Published January 5, 2026 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Markov gap and bound entanglement in Haar-random states

  • 1. ROR icon Institute of Physics
  • 2. ROR icon University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • 3. ROR icon University of California, Santa Barbara
  • 4. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 5. ROR icon Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences
  • 6. Hefei National Laboratory
  • 7. ROR icon Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory

Abstract

Bound entanglement refers to entangled states that cannot be distilled into maximally entangled states and therefore cannot directly be used in many quantum information processing protocols. We identify a relationship between bound entanglement and the Markov gap, which is introduced within holography via the entanglement wedge cross section and is related to the fidelity of the partial Markov recovery problem. We prove that a bound entangled state must have a nonzero Markov gap. Conversely, for sufficiently large systems, a state with a weakly nonzero Markov gap typically has a bound entangled or separable marginal state, where entanglement is undistillable. Furthermore, this implies that the transition from a bound entangled to a separable state originates from the properties of states with a weakly nonzero Markov gap, which may be dual to nonperturbative effects from a holographic perspective. Our results shed light on the investigation of the Markov gap and enhance interdisciplinary applications of quantum information.

Copyright and License

 ©2026 American Physical Society.

Funding

H.F. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. T2121001, No. 92265207, and No. 92365301), the Innovation Program for Quantum Science and Technology (Grant No. 2021ZD0301800). S.L. acknowledges support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation under Grant No. GBMF8690, the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF PHY-1748958, and the Simons Foundation under an award to Xie Chen (Award No. 828078).

Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this article are not publicly available. The data are available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Additional details

Related works

Is new version of
Discussion Paper: arXiv:2504.04802 (arXiv)

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China
T2121001
National Natural Science Foundation of China
92265207
National Natural Science Foundation of China
92365301
Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China
Innovation Program for Quantum Science and Technology 2021ZD0301800
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
GBMF8690
National Science Foundation
PHY-1748958
Simons Foundation
828078

Dates

Submitted
2025-04-14
Accepted
2025-12-11

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy (PMA)
Publication Status
Published