Quantifying High-Order Interdependencies in Entangled Quantum States

Abstract

Here, we leverage recent advances in information theory to develop a novel method to characterise the dominant character of the high-order dependencies of quantum systems. To this end, we introduce the Q-information: an information-theoretic measure capable of distinguishing quantum states dominated by synergy or redundancy. We illustrate the measure by investigating the properties of paradigmatic entangled Qubit states and find that -- in contrast to classical systems -- quantum systems need at least four variables to exhibit high-order properties. Furthermore, our results reveal that unitary evolution can radically affect the internal information organisation in a way that strongly depends on the corresponding Hamiltonian. Overall, the Q-information sheds light on novel aspects of the internal organisation of quantum systems and their time evolution, opening new avenues for studying several quantum phenomena and related technologies.