Multipartite quantum nonlocality under local decoherence

Abstract

We study the nonlocal properties of two-qubit maximally entangled and N-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states under local decoherence. We show that the (non)resilience of entanglement under local depolarization or dephasing is not necessarily equivalent to the (non)resilience of Bell-inequality violations. Apart from entanglement and Bell-inequality violations, we consider also nonlocality as quantified by the nonlocal content of correlations and provide several examples of anomalous behaviors, both in the bipartite and multipartite cases. In addition, we study the practical implications of these anomalies on the usefulness of noisy Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states as resources for nonlocality-based physical protocols given by communication complexity problems. © 2012 American Physical Society.