Cones of ball-ball separable elements

Abstract

Let B_1,B_2 be balls in finite-dimensional real vector spaces E_1,E_2, centered around unit length vectors v_1,v_2 and not containing zero. An element in the tensor product space E_1 \otimes E_2 is called B_1 \otimes B_2-separable if it is contained in the convex conic hull of elements of the form w_1 \otimes w_2, where w_1 \in B_1, w_2 \in B_2. We study the cone formed by the separable elements in E_1 \otimes E_2. We determine the largest faces of this cone via a description of the extreme rays of the dual cone, i.e. the cone of the corresponding positive linear maps. We compute the radius of the largest ball centered around v_1 \otimes v_2 that consists of separable elements. As an application we obtain lower bounds on the radius of the largest ball of separable unnormalized states around the identity matrix for a multi-qubit system. These bounds are approximately 12% better than the best previously known. Our results are extendible to the case where B_1,B_2 are solid ellipsoids.