Fully multi-qubit entangled states

Abstract

We investigate the properties of different levels of entanglement in graph states which correspond to connected graphs. Combining the operational definition of graph states and the postulates of entanglement measures, we prove that in connected graph states of N>3 qubits there is no genuine three-qubit entanglement. For certain classes of graph states, all genuine k-qubit entanglement, 2\leq k\leq N-1, among every k qubits vanishes. These results about connected graph states naturally lead to the definition of fully multi-qubit entangled states. We also find that the connected graph states of four qubits is one but not the only one class of fully four-qubit entangled states.