Geometry of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Correlations

Correlations between distant particles are central to many puzzles and paradoxes of quantum mechanics and, at the same time, underpin various applications such as quantum cryptography and metrology. Originally in 1935, Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) used these correlations to argue against the completeness of quantum mechanics. To formalize their argument, Schrödinger subsequently introduced the notion of quantum steering. Still, the question of which quantum states can be used for EPR steering and which cannot remained open. Here we show that quantum steering can be viewed as an inclusion problem in convex geometry. For the case of two spin-1/2 particles, this approach completely characterizes the set of states leading to EPR steering. In addition, we discuss the generalization to higher-dimensional systems as well as generalized measurements. Our results find applications in various protocols in quantum information processing, and moreover they are linked to quantum mechanical phenomena such as uncertainty relations and the question of which observables in quantum mechanics are jointly measurable.