Operational Gaussian Schmidt-Number Witnesses

Abstract: The general class of Gaussian Schmidt-number witness operators for bipartite systems is studied. It is shown that any member of this class is reducible to a convex combination of two types of Gaussian operators using local operations and classical communications. This gives rise to a simple operational method, which is solely based on measurable covariance matrices of quantum states. Our method bridges the gap between theory and experiment of entanglement quantification. In particular, we certify lower bounds of the Schmidt number of squeezed thermal and phase-randomized squeezed vacuum states, as examples of Gaussian and non-Gaussian quantum states, respectively.