The disentangling power of unitaries

Abstract

We define the disentangling power of a unitary operator in a similar way as the entangling power defined by Zanardi, Zalka and Faoro [PRA, 62, 030301]. A general formula is derived and it is shown that both quantities are directly proportional. All results concerning the entangling power can simply be translated into similar statements for the disentangling power. In particular, the disentangling power is maximal for certain permutations derived from orthogonal latin squares. These permutations can therefore be interpreted as those that distort entanglement in a maximal way.