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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Threshold (Q,P) distillation of multipartite quantum correlations

Shashank Gupta1,2,3,*, William John Munro1, and Carlos Cid1,4

  • *Contact author: shashankg687@gmail.com
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, L012036 – Published 10 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/6zdc-j51g

Abstract

We introduce a threshold quantum distillation protocol that enables the extraction of perfect quantum correlations from multiple imperfect copies of a multipartite quantum state using only a subset of the parties (Q<P) in the network. In particular, we show that for high-dimensional Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger states, entanglement can be distilled by local filtering operations applied by just a single party, independent of the total number of parties in the network. In contrast, for the W states, at least P−1 parties are required for successful distillation, highlighting a strong connection between distillability and separability. We provide explicit protocols for threshold entanglement distillation and threshold steering distillation (TSD), and establish a direct link between the two: Any assemblage that can be distilled via TSD necessarily corresponds to a distillable entangled state. Our framework introduces a scalable and experimentally viable approach to distillation in quantum networks, with potential applications in distributed quantum computing, communication, and cryptography.

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Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Research 8, L012036– Published 10 February, 2026
  • Received 17 September 2024
  • Revised 21 August 2025
  • Accepted 5 January 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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