Compatibility of subsystem states

Abstract

We examine the possible states of subsystems of a system of bits or qubits. In the classical case (bits), this means the possible marginal distributions of a probability distribution on a finite number of binary variables; we give necessary and sufficient conditions for a set of probability distributions on all proper subsets of the variables to be the marginals of a single distribution on the full set. In the quantum case (qubits), we consider mixed states of subsets of a set of qubits; in the case of three qubits, we find quantum Bell inequalities -- necessary conditions for a set of two-qubit states to be the reduced states of a single mixed state of three qubits. We conjecture that these conditions are also sufficient.