Kinematic budget of quantum correlations

Abstract

The diversity of quantum correlations -- discord, entanglement, steering, and Bell nonlocality -- disappears at the kinematic level of observable second moments. By treating state purity as a finite resource, we introduce a local-unitary-invariant budget that splits these moments into local and nonlocal sectors. This maps quantum systems onto compact, two-dimensional manifolds whose topology is governed by purity and time-reversal symmetry. This dimensional reduction reveals a deep structural link: exceeding classical capacity limits requires the activation of intrinsically time-odd generators, providing a dimension-agnostic guarantee of negative partial transpose (NPT) entanglement. For two qubits, this geometry is analytically solvable; a single boundary isolates classical correlations, while nested regions define thresholds for steering and Bell nonlocality, alongside bounds on non-stabiliser magic. Beyond two qubits, dimensional bottlenecks enforce the kinematic limits on correlations. Because this macroscopic representation is completely determined by global and marginal purities, it bypasses the exponential scaling of full-state tomography. Thus, whenever an $n$-partite state's correlations exceed the classical capacity limits, its NPT entanglement is certified by only $n+1$ purity measurements, with sample complexity independent of Hilbert space dimension. By coarse-graining over gauge-like first moments, this geometry acts as a thermodynamic phase diagram, exposing the hierarchy of quantum resources and their dynamic redistribution under decoherence.