On properties of Schmidt Decomposition

Abstract

Schmidt decomposition is a powerful tool in quantum information. While Schmidt decomposition is universal for bipartite states, its not for multipartite states. In this article, we review properties of bipartite Schmidt decompositions and study which of them extend to multipartite states. In particular, Schmidt number (the number of non-zero terms in Schmidt decomposition) define an equivalence class using separable unitary transforms. We show that it is NP-complete to partition a multipartite state that attains the highest Schmidt number. In addition, we observe that purifications of a density matrix of a composite system preserves Schmidt decomposability.