Residual effect on the robustness of multiqubit entanglement

Abstract

We investigate the relation between the entanglement and the robustness of a multipartite system to a depolarization noise. We find that the robustness of a two-qubit system in an arbitrary pure state depends completely on its entanglement. However, this is not always true in a three-qubit system. There is a residual effect on the robustness of a three-qubit system in an arbitrary superposition of a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state and a $W$ state. Its entanglement determines the trend of its robustness. However, there is a splitting on its robustness under the same entanglement. Its robustness not only has the same periodicity as its three-tangle but also alters with its three-tangle synchronously. There is also a splitting on the robustness of an $n$-qubit ($n>3$) system although it is more complicated.