Positive maps and entanglement in real Hilbert spaces (Q6060835)

Positive and completely positive maps play a central role in the theory of operator algebras and in the related fields of dilation theory, random matrix theory, free probability, semidefinite optimization theory and quantum information. The theory was originally developed for operators acting on complex Hilbert spaces and less is known about its variant on real Hilbert spaces. In this article, the authors considered positive maps acting on a full matrix algebra over the reals, pointing out a number of fundamental differences with the complex case and discussing their implications in quantum information. They provided a necessary and sufficient condition for a real map to admit a positive complexification and connect the existence of positive maps with non-positive complexification with the existence of mixed states that are entangled in real Hilbert space quantum mechanics, but separable in the complex version, providing explicit examples both for the maps and for the states. They discussed entanglement breaking and PPT maps, and showed that a straightforward real version of the PPT-squared conjecture is false even in dimension 2. Meanwhile, they showed that the original PPT-squared conjecture implies a different conjecture for real maps, in which the PPT property is replaced by a stronger property of invariance under partial transposition (IPT). When the IPT property is assumed, an asymptotic version of the conjecture is obtained.