On the structure of a reversible entanglement generating set for three--partite states

Abstract

We show that Einstein--Podolsky--Rosen--Bohm (EPR) and Greenberger--Horne--Zeilinger--Mermin (GHZ) states can not generate, through local manipulation and in the asymptotic limit, all forms of three--partite pure--state entanglement in a reversible way. The techniques that we use suggest that there may be a connection between this result and the irreversibility that occurs in the asymptotic preparation and distillation of bipartite mixed states.