear collider project, due to its different regime of operation, thus requiring a significant effort in the optimisation of its parameters and assessing the implications of the machine induced backgrounds on its physics potential.

The definition of its physics programme still requires essential data that is likely to become available only after the first years of Lhc operation and, possibly, also the results from a lower energy linear collider such as Tesla . At present we have to envisage several possible scenarios for the fundamental questions to be addressed by HEP experiments in the second decade of the new century.

In this note a set of benchmark physics signatures for the optimisation of the Clic parameters are proposed. Each of these signatures may signal the manifestation of different scenarios of new physics, possibly beyond those that we are able to define today. The optimisation of the machine design and the study of its potential for each of them will also guarantee a more general applicability to other processes, characterised by similar topologies.

Furthermore, while considering experimentation at a multi-TeV collider, it is interesting to verify to which extent extrapolations of the experimental techniques, successfully developed at Lep and being refined in the studies for the Tesla project, are still applicable. This has important consequences on the requirements for the experimental conditions at the Clic interaction region and for the definition of the Clic physics potential.

## 2 Physics Signatures

These considerations have motivated a preliminary investigation of physics signatures at Clic that are characteristic of one or more physics scenarios of interest and relevant to specific aspects of the accelerator performances and/or of the detector response. Four physics signatures have been identified:

1. Resonance Scan
2. Electro-weak Fits
3. Multi-Jet Final States
4. Missing Energy and Forward Processes

In the following, these are discussed in some details on the basis of the first results of dedicated simulations of several relevant physics processes. The cross sections have been estimated using the CompHep program  and the simulated events generated using the Pythia-6 Monte Carlo  (see Figure 1).

Events have been passed through either a parametric smearing using the Simdet program  or a full Geant-3  based simulation. In both cases the detector design and its performances have been assumed to correspond to those of the detector designed for the Tesla linear collider Conceptual Design Report . In view of the different energy and backgrounds here considered for Clic, the strength of the magnetic field and the radius of the detector layer closer to the beam pipe have been changed from 3 T to 4-6 T and from 1.5 cm to $``$ 3.0 cm respectively.

The expected luminosity spectrum and $`\gamma \gamma `$ background have been obtained from the GuineaPig simulation, with the Clic reference parameters at $`\sqrt{s}`$ = 3 TeV , and interfaced to Pythia with the Calypso and Hades programs respectively .

### 2.1 Resonance Scan

The most striking manifestation of new physics in the multi-TeV region will come from the sudden increase of the $`e^+e^{}f\overline{f}`$ cross section signalling the s-channel production of a new particle. There are several scenarios predicting new resonances in the mass range of interests for Clic. The first one is the existence of extra gauge bosons such as a $`Z^{}`$ boson. This is common to both GUT-inspired $`E_6`$ models and to Left-Right symmetric models. A $`Z^{}`$ boson within the kinematical reach of Clic should be already observable at the Lhc and Clic will concentrate on the accurate measurements of its properties by a direct resonance scan and by the electro-weak fits discussed in the next section. It is interesting to note that a recent re-analysis of data on atomic parity violation shows that the observed 2.8 $`\sigma `$ deviation from the SM prediction  can be explained by a $`Z^{}`$ boson with mass in the range 0.6 TeV/$`c^2`$ $`<M(Z^{})<`$ 1.5 TeV/$`c^2`$ that is compatible with the present limits .

New resonances are also predicted by new theories of gravity with extra dimensions in the form of Kaluza-Klein graviton and gauge boson excitations. Their phenomenology at the TeV scale has been analysed  and the results can be extended to the case of the Clic multi-TeV collider. Models of dynamical electro-weak symmetry breaking also predict the existence of new resonances in the TeV region. In particular the degenerate BESS model introduces a pair of narrow and nearly degenerate vector and an axial-vector resonances . The study of such resonances will have to establish their nature, to accurately determine their mass and width and to disentangle a wide resonance from the superposition of two nearly degenerate states.

Most relevant to the resonance scan signature are the characteristics of the luminosity spectrum and the ability to perform jet flavour identification.

A preliminary study of on-shell $`Z^{}`$ production at CLIC has been performed already based on parametric smearing. $`e^+e^{}Z^{}`$ events have been generated for $`M(Z^{})`$ = 3.0 TeV/$`c^2`$ including ISR, beam energy spectrum and $`\gamma \gamma `$ backgrounds assuming SM-like couplings, corresponding to a width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_Z^{}`$ 90 GeV/$`c^2`$. Due to the large signal cross-section over a flat background and the large Clic luminosity, a precise study of the mass, width and couplings can be performed. The mass and width of resonance can be determined by performing either an energy scan, like the $`Z^0`$ scan performed at Lep/Slc and foreseen for the $`t\overline{t}`$ threshold, or an auto-scan, by tuning the collision energy just beyond the top of the resonance and profiting of the long tail of the luminosity spectrum to probe the resonance peak. For the first method both di-jet and di-lepton final states can be considered, while for the auto-scan only $`\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ final states may provide with the necessary accuracy for the $`Z^{}`$ energy. Preliminary results are shown in Figure 4. Assuming an integrated luminosity of 1000 fb-1, corresponding to one year of Clic running at its nominal luminosity, a relative statistical accuracy of $`\pm 5\times 10^5`$ for the mass and of $`\pm 3\times 10^3`$ for the total width can be obtained.

### 2.2 Electro-weak Fits

If a new resonance, such as a $`Z^{}`$, will have been found at the Lhc or at a lower energy linear collider, the Clic physics programme will be largely focused on the precise study of its nature via the measurement of its fundamental properties. This will closely follow the Lep physics programme at the $`Z^0`$ peak. The main issue in these studies will be the determination of the nature of the observed resonance. A precise study of its couplings to up- and down-type quarks and of forward-backward asymmetries may be instrumental in this program. As an example, the nearly degenerate Kaluza-Klein excitations of the $`Z`$ and $`\gamma `$  or the $`L_3`$ and $`R_3`$ resonances of the BESS model need to be distinguished from a $`Z^{}`$ boson.

Even if such a resonance is not found, precise electro-weak data for $`\sigma (e^+e^{}f\overline{f})`$, $`A_{FB}^{f\overline{f}}`$ and $`A_{LR}^{f\overline{f}}`$ (with $`f\overline{f}`$ = $`\mathrm{}^+\mathrm{}^{}`$, $`c\overline{c}`$, $`b\overline{b}`$, $`t\overline{t}`$) at $`\sqrt{s}`$ = 1 - 5 TeV may give indirect evidence of new phenomena such as an heavier $`Z^{}`$ well beyond the Clic kinematical limit, extra-dimensions or contact interactions. It is therefore important to ensure that accurate electro-weak data can be obtained.

The main experimental requirements highlighted by electro-weak fits are the identification of the $`e^+e^{}f\overline{f}`$ from $`\gamma \gamma \mathrm{hadrons}`$ final states, the ability to reconstruct and tag the fermions down to small polar angles, in presence of a significant $`\gamma \gamma `$ hadrons background, the reconstruction of the colliding $`e^+e^{}`$ rest frame in presence of large beamstrahlung and the possibility to obtain highly polarised $`e^{}`$ and $`e^+`$ beams.

Good examples of the Clic potential are given by the sensitivity to a heavy $`Z^{}`$ and to extra-dimensions. Direct or indirect evidence of an additional neutral gauge boson will require a detailed study of its couplings to determine the underlying extended gauge structure. Extrapolating the results of a previous study on extra dimensions based on the forward-backward asymmetry $`A_{fb}`$ in $`e^+e^{}b\overline{b}`$ , the Clic sensitivity for $`M_S`$, representing the scale at which gravity becomes strong, is given by $`7\times \sqrt{s}`$ (TeV) if the $`b\overline{b}`$ final state can be identified efficiently.

Therefore, the identification of $`b\overline{b}`$ and $`c\overline{c}`$ final states represents an important benchmark process also at Clic. At 3 TeV $`\sigma (e^+e^{}b\overline{b})`$ is only of the order of 0.01 pb but the heavy hadrons receive a significant boost to acquire decay distances in space of several centimetres, i.e. an order of magnitude larger compared to those at Lep energies.

This has important experimental consequences. The long decay distance of $`B`$ hadrons, exceeding the anticipated radii of the first layers of the Vertex Tracker, suggests a tagging algorithm based on the topological tag of secondary vertices rather than on large track impact parameters as performed at Lep. A beauty tag based on the change in charged multiplicity detected through the layers of a Si Vertex Tracker, that applies to Clic a concept originally developed in charm photo-production experiments , has been proposed . Such a tag can be part of the track pattern recognition that still needs to be studied in full details in the challenging environment produced by the high jet collimation and background hits from pair and $`\gamma \gamma \mathrm{hadrons}`$ production. This represents an important benchmark for the design of the vertex and main trackers. Different silicon pixel technologies have been proposed for the Vertex Tracker at Tesla and Nlc . Assuming a 25 ns time stamping capability, such as for the LHC hybrid pixel sensors, the Vertex Tracker integrates about 30 bunch crossing corresponding to an hit density due to pairs of $``$ 0.17 mm-1 at 3.0 cm that becomes $``$ 0.8 mm-1 if the full train of 154 bunches is integrated . These rates appear to be manageable for a Vertex Tracker with redundant radial measurements and small enough cell size.

The resolution for extrapolating a particle track to its production point has been estimated assuming the first sensitive layer at 3.0 cm radius, a single point resolution of 8 $`\mu `$m and 250 $`\mu `$m sensor thickness that represent realistic assumptions for a Vertex Tracker based on hybrid pixel sensors . The result is shown in Figure 5 as a function of the particle momentum.

### 2.3 Multi-Jet Final States

Multi-jet final states are a common signature for many physics processes from heavy Higgs pair production to $`WW`$ scattering. Evolving from the $`Z^0`$ peak to multi-TeV c.m. collisions, the number of jets increases due to gluon radiation and the crossing of thresholds for multi-fermion final state production.

There are several physics processes of possible interest at Clic energies characterised by multi-jet final states. In the Higgs sector, the reconstruction of the Higgs potential, requiring the determination of the triple and quartic Higgs couplings through the measurement of double and triple Higgs production diagrams, and the study of the Higgs Top-Yukawa coupling will be required to complete the Higgs profile investigation and as proof of the Higgs mechanism of mass generation. The small values of the cross sections for these processes will require the large collision energies and integrated luminosities that can be achieved at Clic . Even for a Higgs boson as light as 120 GeV/$`c^2`$, the $`e^+e^{}\nu _e\overline{\nu }_eHH`$ cross section is only 0.05 fb at $`\sqrt{s}`$ = 0.8 TeV and becomes 0.92 fb at $`\sqrt{s}`$ = 3.0 TeV. The triple Higgs production is suppressed by a factor of $`10^3`$. Clic could produce enough of these events for the triple Higgs couplings to be determined to better than 10% and to obtain also information on the elusive quartic coupling.

As another example, the heavy Higgs sector in SUSY models may require a multi-TeV collider for accessing $`e^+e^{}H^+H^{}`$ and $`H^0A^0`$ pair production. As indicated in Table 4, these processes are characterised by large jet multiplicities that need to be properly handled in order to isolate the small expected signals. Multi-jet final states probe the detector performance in terms of two particle separation and energy flow, while the broad luminosity spectrum represents a source of inaccuracy when performing constrained fits and the large $`\gamma \gamma `$ hadrons background expected at Clic may confuse the topological event reconstruction adding or smearing jets in the forward regions.

The anticipated large jet multiplicity and boost make it necessary to reconsider the definition of jet clustering, intra-jet and inter-jet particles. In particular for processes like $`e^+e^{}W^+W^{}`$, with a cross-section of 0.5 pb at $`\sqrt{s}`$ = 3 TeV, the jet collimation may make the resolution of the individual charged and neutral particles problematic. Figure 6 shows the distance from the closest track for a charged particle with $`p>`$ 3 GeV/$`c`$ at different radial distances from the interaction point, while Figure 7 shows the energy flow at the entrance of a calorimeter located at a radius of 170 cm for a typical $`W^+W^{}`$ hadronic decay.

These considerations seem to favour an inclusive approach where hadronic jets are reconstructed as elementary objects in the calorimeters. On the other hand, jet pairing ambiguity in channels with large jet multiplicity and heavy quark identification make jet flavour and charge identification highly important in order to suppress the combinatorial and multi-fermion backgrounds. This in turn requires efficient and accurate tracking capabilities in collimated hadronic jets.

### 2.4 Missing Energy and Forward Processes

The detector ability to identify events with large missing energy is an important requisite since this is the main signature for production and decay of supersymmetric particles, such as $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}^+\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}^{}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }^+\stackrel{~}{\chi }^{}`$, and a possible complement in the study of the Higgs sector through invisible decays.

In particular the search for $`e^+e^{}\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}^+\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}^{}`$ at $`\sqrt{s}>`$ 1 TeV will fully cover the region of the $`(m_{1/2},m_0)`$ MSSM parameter plane preferred by the LSP cosmological relic density .

Processes whose production cross section is peaked in the forward region, such as Higgs production in $`WW`$ and $`ZZ`$ fusion, are also important and their observability must be guaranteed. Finally, the study of $`W^+W^{}W^+W^{}`$ and $`W^+W^{}Z^0Z^0`$ cross sections probes the possible dynamics of strong electro-weak symmetry breaking at $`\sqrt{s}>`$ 1 TeV . In order to ensure an efficient rejection of the $`e^+e^{}W^+W^{}`$ and $`e^\pm \nu W^\pm Z^0`$ backgrounds, electron detection capabilities must be ensured down to small polar angles.

These requisites have to be verified against the significant $`\gamma \gamma `$ background that limits the event reconstruction at small angles. The effect of the $`\gamma \gamma `$ background has been studied by tracking the $`\gamma \gamma `$ hadrons products using the full Geant simulation and recording the measured $`E`$ and $`E_T`$ assuming a detector polar angle coverage down to 150 or 80 mrad. The results are shown in Figure 9. It is observed that, while the energy deposition is very significant, the observed transverse energy is limited at about 100 GeV.

Higgs production via $`ZZ`$ fusion in the process $`e^+e^{}H^0e^+e^{}`$ has been investigated for $`M_H`$ = 600 GeV/$`c^2`$. At high $`\sqrt{s}`$ and large values of the Higgs mass the $`ZZ`$ fusion process is favourable to study an exotic or invisibly decaying Higgs. If the $`e^+e^{}`$ in the final state can be tagged, this process allows to identify Higgs decays by the recoil mass independently of the Higgs decay modes and benefits of a production cross section of 30 fb to 15 fb for Higgs masses in the range 400 GeV/$`c^2`$ to 900 GeV/$`c^2`$ compared to $``$ 1.5 fb for the Higgs-strahlung $`HZ`$ process. Figure 10 shows the production polar angle for the electron and positron peaking at $``$ 50 mrad. Assuming tagging and tracking capabilities extending to 120 mrad, for electron with energy exceeding 700 GeV, the $`e^+e^{}`$ recoil mass can be used to isolate the Higgs signal also when accounting for the mass peak broadening due to the luminosity spectrum.

## 3 Conclusions

A first survey of signatures for physics processes of potential interests at the Clic $`e^+e^{}`$ linear collider at $`\sqrt{s}`$ 3 TeV has been performed. Four physics signatures have been identified: i) Resonance Scan, ii) Electro-weak Fits, iii) Multi-Jet Final States and iv) Missing Energy and Forward Processes and examples of reference reactions have been identified to test the effect of the accelerator parameters and of the detector response on the Clic physics potential.

## Acknowledgements

I am grateful to S. De Curtis, D. Dominici, J. Ellis, A. De Roeck, G. Guignard, D. Schulte, R. Settles, D. Treille and G. Wilson for ideas and suggestions on several topics discussed in this note.


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# Bound entanglement for continuous variables is a rare phenomenon

## I Introduction

Bound entanglement  is the entanglement which cannot be distilled, i.e. no pure state entanglement can be obtained from it by means of local operations and classical communication (LOCC). So far, it has been studied mainly for spin like systems. These studies has allowed to discover many interesting properties of bound entanglement, for both bipartite, and multiparticle systems. Recently, much attention has been devoted continuous variable (CV) systems (c.f. ). Bound entanglement has also been considered for continuous variables (CV), and the first nontrivial examples of BES for CV have been constructed (see also ). Once we have some examples of BES for CV, it is interesting to ask how frequent is the phenomenon of bound entanglement, i. e. how many states of that kind are in set of all CV states?

The question of ”how many quantum states having some interesting property are there?” is very natural. In the context of entanglement it was first considered in Ref. , where the problem of the volume of the subset of separable (non–entangled) states in the set of all bipartite states of spin systems was considered. Numerical evidence has shown that the volume of the set of separable states approaches zero when the size of the spin goes to infinity. It was also shown that for any finite spin system the volume of separable states is nonzero due to the existence of a separable neighborhood, i.e. an open ball of separable states in the vicinity of the maximally mixed state in arbitrary dimension. Further first analystical bounds on the size of neighbourhood have been provided . All this raised a series of questions concerning the interpretation of experiments of quantum computing based on high temperature NMR; many interesting analyses have been performed in this context .

The question of the “size” of the set representing separable states has been recently answered  for CV; it has been show that for bipartite states this subset is nowhere dense (relative to the trace–norm topology). This implies that this set does not contain any open ball and also that CV states are generically non–separable. On the other hand there exists another subset that is of interest in the context of entanglement. This is the subset of of non–distillable states (NDS), i.e. states that cannot be distilled. This subset contains the separable states, and therefore it might well be that an appreciable fraction of all states are in such a subset. In this paper we show that this is not the case; that is, the subset of NDS is nowhere dense in the set of bipartite states of CV. We present two different proofs of this fact. One uses the uniform topology, and the other one the trace–norm topology.

We also perform analsysis how one can relax conditions of NDS in context of CV in comparison with the standard definition, and prove stronger version of the main result with help of Schmidt numbers theory  and single copy regime (see ).

There are several results which follow from our proofs. In particular, since the subset of NDS contains the subset of BES, we have that that subset is also nowhere dense. The same thing occurs with the subset of states with positive partial transpose (PPT)  and therefore with with those PPT states that are entangled. Moreover, since the subset of separable states is also contained in the one of NDS, our results include the ones given in Ref. .

## II Bound entangled states for continuous variables

The main subject of this paper is the question about whether generic CV states are non–distillable. We present below the answer to this question: the subset of NDS is nowhere dense. In this section we first discuss the definition of NDS. Then, we present two proofs of our result. First, it will be proven using the uniform topology and exploiting the fact that any density operator can be considered as the limit of a sequence of density operators defined on a finite support. Then, following the approach of Ref.  we shall prove the general statement that any proper closed subset of bipartite states which is invariant under local transformations is nowhere dense (in the trace norm topology). This generalizes the results of Ref.  and, as we shall see, together with the fact that the set of NDS is closed, proves our claims.

### A Bound entangled states

Let us denote by $`M`$ set of all density operators acting on $`H_AH_B`$, where $`H_AH_BL^2(R)`$. Let us consider a density operator $`\rho M`$. According to Ref. , $`\rho `$ is distillable  iff there exists some finite $`nN`$, two rank two projectors $`P_A,P_B`$ acting on $`H_A,H_B`$, respectively, such that

$$((P_AP_B)\rho ^n(P_AP_B))^{T_B}0;$$
(1)
otherwise, $`\rho `$ is non–distillable. We call $`D`$ and $`N`$ the set of all distillable and non–distillable density operators, respectively. Physically, this definition tells us that a state is distillable iff out of a sufficiently large number of copies we can obtain by local operations two qubits which are entangled. The reason for that is clear. First, given the fact that one can distill maximally entangled states out of all entangled states of qubits, this means that if the above condition is true, we can always distill maximally entangled qubit states out of the original state $`\rho `$. Second, if the above condition is not fulfilled for any $`n`$, then we will not be able to produce (asymptotically) any qubit maximally entangled state by using local operations alone.

In the following we will reexpress Eq. (1) as follows:

$$ϵ\mathrm{\Psi }|((P_AP_B)\rho ^n(P_AP_B))^{T_B}|\mathrm{\Psi }<0$$
(2)
for some $`|\mathrm{\Psi }H_AH_B`$. Without loosing generality we can take $`|\mathrm{\Psi }=P_AP_B^{T_B}|\mathrm{\Psi }`$, i.e. $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ belongs to the $`22`$ subspace determined by $`P_A,P_B^{T_B}`$. It is easy to see then that

$$(|\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{\Psi }|)^{T_B}=\underset{k=1}{\overset{4}{}}\lambda _k|\varphi _k\varphi _k|,$$
(3)
where $`1/2\lambda _k1`$, i.e. $`|\lambda _k|1`$ and the $`|\varphi _k`$ are also in the same $`2\times 2`$ subspace.

### B Bound entangled states for CV are nowhere dense: Proof I

In this subsection we show that the set $`N`$ of NDS states is nowhere dense in the set of all states $`M`$. We will first recall some definitions. A subset $`A`$ of a topological space $`X`$ is nowhere dense if its closure contains no open set. Note that if $`A`$ is already closed then it is nowhere dense iff it contains no open set. For example, the subset of integer numbers $`Z`$ in $`R`$ (with the topology induced by the absolute value metric) is nowhere dense since it is already close and no neighborhood of any integer contains only integers.

In this subsection we will use the uniform topology for operators, which is the one derived from the operator norm. First we will show that $`N`$ is closed with that topology by proving that its complement, $`D`$, is open. Then, we will show that $`D`$ is dense in the set of all density operators. From this last point it follows that $`N`$ (equivalently, its closure) contains no open set and therefore it is nowhere dense.

In order to show that $`D`$ is open, let us consider some $`\rho D`$. According to the definition of $`D`$, there exists some finite integer $`n`$, and a Schmidt rank two state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }H_AH_B`$ such that Eq. (2) is fulfilled with (3). Let us consider an open ball $`B_\eta (\rho )=\{\rho ^{},\rho ^{}\rho <\eta \}`$. We will show that for $`\eta <|ϵ|/4n`$, $`B_\eta (\rho )D`$.

To this aim we argue that

$`\left|\mathrm{\Psi }|((P_AP_B)(\rho ^n(\rho ^{})^n)(P_AP_B))^{T_B}|\mathrm{\Psi }\right|`$ (4)
$`=\left|{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{4}{}}}\lambda _k\varphi _k|\rho ^n(\rho ^{})^n|\varphi _k\right|`$ (5)
$`4\rho ^n(\rho ^{})^n4\eta n.`$ (6)
The latter inequality can be proven by induction, using the identity

$`\rho ^n(\rho ^{})^n`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(\rho ^{n1}+(\rho ^{})^{n1})(\rho \rho ^{})`$ (7)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(\rho ^{n1}(\rho ^{})^{n1})(\rho +\rho ^{}),`$ (8)
and the fact that both $`\rho `$ and $`\rho ^{}`$ are smaller than one. Thus, if $`\eta <|ϵ|/4n`$, we see that for any $`\rho ^{}B_\eta (\rho )`$,

$$\mathrm{\Psi }|((P_AP_B)(\rho ^{})^n(P_AP_B))^{T_B}|\mathrm{\Psi }<0,$$
(9)
ergo $`\rho ^{}`$ is distillable.

Now we show that $`D`$ is dense in $`M`$. To this aim we observe that for any $`\rho M`$ we can always find a sequence $`\{\rho _n\}_{n=0}^{\mathrm{}}`$, with $`\rho _nD`$ such that $`\rho _n\stackrel{u}{}\rho `$. We consider the spectral decomposition of $`\rho `$ as

$$\rho =\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}p_n|\mathrm{\Psi }_n\mathrm{\Psi }_n|,$$
(10)
where we have chosen $`p_1p_2,\mathrm{}`$. Note that since $`\rho `$ is a trace class operator, the sequence $`p_n`$ converges monotonically to zero. On the other hand, we can write the Schmidt decomposition of each $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_n`$ as

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }_n=\underset{k=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\sqrt{\lambda _{n,k}}|u_{n,k},v_{n,k},$$
(11)
where again we have chosen $`\lambda _{n,k}\lambda _{n,k+1}0`$ and $`\lambda _{n,k}`$ converges monotonically to zero as $`k\mathrm{}`$. Now, we define

$$\stackrel{~}{\rho }_N\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}p_n|\mathrm{\Psi }_{N,n}\mathrm{\Psi }_{N,n}|,$$
(12)
where

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }_{N,n}=\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}\sqrt{\lambda _{n,k}}|u_{n,k},v_{n,k}.$$
(13)
It is clear that $`\stackrel{~}{\rho }_N`$ is supported on $`H_A^NH_B^N`$, where both $`H_A^N`$ have finite dimension. Thus, we can always find two pairs of orthogonal vectors $`|a_{1,2}^NH_AH_A^N`$ and $`|b_{1,2}^NH_BH_B^N`$. Let us define $`|\mathrm{\Phi }^N=(|a_1,b_1+|a_2,b_2)/\sqrt{2}`$ and

$$\rho _N=K_N(\stackrel{~}{\rho }_N+\frac{1}{N}|\mathrm{\Phi }^N\mathrm{\Phi }^N|),$$
(14)
where $`K_N`$ is a normalization constant. It is clear that $`\rho _N\stackrel{N\mathrm{}}{}\rho `$. On the other hand, defining

$`P_A^N`$ $`=`$ $`|a_1a_1|+|a_2a_2|,`$ (16)
$`P_B^N`$ $`=`$ $`|b_1b_1|+|b_2b_2|`$ (17)
and taking $`n=1`$ it is clear that $`\rho _ND`$. This completes the proof. $`\mathrm{}`$

Obviously the fact that the set of NDS states for CV is nowhere dense, implies that the contained in it sets of BES and PPT states are also nowhere dense. One can, however, prove the latter directly using the method used above. The only difference would be that the state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ which in above proof belongs to a $`22`$ subspace has to be substituted by a general vector $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ of arbitrary Schmidt rank, but at the same time there is no need to consider $`n`$-fold tensor products, since the PPT property of $`\rho `$ is maintained for arbitrary number of its copies. One has to use, however, the property of the partially transposed projector $`(|\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{\Psi }|)^{T_B}1`$.

### C Bound entangled states for CV are nowhere dense: Proof II

In order to demonstrate the statement of the previous section in another way, we first need to recall notions of several necessary tools, which have been used in Ref. . Let $`(_1)(_2)`$ stand for bounded operators on Hilbert space $`=_1_2`$ describing our bipartite system. We assume that at least one of the subsystems is described by CV, and hence it has the infinite dimension.

Now, consider a third auxiliary system described by $`_3`$. It is convenient to describe all states in $`=_1_2`$ as reduced states of some pure states in the extended space $`_3`$. If we have a pure state $`|v_{123}v_{123}|`$ in the extended space, then the reduced state $`\mathrm{Tr}_3(|v_{123}v_{123}|)`$ is denoted by $`\varrho _{12}`$. Let us denote by $`𝒯`$ the set of all states on $`(_1)(_2)`$. This is a set of unit trace operators with nonnegative spectrum. We shall also endow this set with the norm topology $`||||_T`$ , $`A_T\mathrm{Tr}(\sqrt{A^{}A})`$. Now, one defines  the map $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ from the unit sphere $`𝒮`$ representing all wavefunctions form $`_3`$ to the set of states $`𝒯`$ in the following way :

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(v_{123})=\mathrm{Tr}_3(|v_{123}v_{123}|)=\varrho _{12}.$$
(18)
The map $`\mathrm{\Phi }:𝒮𝒯`$ is continuous (in the norm $`||||_T`$) and onto. In particular it maps dense subsets onto dense subsets (see  for explanation).

Consider the set $`𝒳`$ of all vectors $`u_{123}=AII(v_{123})`$ for all $`A(_1)`$. The vector $`v_{123}`$ is called 1-cyclic  (see ) if the closure of $`𝒳`$ in the norm $`||||_T`$ turns out to be the whole space $`_1_2_3`$. The physical interpretation of 1-cyclic vectors in both finite dimensional, as well as in the CV case, is that those are the vectors which have maximal possible Schmidt rank. Note, that according to Lemma 2 of Ref.  they form a dense set in $`_1_2_3`$.

Now we consider the following simple

Observation 1.- Let the set $`𝒩𝒟`$ be (i) a proper closed (in $`||||_T`$ norm) subset of the set of states $`𝒯`$ which is (ii) invariant under the operations $`AI`$. Then any vector $`v_{123}`$ satisfying $`\mathrm{\Phi }(v_{123})𝒩𝒟`$ cannot be 1-cyclic and $`𝒩𝒟`$ is nowhere dense in $`𝒯`$.

The above observation is a natural generalization of the Lemma 1 of Ref. . To show this, consider such vector $`v`$ that its “reduction” $`\mathrm{\Phi }(v)`$ belongs to $`𝒩𝒟`$, and take any vector

$$v^{}=AII(v),$$
(19)
defined for arbitrary $`A`$, such that $`v^{}=1`$. We shall show first that $`\mathrm{\Phi }(v^{})`$ also belongs to $`𝒩𝒟`$. Indeed (see ) we have $`\mathrm{\Phi }(v^{})=AI\mathrm{\Phi }(v)A^{}I`$ and (because the norm of $`v^{}`$ is one) the trace $`\mathrm{\Phi }(v^{})`$ is one. But, because the set $`𝒩𝒟`$ is closed under the operation $`AI()A^{}I`$, we see that $`\mathrm{\Phi }(v^{})`$ still belongs to the set.

Now suppose that $`v`$ were 1-cyclic. Then, that the set $``$ of all vectors $`v^{}`$ would be dense in the unit sphere $`𝒮`$ of all normalized vectors belonging to $`_3`$. As the map $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is continuous and onto, it certainly would map $``$ onto some new set denoted by $`\mathrm{\Phi }()`$, which would be dense in set of all bipartite states $`𝒯`$. Thus closure of $`\mathrm{\Phi }()`$ must have give all $`𝒯`$. But, on the other hand any element of $`\mathrm{\Phi }()`$ (which is defined as $`\mathrm{\Phi }(v^{})`$ for some vector $`v^{}`$ of the form (19)) belongs to $`𝒩𝒟`$. As the latter is closed, the closure of $`\mathrm{\Phi }()`$ would have to be a subset of $`𝒩𝒟`$. But $`𝒩𝒟`$ was supposed to be closed and strictly smaller than the set $`𝒯`$, so the closure of $`\mathrm{\Phi }()`$ cannot be equal to $`𝒯`$. This gives the required contradiction. The above reasoning follows the lines of the proof of Ref. . The only difference is that instead of the specific set of separable states considered there, here we have considered an abstract set $`𝒩𝒟`$, which has some special properties. Note, that the assumptions of Observation 1 and the fact that the 1-cyclic vectors form a dense set in $`𝒮`$ imply that the closed set $`𝒩𝒟`$ is nowhere dense. If it had contained a open set, then, following continuity of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ this open set would have had to be an image of open subset of $`_1_2_3`$, which would have had to contain a ball, an thus a 1-cyclic vector. Now, to show that the set of NDS states is nowhere dense we have to show that it is (i) invariant under local operations of the type $`AI`$, (ii) closed in the trace norm $`||||_T`$. The first property (i) is immediate, since a NDS cannot be converted into a free entangled state by means of local operations. The second one is not so obvious for continuous variables, but it follows from the results of the previous subsection. We thus have:

Observation 2.- The property of non–distillability is invariant under the one side local action $`AI()A^{}I`$.

The proof is simple - the arguments of Ref.  can be applied (see also ) to show that any local separable superoperator cannot cause that the state looses the non–distillability property.

Observation 3.- The set of all NDS is closed in the norm $`||||_T`$ .

To prove the closeness of the set of NDS, we prove that its complement, i.e. the set of distillable states $`D`$ is open in the trace norm. To this aim we repeat the arguments of subsection A and consider some $`\rho D`$, for which there exists some finite integer number $`n`$, $`P_A,P_B`$, rank two projectors acting on $`H_A,H_B`$, and a rank two vector $`|\mathrm{\Psi }H_AH_B`$ such that Eq. (2) is fulfilled. We consider now an open ball in the trace norm, i.e. $`\stackrel{~}{B}_\eta (\rho )=\{\rho ^{},\rho ^{}\rho _T<\eta \}`$. Note that if $`\rho ^{}\stackrel{~}{B}_\eta (\rho )`$ then the operator norm fulfills $`\rho ^{}\rho \rho ^{}\rho _T<\eta `$ . Using the same argument as before we show that for $`\eta <|ϵ|/4n`$, $`\stackrel{~}{B}_\eta (\rho )D`$, which completes the proof. $`\mathrm{}`$

Combining the Observations 1.-3. we see that the set of NDS states is nowhere dense in the trace norm, which implies the same property for the BES, PPT states, and separable states.

## III Analysis

As mentioned in the introduction, non–trivial BES for continuous variables (CV) have been discovered. In this subsection we discuss some of the details regarding these states, as well as whether entangled states in CV with infinite Schmidt number represent are generic in the set of entangled states.

### A Continuous variable bound entangled states

The construction of non-trivial BES for CV systems  was based on an idea similar to the one used for spin systems, for which it has been proven that any entangled state with positive partial transpose cannot be distilled. The crucial element of the construction was to create the state in such a way that it cannot be obtained simply by embedding a bound entangled state in a finite dimensional Hilbert space into the Hilbert space of CV.

The particular example $`\varrho `$ of CV BES proposed by us was first of all assumed to satisfy the condition that its partial transpose $`\varrho ^{T_B}`$, defined as

$$\varrho _{m\mu ,n\nu }^{T_B}m,\mu |\varrho ^{T_B}|n,\nu =\varrho _{m\nu ,n\mu },$$
(20)
has a nonnegative spectrum. Such requirement was, however, not sufficient, as one could invent the following ”trivial” example of a PPT entangled states for CV

$$\stackrel{~}{\sigma }=\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}p_n\sigma _n.$$
(21)
The above state is build from infinitely many “copies” of the same $`33`$ ***Subsequently we shall denote by $`nn`$ states the states of quantum systems defined on the Hilbert space $`=𝒞^n𝒞^n`$. The space will be sometimes called “$`nn`$ space”. BES $`\sigma `$ labeled by $`\sigma _n`$. Each of $`\sigma _n`$ has the matrix elements of the original $`\sigma `$, but in the basis $`S_n=\{|i,j\}_{i,j=3n}^{3n+3}`$. Here $`\{p_i\}_{i=1}^{\mathrm{}}`$ is an infinite sequence of nonzero probabilities, $`_{i=1}^{\mathrm{}}p_i=1`$. The bound entanglement of the CV state $`\stackrel{~}{\sigma }`$ is in a certain sense spurious, as it can in principle be reversibly converted by means of local operations and classical communication into the $`33`$ entanglement.

One could easily construct another example, similar to the one above, with $`\sigma _n`$ acting in $`k_nk_n`$ Hilbert space with $`k_n\mathrm{}`$, and $`\stackrel{~}{\sigma }`$ being block diagonal as in (21). This example is much more interesting as far as CV are concerned, because it can not be reversibly converted into any state of fixed spin. Thus to some extend it might be regarded as generic BE. However, such a state would still be a mixture of “locally orthogonal” spin states, which does not exploit fully the CV Hilbert space structure, i.e. infinite dimension fully. In fact, if such CV BES were produced by a random mixture, they could be easily “decoupled ” by local projective measurements and classical communication.

Thus we propose to define generic BES for CV in a stronger way, namely as the states from which no pure entanglement can be distilled, and they cannot be represented by the states of the above sort.

This is a somewhat phenomenological definition, but it implies to single out some required properties of the generic CV BES. The first nontrivial examples of the generic CV BES, presented in Ref. , fulfill those requirements. These states have the form:

$$\varrho |\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{\Psi }|+\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\underset{m>n}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}|\mathrm{\Psi }_{mn}\mathrm{\Psi }_{mn}|,$$
(22)
with the following definitions of the symbols: $`|\mathrm{\Psi }=_{n=1}^{\mathrm{}}a_n|n,n`$, $`|\mathrm{\Psi }=l^2(𝒞)l^2(𝒞)`$ with the finite norm $`\mathrm{\Psi }^2=_{n=1}^{\mathrm{}}|a_n|^2=q<\mathrm{}`$, and vectors

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }_{mn}=c_ma_n|n,m+(c_m)^1a_m|m,n,$$
(23)
for $`n<m`$ with (in general) complex $`a_n`$ and $`c_n`$, such that (i) $`0<|c_{n+1}|<|c_n|<1`$, (ii) $`_{n=1}^{\mathrm{}}_{m>n}^{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Psi }_{mn}^2`$ is finite. The latter condition can be achieved for example by setting $`a_n=a^n`$, $`c_n=c^n`$, for some $`0<a<c<1`$, see . Physically, the vector $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$, when normalized, may describe a state of two modes of the quantized electromagnetic field, or more generally two harmonic oscillators. The state (22) has the following properties: (i) it is bound entangled, as it has the PPT property (i. e. it has the positive partial transpose); (ii) it is not a simple “direct sum” of finite spin BES in a sense of the “spurious” examples discussed above (Eq. (21)).

Recently considerable attention has been devoted to the so called Gaussian states. In systems of two harmonic oscillator modes (one of Alice, one of Bob), i.e. in the, so called, Gaussian $`1\times 1`$ case, it has been shown that no bound entanglement exists – such Gaussian states are either separable , or distillable . In another words, in this case PPT property is a necessary and sufficient condition for separability, and non-distillability. This result can be extended to the case $`1\times N`$. Soon after realizing this facts Werner and Wolf have found an example of a Gaussian BES with PPT property . This result has been achieved by considering first covariance matrices of Gaussian states and their null subspaces. It was noted that the Gaussian state is separable, iff its covariance matrix can be minorized by some block diagonal covariance matrix. Second, the characterization of PPT states in terms of covariance matrix has been found. The BES has been constructed using an elegant explicit construction, performed using the analysis of the range and the “subtraction method” first developed for spin systems in Refs. . In the terminology of Refs.  the states found in Ref.  are examples of the so called ”edge states”. The approach of Ref.  can be used further to analyze multiparticle entanglement. In particular, one can try to “split” the covariance matrix of $`n\times n`$ state in a way to get $`m\times m\times m`$ state with some bound entanglement properties. Indeed, we have recently managed to solve the separability problem for the case of tripartite system with one mode per each party . The result of Werner and Wolf appeared first a little surprising in the view of Refs. . Recently, some of us have been able to clarify this and solve ultimately the separability  and distillability  problems for Gaussian states of two parties sharing arbitrary number of modes. While the PPT property remains a valid necessary and sufficient condition for non-distillability, the separability criterion has a complex form of a nonlinear map for covariance matrices.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that it is not known yet whether there exist BES which do not have PPT, even though there is a strong indication of this fact . If this were finally true, this would have important implications in the context of distillation , since it may well happen that by mixing two NDS one obtains a distillable one.

### B Question of genericity: the structural point of view

There is one open question whether the given CV entanglement represents a generic entanglement in the sense that it has infinite Schmidt number (see ), i. e. whether it is the limit of matrices whose Schmidt number goes to infinity. This means that, in principle, in order to generate the state, one would have to be able to generate the states of arbitrary Schmidt rank. However, some of the CV BES states similar to “spurious” ones could have also this property - if a finite dimensional $`nn`$ PPT states with Schmidt rank of order $`O(n^\alpha )`$ with some $`0<\alpha 1`$ existed, then we could put in the expression (21) the $`k_nk_n`$ states $`\sigma _n`$ with the rank $`O(k_n^\alpha )`$ where say $`k_{n+1}=2(_{i=1}^nk_n)`$. Thus, we see that in order to describe the generic CV entangled states it seems reasonable to require the stronger version the notion of infinite Schmidt number. Intuitively, it should mean that the pure states with infinite Schmidt rank are necessarily involved in the mixed state representation. One possible definition would be that a generic CV state with infinite Schmidt rank should be necessarily of the form $`\varrho =_ip_i|\mathrm{\Psi }_i\mathrm{\Psi }_i|`$, with $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_i`$ not necessarily orthogonal, but with at least one $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_i`$ of infinite rank. Such states obviously exist – take for instance one pure state of infinte Schmidt rank, or a convex combination of two such states. However, in the above definition the precise notion of the decomposition in the CV case in the sense of Ref.  has to be specified. Another possible definition (which seems to be significantly weaker) would be to require the generic CV state to be the limit of $`nn`$ states of Schmidt rank $`n^\alpha `$ for some $`0<\alpha 1`$.

Concerning BES – we do not know whether there exists any BES for CV with PPT property, having at the same time the feature of being a generic CV state, whatever it would mean. It is worth stressing at this point that according to the results of Ref. , PPT entangled state in $`nn`$ space are expected to have Schmidt number smaller than $`n`$. In fact, in the Appendix A, we present the arguments analogous to those used in Ref.  that the typical PPT bound entangled states in $`nn`$ space either have the Schmidt number of order $`O(1)`$, or their partial transpose have this property. It is possible, however, that the recently introduced Gaussian bound entangled states  satisfy all requirements as far as the CV genericity is concerned. It would thus be interesting to analyze the Schmidt number of those states.

### C Question of genericity: distillation point of view

In former section we have dealed with question of genericity of CV state as far as the structure of the state is concerned. Bound (nondistillable) entanglement is directly related to distillation procedures. It is important to address the question from different point of view i. e. analysing the output of distillation procedure from the point of view of genericity.

The present result of section II clearly shows that NDS in the sense of standard definition (that no entanglment can be distilled from given state) is nowhere dense in set of CV states. This is an important theorem generalising previous results. However in the classical definition of NDS treats both finite and infinite dimensional entanglement nondistillable. For sake of many applications the next step of study which would operationally distinguish those two quantities would be desirable.

In such approach “fully CV NDS ” would be all those states that do not allow for distillation of infinite pure entanglement (whatever it means). This signifficantly increases the set of states that are interpreted as bound entangled.

As we shall see below it is more complicated issue. We will not give definite answers here. However further methods of investigation will be suggested.

Again, as in previous section, one of proposed definitions could be the following:

A. The state $`\varrho `$ represents “fully CV free (nondistillable)” entanglement if and only if it is possible (impossible) to distill nonzero amount of pure states with infinite Schmidt rank from state $`\varrho `$ .

Nonzero amount is here understood in sense of usual distillation yeld (i. e. as a nonzero amount of pairs). Note that to qualify distilled entanglement in finite dimensions the condition of asymptotic approaching the maximally entangled state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_+=\frac{1}{\sqrt{m}}_{i=1}^m|e_i,e_i`$ was required. It is known however that there is no maximally entangled states of infinite Schmidt rank. Thus in place of $`\mathrm{\Psi }_+`$ one would have probably use some fixed pure state $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{\mathrm{}}`$ having the reduced density matrix nonsingular or at least of infinite rank (this is eqivalent to the infinite Schmidt rank of $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{\mathrm{}}`$).

Another interesting (weaker) defintion would be more in spirit of Ref.  where increasing sequences of finite Schmidt rank were used. Namely one can propose:

B. The state $`\varrho `$ represents CV free (nondistillable) entangled if and only if it is possible (impossible) to distill nonzero amount $`\eta _p>0`$ of $`p`$-Schmidt rank states with $`limsup_p\eta _p>0`$ .

The main difficulty dealing with Schmidt rank in those definitions is that the operational methods of its detection in context of CV are not enough developed.

For example it is not known whether the proposal B above is equivalent to the following generalisation of the “two-qubit subspace”(see sec. II A):

the state is fully free (bound) entangled iff there is (no) $`n`$ and the family of bilocal filters $`A_pB_p`$ such that the new $`n`$-copy states

$$\varrho _p^{}=A_pB_p\varrho ^nA_p^{}B_p/(A_pB_p\varrho ^nA_p^{}B_p)$$
(24)
violate the $`p`$-Schmidt rank test via positive map i. e. $`[\text{𝕀}\mathrm{\Lambda }_p](\varrho _p^{})`$ is not positive matrix. The map $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_p(X)Tr(X)I(p1)^1X`$ is $`p1`$-positive but not $`p`$-positive and was used to detect $`p`$-Schmidt rank of isotropic entangled states .

Dealing with the state (24) is not easy because even in the case of finite dimensions the possibility of asymptotically singular denominator in formulas like (24) leads to suprising effects (see ). Putting $`A_pB_p`$ equal identity we shall make the results of section II slightly stronger and in the above spirit.

## IV BES for CV are nowhere dense: generalisation involving Schmidt numbers

Here, using the trace norm topology from sec. II. B we shall prove the stronger version of the main result of sect. II. Suppose for moment that as a “fully CV free entanglement” we shall treat only very special CV states. Namely only those form which it is possible to produce $`p`$-Schmidt rank state (with $`p`$ fixed but arbitrary high) from a single copy by means of special LOCC protocol given in Appendix B. The protocol is a natural generalisation of the protocol utilising reduciton criterion .

Those special states form the set, say $`D_p^1`$ ($`1`$ stands for “single copy” and $`p`$ for Schmidt rank). This set is signifficantly smaller than the one formed by the classical definition of free entangled states (see sec. II. A.). If as “fully CV free states” one treats the set $`D_p^1`$ (which still seems to contain too much states, c. f. discussion of sec. III.B, but this is for dydactic purposes) than one enlarges the set of what is understood as “fully CV bound” or “fully CV nondistillable”.

Below we shall see that though the latter is larger it is still nowhere dense. To have it we need to prove that $`D_p^1`$ is (i) open and (ii) dense in set of all density operators. Any state $`\varrho D_p^1`$ satisfies by the very definition (see Appendix B) the inequality:

$$\mathrm{\Psi }|[\text{𝕀}\mathrm{\Lambda }_p](\varrho )|\mathrm{\Psi }=ϵ<0.$$
(25)
Now suppose that $`\varrho ^{}\stackrel{~}{B}_\eta (\varrho )=\{\varrho ^{},\varrho \varrho ^{}_T<\eta \}`$. Then

$`|\mathrm{\Psi }|[\text{𝕀}\mathrm{\Lambda }_p](\varrho \varrho ^{})|\mathrm{\Psi }|=|\mathrm{\Psi }|(\varrho _AI\varrho _A^{}I`$ (26)
$`+(p1)^1(\varrho \varrho ^{})|\mathrm{\Psi }||Tr[\varrho _\mathrm{\Psi }(\varrho _A\varrho _A^{})]|+`$ (27)
$`|\mathrm{\Psi }|(p1)^1(\varrho \varrho ^{})|\mathrm{\Psi }|Tr[\varrho _A^\mathrm{\Psi }|\varrho _A\varrho _A^{}|]+`$ (28)
$`(p1)^1|\mathrm{\Psi }|\varrho \varrho ^{}|\mathrm{\Psi }|\eta (1+(p1)^1)`$ (29)
where $`\varrho _A^\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is reduced density matrix of pure state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{\Psi }|`$.

Where we have used two properties (i) $`\varrho _A\varrho _A^{}_T\eta `$ because partial trace is tracepreserving completely positive map which does not increase the trace norm $`A_T`$; (ii) $`\varphi |A|\varphi AA_T`$ for positive $`A`$ where $`A`$ stands for operator norm as in sect. II.B. Thus, for $`\eta <\frac{|ϵ|}{(1+(p1)^1)}`$, any $`\varrho ^{}\stackrel{~}{B}_\eta (\varrho )`$ satisfies $`\mathrm{\Psi }|[\text{𝕀}\mathrm{\Lambda }_p](\varrho ^{})|\mathrm{\Psi }<0`$ i. e. ergo belongs to $`D_p^1`$. This implies that the latter is open. Now to prove that $`D_p^1`$ is dense one can repeat the argument of sec. II.A with $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_N(H_AH_A^N)(H_BH_B^N)`$ being maximally entangled pure state of Schmidt rank $`p`$: $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_N=\frac{1}{\sqrt{p}}_{i=1}^p|e_i,f_i`$ (the only difference is that the resulting state should be shown to satisfy (25) which is easy to see). Thus $`D_p^1`$ is dense and open so its complement is nowhere dense in set of all states which completes the proof. Remarkable that the line of the proof remains completely correct for “uniform” assumption (i. e. 25) satisfied with one $`ϵ`$ for all natural $`p`$ some $`|\mathrm{\Psi }=|\mathrm{\Psi }(p)`$ ) but than the assumption itself can be easily shown to be false in the sense that no state can satisfy it.

## V Conclusions

In this paper we have considered non–distillable states for continuous variables. In the main part of the paper we have proven that the subset of non–distillable states is nowhere dense in the set of all CV states. This is a much stronger result than the recent one by Clifton and Halvorson , which prove the same result for the set of separable states, since that one is contained in the set of NDS. Moreover, our results imply that the subsets of BES and PPT states are also nowhere dense. Thus, generic CV states are distillable. We have also presented some examples of BES and discussed their genericity from the point of view of CV and their Schmidt number. In the Appendix A we have presented an evidence that all PPT BES in $`nn`$ systems either have Schmidt number smaller that $`O(1)`$, or their partial transposes have this property. Finally we have analysed the genericity of CV entanglement in context of Schmidt number. We studied the flexibility of the main result under the assumptions and proved more general result that nowhere sende is the set of all states from which it is impossible to produce $`p`$-Schmidt rank state from a single copy in some (well defined) way. The latter involves single copy protocol (provided in Appendix B) being a generalisation of that obtained with help of reduction cirterion. By provinding some proposals of definitions of what can be treated as “fully CV” we have shown that further investigation of genericity in context of CV in desirable.

We thank Anna Sanpera, Dagmar Bruß Geza Giedke and Otfried Gühne for useful discussions. This work has been supported by the DFG (SFB 407 and Schwerpunkt “Quanteninformationsverarbeitung”), the Austrian Science Foundation (SFB “control and measurement of coherent quantum systems”), the European Union Programme “EQUIP” (IST-1999-11053) and the Institute for Quantum Information GmbH. Part of the work was completed at The Erwin Schrödinger International Institute for Mathematical Physics, during the Program “Quantum Measurement and Information”, Vienna 2000.

## A Schmidt number of PPT BES for $`nn`$ systems

In this Appendix we essentially repeat the arguments used in the Ref.  to support the conjecture that in $`33`$ systems all PPT BES have Schmidt number 2. We consider now the $`nn`$ case, with $`n`$ large. Let $`r(\rho )`$ denotes the rank fo $`\rho `$; our aim is to present a strong evidence for the following conjecture:

Conjecture .- All PPT entangled states in $`nn`$ systems either have Schmidt number of the order of $`O(1)`$ or their partial transposes have this property.

Note, that this conjecture concerns for instance projections of the PPT BES (22) onto $`nn`$ spaces. We observe that

* It is enough to show the conjecture for the, so called, edge states , i.e. the PPT states $`\delta `$ such that there exist no product vector $`|e,f`$ in their range, such that $`|e^{},f`$ is in the range of the partially transposed operator $`\delta ^{T_A}`$.
* Let $`r(\rho )`$ denotes the rank of $`\rho `$. It is likely that it is enough to prove the conjecture for the edge states of maximal ranks , i.e. those whose ranks fulfill $`r(\delta )+r(\delta ^{T_A})=2n^22n+1`$. We expect that such states are dense in the set of all edge states. To show the latter statement, we consider an edge state $`\stackrel{~}{\delta }`$ which does not have maximal ranks. We can always add to it infinitesimal amount of projectors on product vectors destroying the edge property. The resulting state $`\rho `$ would have more product states in its range, than the product states used to destroy the edge property. Subtracting projector on product states different from the latter ones, would typically allow to construct an edge state $`\delta `$ with maximal ranks, which would be infinitesimally close to $`\stackrel{~}{\delta }`$ in any norm.
* Let $`R(A)`$, $`K(A)`$ denotes the range and kernel of $`A`$, respectively. The canonical form of an non–decomposable entanglement witness that detects the edge state $`\delta `$ is (, see also )

$$W=P+Q^{T_A}ϵ\mathrm{I}\mathrm{I},$$
(A1)
where the positive operators $`P,Q`$ have their ranges $`R(P)=K(\delta )`$, $`R(Q)=K(\delta ^{T_A})`$, and $`ϵ>0`$ is sufficiently small so that for any product vector $`e,f|W|e,f0`$.
* If we can show that for any edge state with maximal ranks and any corresponding witness $`W`$ detecting its entanglement, there exist a vector $`|\psi ^s`$ of Schmidt number $`s`$ such that $`\psi ^s|W|\psi ^s<0`$, then we would conclude that all edge states with maximal ranks, and thus all edge states, and thus all PPT entangled state have the Schmidt number $`<s`$. Equivalently, it is sufficient to show that $`\psi ^s|W+ϵ\mathrm{I}\mathrm{I}|\psi ^s0`$.

Let us therefore try to construct the desired vector $`|\psi ^s`$ of Schmidt number $`s`$. In general such (unnormalized) vector will have a form

$$|\psi ^s\underset{i=1}{\overset{s}{}}l_i|e_i,f_i,$$
(A2)
where $`l_i`$ are arbitrary complex coefficients for $`i=1,\mathrm{},s`$, and $`|e_i,f_i`$ are linearly independent product vectors for $`i=1,\mathrm{},s`$. Note, that the vector (A2) depends on $`s`$ complex parameters $`l_i`$ for $`i=1,\mathrm{},s`$, whereas each of the $`s`$ vectors $`|e_i`$, $`|f_i`$ depends themselves of $`n1`$ relevant complex parameters.

Let $`r(P)=k_1`$, and $`r(Q)=2n1k_1`$. Since we want to prove the conjecture either for the edge state $`\delta `$, or for its partial transpose, without loosing the generality, we may assume that $`k_11`$. We may then single out one projector out of $`P`$, and write $`P=P_1+|\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{\Psi }|`$, where $`P_10`$, $`r(P_1)=r(P)1`$, and $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is in the range of $`P`$. We can choose then $`|e_i,f_i`$ in such a way that $`Q|e_i^{},f_i=0`$, and $`P_1|e_1,f_i=0`$. These are effectively $`2n2`$ equations for vectors $`|e_i,f_i`$ which depend on $`2n2`$ parameters, so that we expect a finite, but quite large number of solutions (c.f. ). At the same time, $`\psi ^s|Q|\psi ^s`$ will become a quadratic hermitian form of $`l_i`$’s with vanishing diagonal elements. Such a hermitian form has typically more than one dimensional subspace $`𝒩`$ of negative eigenvalues for large $`s`$. But, one has to fulfill also the last equation implied by $`\psi ^s|\mathrm{\Psi }=0`$; this limits the values of $`l_i`$ to a hyperplane, which should have at least one dimensional common subspace with the subspace of negative eigenvalues $`𝒩`$. This would prove that either the Schmidt number of $`\delta `$ or of $`\delta ^{T_A}`$ is of the order of 1.

Note that for a given $`\delta `$, if the presented construction can be shown to be successful for every witness of $`\delta `$, then it provides a sufficient condition for the state $`\delta `$ to have the Schmidt number smaller than $`s`$.

## B Producing state of $`p`$-Schmidt rank form single CV copy

In this Appendix we briefly show how to produce (by means of local operations and classical communication - LOCC) the $`p`$-Schmidt rank state from any CV state violating the separability condition

$$[\text{𝕀}\mathrm{\Lambda }_p](\varrho )0.$$
(B1)
Following Ref.  this is further generalisation of the distillation protocol of Ref.  where the above criterion with $`p=2`$ (called reduction criterion c. f. ) has been used. The separability tests of the form (B1) (which can be called $`p1`$-reduction criteria) for $`p>2`$ considered first in  are examples of general positive maps separability tests (see ).

Consider some CV state $`\varrho `$ and suppose that there exists $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ such that $`\mathrm{\Psi }|[\text{𝕀}\mathrm{\Lambda }_p](\varrho )|\mathrm{\Psi }=ϵ<0`$. Then following arguments of Ref.  we get that there must exist $`N`$ such that for any $`m>N`$ the new $`mm`$ state $`\varrho _m`$ produced from $`\varrho `$ by projection onto the finitedimensional support of $`_m_m`$ satisfies

$$\mathrm{\Psi }|[\text{𝕀}\mathrm{\Lambda }_p](\varrho _m)|\mathrm{\Psi }\frac{ϵ}{2}<0.$$
(B2)
Now instead of $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ we put $`|\mathrm{\Psi }^{}`$ being a normalised projection of $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ on support of $`\varrho _m`$. In this way we get the inequality identical to the one of  with the only difference that $`p`$ was equal $`2`$ there. This allows to repeat the reasoning of Ref. : after the application of suitable local filtering and $`UU^{}`$ twirling to $`\varrho _m`$ one produces the $`mm`$ isotropic state $`\varrho _{is}=(1q)\frac{I}{m^2}+q|\mathrm{\Psi }_+\mathrm{\Psi }_+|`$ with the fidelity $`F\mathrm{\Psi }_+|\varrho _{is}|\mathrm{\Psi }_+>\frac{p1}{m}`$. But the latter implies (see ) that the final state (produced from initial $`\varrho `$ by means of local operations and classical communication - LOCC) has the Schmidt number at least $`p`$. This concludes the reasoning. Note that further steps of recurrence protocol with generalised XOR () can be applied.


text:
# Solution of the two identical ion Penning trap final state

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## Abstract

We have derived a closed form analytic expression for the asymptotic motion of a pair of identical ions in a high precision Penning trap. The analytic solution includes the effects of special relativity and the Coulomb interaction between the ions. The existence and physical relevance of such a final state is supported by a confluence of theoretical, experimental and numerical evidence.

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High precision Penning traps are ideal for studying physical characteristics of individual ions. These traps, as described for example in Ref., have magnetic fields that over the trajectories of the ions vary by less than a part per billion. In consequence, the motional frequency linewidths can be made so narrow that effects of special relativity are readily apparent even at these relatively low velocities2.

To remove systematic effects it is often desirable to fill the trap with two ions and much is known about the resulting frequency perturbations caused by the Coulomb interaction between dissimilar ions3. The situation with two identical ions has also been extensively studied much (see Ref. and references therein). The solution and approach that we describe here are rather different than those references however, since they include the electric trap field but ignore relativistic mass increase. Including this effect of special relativity may be crucial for understanding the observation6 of cyclotron mode-locking between identical ions (see also Ref.).

We present details of an analytical model of two identical ions in a high precision Penning trap. The model is asymptotically solvable in terms of elliptic functions. This solution is, in practical terms for protons and heavier ions, a generic final state of two identical ions in a precision Penning trap.

We begin with a symmetry argument detailing what is special about the two identical ion system and then we introduce and solve the model. For two dissimilar ions the center of charge is different than the center of mass. The motion of the center of charge causes currents to run in the detection circuit and in the walls of the trap itself causing a force to act back on the ions. This retarding force acts on the center of charge and so if the center of charge is different than the center of mass these damping forces act always on a mixture of the center of mass motion and the relative motions of the ion pair.

This is not the case for identical ions in the trap. In that case the center of mass and the center of charge are the same and so the retarding force acts only on the center of mass motion. Thus, the relative motion of the ions is relatively undamped, being subject only to the weaker quadrupolar damping (which is associated with timescales generally longer than typical experiments). In this sense we speak of this final state of the two identical ion system as a decoupled, or, dark state.

One way to understand the existence of this cyclotron dark state is with a symmetry argument. Neglect dissipation, relativity and interaction and consider the Poisson algebra of two ions moving in a horizontal plane (we shall describe why this is relevant to experiment later) in a uniform perpendicular magnetic field. The Hamiltonian is proportional to $`=p_1^2+p_2^2+\alpha (p_3^2+p_4^2)`$, where $`\alpha =m_a/m_b`$ is the mass ratio and $`p_{1,2}`$ (resp. $`p_{3,4}`$) are the canonical momenta of particle $`a`$ (resp. particle $`b`$). For $`\alpha 1`$ the subalgebra commuting with $``$ is $`so(2)\mathrm{x}so(2)`$ whereas if $`\alpha =1`$ the algebra is $`so(2)\mathrm{x}so(3)`$. The fact that there are additional commuting generators in the equal mass case indicates that there is a flat direction in the dynamics of that case, corresponding to degeneracy between cyclotron dark states of different total angular momentum.

There is a straightforward geometrical way of understanding the special qualities of the two identical ion Penning trap. Again consider the ions confined to a plane perpendicular to the magnetic field and ignore temporarily the effects of relativity and interaction. The total angular momentum of the two ion system is $`L=p_1^2+p_2^2+p_3^2+p_4^2`$ (note independent of the mass ratio $`\alpha `$). Now, turning on relativity and interactions perturbatively, we learn that the motion is essentially restricted to the intersection of iso- $``$ and iso- $`L`$ surfaces. A generic intersection of these surfaces in $`𝐑^4`$ for the $`\alpha 1`$ case is a two-dimensional torus (and so has an isometry group $`so(2)`$ x $`so(2)`$) whereas when $`\alpha =1`$ the intersection is not generic, but is the whole $`S^3`$. Although the isometry group of $`S^3`$, being $`so(4)`$, is isomorphic to $`so(3)`$ x $`so(3)`$ the physically relevant isometry group is that which preserves not only the geometry but also the underlying Poisson structure, which is $`sp(4)`$ in this case. The canonical intersection8 in the group of matrices $`GL(4)`$ of $`so(4)`$ and $`sp(4)`$ is the algebra $`u(2)`$, which is isomorphic to $`so(2)`$ x $`so(3)`$, which again is the enhanced symmetry discussed above. We note that both the geometrical and algebraic picture can be easily generalized to the case of $`N`$ identical ions9.

Having described the symmetry properties unique to two identical ions in a Penning trap, we now introduce the interacting model by starting with the following three assumptions.

1) The ions are very near the center of the trap, and ignore effects due to the spatial gradient of the electrostatic fields of the trap (that is, we completely ignore the trap magnetron motion). The cyclotron frequency shifts in an isolated ion’s cyclotron motion is entirely due to relativistic effects.

2) the ions are mode locked already in the trap’s axial drive and so their motions may be thought of as being confined to a plane6,7.

3) The energy loss mechanism is entirely due to the dissipation of image charge currents induced in the trap/detection system, and thus couple only to the center of mass of the ion pair).

Under these assumptions, the equations of motion for the ion pair are the formidable looking non-linear coupled differential equations;

$$\ddot{\stackrel{}{r}}_1+\omega _0(1f_1)\widehat{z}\times \dot{\stackrel{}{r}}_1+\gamma \dot{\stackrel{}{X}}_{cm}\frac{e^2\widehat{R}}{m_0R^2}=0$$
(1)
$$\ddot{\stackrel{}{r}}_2+\omega _0(1f_2)\widehat{z}\times \dot{\stackrel{}{r}}_2+\gamma \dot{\stackrel{}{X}}_{cm}+\frac{e^2\widehat{R}}{m_0R^2}=0$$
(2)
where $`\stackrel{}{X}_{cm}=(\stackrel{}{r}_1+\stackrel{}{r}_2)/2`$, and $`\stackrel{}{R}=\stackrel{}{r}_1\stackrel{}{r}_2`$ and where $`f_1=\frac{|\dot{\stackrel{}{r}}_1|^2}{2c^2}`$ is just the ratio of the kinetic energy to the rest mass-energy of ion 1 (similar expression for $`f_2`$ is in terms of the kinetic energy of the second particle). This term, due entirely to special relativistic mass increase, causes the cyclotron frequency to depend on the kinetic energy of the ion(s).

We add and subtract Eq. (1) and Eq. (2) to rewrite them in terms of the center of mass co-ordinate $`\stackrel{}{X}_{cm}`$ and the relative coordinate $`\stackrel{}{R}`$,

$$\ddot{\stackrel{}{X}}_{cm}+2\gamma \dot{\stackrel{}{X}}_{cm}+\omega _0(1\frac{f_1+f_2}{2})\widehat{z}\times \dot{\stackrel{}{X}}_{cm}$$

$$=\frac{\omega }{4}(f_1f_2)\widehat{z}\times \dot{\stackrel{}{R}}$$
(3)
$$\ddot{\stackrel{}{R}}+\omega _0(1\frac{f_1+f_2}{2})\widehat{z}\times \dot{\stackrel{}{R}}\frac{2e^2\stackrel{}{R}}{m_0R^3}=\omega _0(f_1f_2)\dot{\stackrel{}{X}}_{cm}$$
(4)
Let $`\stackrel{}{V}=\dot{\stackrel{}{X}}_{cm}`$ be a symbol for the center of mass velocity. As expected, only the center of mass velocity enters into the equations. Confined as they are to the same vertical plane, this becomes a six-dimensional (phase-space) system. Let $`\stackrel{}{U}=\dot{\stackrel{}{R}}`$. In these variables, the combinations $`f_1f_2=\frac{\stackrel{}{U}\stackrel{}{V}}{c^2}`$ and $`f_1+f_2=\frac{\stackrel{}{U}^2+4\stackrel{}{V}^2}{4c^2}`$.

As per earlier discussion, from Eq. (3) and Eq. (4), it is clear that the center of mass motion is damped but the relative motion is not. Thus, after sufficient time, it is consistent to assume that the center of mass motion damps out completely, that is, $`\stackrel{}{V}0`$. The coupling term between the $`\stackrel{}{R}`$ motion and the $`\stackrel{}{V}`$ (center of mass) motion is through the term proportional to $`f_1f_2`$ (itself proportional to $`V`$), and so Eq. (3) and Eq. (4) quickly decouple as $`\stackrel{}{V}0`$.

The resulting motion can be treated perturbatively in small $`\stackrel{}{V}`$. To find the zeroth order term we ignore the coupling term completely, resulting in exponential decay for $`\stackrel{}{V}`$ and the total center-of-mass kinetic energy. Asymptotically for the relative co-ordinate Eq. (4) becomes

$$\ddot{\stackrel{}{R}}+\omega _0(1\frac{f_1+f_2}{2})\widehat{z}\times \dot{\stackrel{}{R}}\frac{2e^2\stackrel{}{R}}{m_0R^3}=0.$$
(5)
This is a system of two coupled non-linear second order differential equations. Generally such systems do not admit closed-form, analytical solution. Somewhat surprisingly, we now point out that Eq. (5) admits a general solution in terms of elliptic functions.

The approach is standard. First we find two integrals of the motion, reducing the four (phase space) dimensional system in Eq. (5) to a two dimensional (phase space) system. The integrals are the energy and a generalization of angular momentum. The inter-ion energy results from taking the dot product of Eq. (5) with $`\dot{\stackrel{}{R}}`$, forming the total differential, and integrating to find the integration constant,

$$u_0=\frac{1}{2}|\dot{\stackrel{}{R}}|^2+\frac{2e^2}{m_0R}$$
(6)
Since the equations have manifest rotational symmetry, there is a conserved angular momentum. As always with a magnetic field, the total angular momentum receives a contribution from the magnetic field. Proceed by taking the vector cross product of $`\stackrel{}{R}`$ and Eq. (5) to find

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}L}{\mathrm{d}t}\frac{\omega _0}{2}(1f)\frac{\mathrm{d}R^2}{\mathrm{d}t}=0$$
(7)
where, as always, $`R=|\stackrel{}{R}|`$, and $`f=(\frac{|\dot{\stackrel{}{R}}|}{2c})^2`$ is the term due to special relativity. The angular momentum per unit mass $`L=\widehat{z}(\stackrel{}{R}\times \dot{\stackrel{}{R}})=R^2\frac{\mathrm{d}\varphi }{\mathrm{d}t}`$ is the standard definition.

Now, using the inter-ion energy integral Eq. (6), $`f`$ can be written entirely as a function of $`R`$. Doing so for $`f`$ in Eq. (7) and integrating leads to the integration constant $`L_0`$,

$$L_0=L\frac{w_0}{2}\left(1\frac{u_0}{2c^2}\right)R^2\frac{\omega _0e^2}{2m_0c^2}R$$
(8)
$`L_0`$ represents the generalized angular momentum.

Since they are independent, the constants of motion in equations Eq. (6) and Eq. (8) constrain the motion to lie in a two-dimensional surface in the original four-dimensional phase space. Of course, that fact by itself is insufficient to guarantee integrability of the equations of motion in closed form. However additional peculiarities of this system Eq. (5) result in closed form solution.

In polar co-ordinates the kinetic energy in the potential energy equation can be written

$$(\frac{\mathrm{d}\stackrel{}{R}}{\mathrm{d}t})^2=(\frac{\mathrm{d}R}{\mathrm{d}t})^2+\frac{L^2}{R^2}$$
(9)
and solving Eq. (8) for $`L`$ and substituting we find that Eq. (6) becomes,

$$(\frac{\mathrm{d}R}{\mathrm{d}t})^2=2u_0\frac{4e^2}{m_0R}\frac{(L_0+\alpha R+\beta R^2)^2}{R^2}$$
(10)
where $`\alpha =\frac{\omega _0e^2}{2m_0c^2}`$ and $`\beta =\frac{\omega _0}{2}\left(1\frac{u_0}{2c^2}\right)`$. Since the RHS involves only five consecutive powers of $`R`$ (namely, $`R^2,R,R^0,\mathrm{}R^2`$). the equation is that of an elliptic function.

More explicitly, we now compute the orbital period of the dark state and find the orbit trajectory parametricaly. To compute the period we rewrite Eq. (10) as

$$\mathrm{d}t=\frac{\mathrm{d}R}{\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{u}L_0^2/R^2n/R2\alpha \beta R\beta ^2R^2}}$$
(11)
with $`\stackrel{~}{u}=2u_02L_0\beta \alpha ^2`$, and $`n=2L_0\alpha +\frac{4e^2}{m_0}`$.

The integral is a combination of standard elliptic functions. In lab co-ordinates $`R,\varphi `$ the orbits will in general be open (with some precession rate which can be written in terms of complete elliptic integrals) just as viewing the orbits in the $`R,t`$ co-ordinates, where now “precession” in $`t`$ in simply the period of the orbit. The period $`T`$ of these orbits is thus given by a contour integral of the RHS of Eq. (11) around the cut running between the classical turning points (we label) $`a_0`$ and $`a_1`$, namely,

$$T=dt=\frac{\mathrm{d}R}{\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{u}L_0^2/R^2n/R2\alpha \beta R\beta ^2R^2}}$$

$$=\frac{1}{i\beta }\frac{R\mathrm{d}R}{\sqrt{(Ra_0)(Ra_1)(Ra_2)(Ra_3)}}$$
(12)
where the $`a_i`$ are the roots of the fourth degree polynomial written in Eq. (17). By looking at the signs of terms in the polynomial we can see that there can be at most two real positive roots. Physically we expect there to be exactly two real positive roots which we have called $`a_0`$ and $`a_1`$. These are the classical turning points of the motion, and represent the furthest and nearest approaches of the particles.

Furthermore, in the system we are working with, for typical values of parameters, we find that all roots are real, with two positive and two negative. We may then order the roots $`a_0a_1a_2a_3`$. Note also that the canonical choice of phase for the square root on the cut between $`a_0`$ and $`a_1`$ is $`i`$ and so the period in Eq. (12) is real and positive.

Finally, computing the integral in Eq. (12) yields (notation is that in Ref.),

$$T=\frac{2}{\rho \beta }\left[(a_0a_3)\mathrm{\Pi }(\frac{a_1a_0}{a_1a_2},k)+a_3K(k)\right]$$
(13)
where $`K`$ and $`\mathrm{\Pi }`$ are respectively the complete elliptic integrals of the first and third kind, and $`\rho =\sqrt{(a_0a_2)(a_1a_3)}`$ and $`k=\frac{\sqrt{(a_0a_1)(a_2a_3)}}{\rho }`$ is the square root of the cross-ratio of the roots. Note that the first argument in the $`\mathrm{\Pi }`$ is negative, as it should be on physical grounds, since $`\mathrm{\Pi }`$ is convergent for any negative argument.

One of the most striking experimental surprises of the two identical ion system is the discovery of cyclotron mode-locking6. In these events the two frequency traces corresponding (approximately) to the individual ions motions meld into one trace. This visible trace is the center of mass motion of the dark state. Our analysis indicates that there is another invisible (as a dipole) frequency branch associated with the inter-ion motion and that it has frequency $`\frac{2\pi }{T}`$ with $`T`$ of Eq. (13). For the case of two protons in a typical precision Penning trap (at $`\omega _05\mathrm{x}10^8`$) we find that Eq. (13) yields frequencies are some tens of Hertz different than $`\omega _0`$. It would be an interesting test to apply a sequence of dipole and quadrupolar fields to make transitions between dark states and (visible) center of mass states.

By standard means we now derive explicit formulae for the shape of the dark state orbits. Recall that, by definition of the angular momentum, $`L`$, and Eq. (8)

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}\varphi }{\mathrm{d}t}=\frac{L_0}{R^2}+\frac{\alpha }{R}+\beta $$
(14)
Thus, eliminating time between this and Eq. (11) we find

$$\varphi =\frac{1}{i\beta }\frac{R(\frac{L_0}{R^2}+\frac{\alpha }{R}+\beta )\mathrm{d}t}{\sqrt{(Ra_0)(Ra_1)(Ra_2)(Ra_3)}}$$
(15)
which may be evaluated in terms of incomplete elliptic functions. We find

$$\varphi \varphi _0=\frac{2}{\rho }[(\frac{L_0}{a_2}+\alpha +\beta a_2)F(\theta (R),k)$$

$$+(\frac{a_2}{a_1}1)\{\frac{L_0}{a_2}\mathrm{\Pi }(\theta (R),\frac{a_2(a_0a_1)}{a_1(a_0a_2)},k)$$

$$\beta a_2\mathrm{\Pi }(\theta (R),\frac{a_0a_1}{a_0a_2},k)\left\}\right]$$
(16)
where, again, the $`a_i`$ are the (ordered) roots of the polynomial

$$P(R)=\beta ^2R^42\alpha \beta R^3+(2u_0\alpha ^22L_0\beta )R^2$$

$$(2L_0\alpha +\frac{4e^2}{m_0})RL_0^2$$
(17)
with $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ as defined previously and where

$$\mathrm{sin}\theta (R)=\sqrt{\frac{(a_0a_2)(Ra_1)}{(a_0a_1)(Ra_2)}}$$
(18)
Note directly from Eq. (16) and Eq. (18) that the precession of these orbits is given by twice the RHS Eq. (16) with each incomplete elliptic functions replaced by its complete elliptic counterpart.

We have completed a numerical simulation of the system Eq. (1) and Eq. (2) for a range of initial conditions. To abet numerical stability those equations were rewritten in the co-rotating frame and integrated using commercial (IDLtm) routines on a DEC Alpha workstation. Some of these IDLtm programs link compiled versions of CERN’s Mathlib elliptic function routines. The results from a typical run are shown in Figures 1 (resp. 2) where both the $`u_0`$ of Eq. (6) (resp. $`L_0`$ of Eq. (8)) are plotted as functions of time.

The figures show that initially the motions of the ions are essentially independent as the energy dissipates. During this regime the total energy of the system is split between the center of mass motion and the inter-ion motion. Note that due to the large dynamic range of these simulations we have plotted the logarithm of the energy. Thus, the linear decay of the envelope of the inter-ion energy $`u_0`$ in this initial regime is the exponential damping of the energy of the system as a whole.

Eventually the center of charge motion damps away appreciably and the remaining inter-ion motion persists. As described earlier, in real experiments of this type the dark state we are describing is likely to be effectively the final state since we expect the inter-ion motion to decay via quadrupole radiation on a timescale long compared with typical two-ion experiments. For our simulation this final state is reached at simulated time 150, after which both $`u_0`$ and $`L_0`$ are essentially constant (up to numerical accuracy of the simulations).

In conclusion, we have derived closed form analytic formulae for the dark state of two identical ions in a Penning trap. To find this solution, we assumed that the pair is near the center of the trap (we have completely neglected the effect of the trap’s electrostatic fields) and that the motion of the ions is confined to the same azimuthal plane. It is straightforward to include in this analysis the effects of the trap’s electric field and also a fixed average vertical offset between the cyclotron planes of the ions. This results in formulae for the two integrals of motion that have additional terms compared with the Eq. (6) and Eq. (8). However, the resulting equations of motion for the dark state are no longer solvable in terms of known functions.

This research was supported in part by Research Corporation Cottrell Science Award #CC3943 and #CC5285 in part by the National Science Foundation under grants PHY 94-07194 and EPS-9874764 and in part by Appalachian Colleges Association Mellon Foundation Student-Faculty Grants. We would like to thank CERN Mathlib for the use of the elliptic function libraries. We are delighted to thankfully acknowledge G. Gabrielse, C. H. Tseng, D. Phillips, L. J. Lapidus, A. Khabbaz and A. Shapere for many interesting and stimulating discussions and the theory group at the University of Kentucky where much of this work was done.

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