Entanglement is an important concept in quantum information, quantum communication, and quantum computing. We provide a geometrical analysis of entanglement and separability for all the rank 2 quantum mixed states: complete analysis for the bipartite states and partial analysis for the multipartite states. For each rank 2 mixed state, we define its unique Bloch sphere, that is spanned by the eigenstates of its density matrix. We characterize those Bloch spheres into exactly five classes of entanglement and separability, give examples for each class, and prove that those are the only classes.

• Received 19 October 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.95.032308