Entanglement Dimensionality of Continuous Variable States From Phase-Space Quasi-Probabilities

Abstract: The dimensionality of entanglement is a core tenet of quantum information processing, especially quantum communication and computation. While it is natural to think of this dimensionality in finite dimensional systems, many of the implementations harnessing high Schmidt numbers are actually based on discretising the observables of continuous variable systems. For those instances, a core question is whether directly utilizing the toolbox of continuous variable quantum information processing leads to better and more robust characterisations of entanglement dimensionality in infinite dimensional systems. We affirmatively answer this question by introducing Schmidt number witnesses for CV systems, based directly on covariances of infinite dimensional Bloch operators that are readily accessible in experiments. We show that the direct estimation leads to increased robustness and versatility compared to first discretising the system and using canonical discrete variable techniques, which provides strong motivation for further developments of genuine CV methods for the characterization of entanglement dimensionality, as well as for their implementation in experiments.