Robustness of 2 x N x M entangled states against qubit loss

Abstract

Entanglement in quantum systems is usually degraded by interaction with the environment. From time to time, some parties of a multipartite entangled system may become decoherent with other parties of the system due to the interference with the environment. In this situation, it is interesting to know how much information the residual system would keep on carrying. In this paper, as a starting point for any entangled system, we investigate the property of the 2 x N x M state with qubit being disentangled, which is characterized by the measurement of robustness.