We define a negative entanglement measure for separable states which shows how much entanglement one should compensate the unentangled state, at the least, to change it into an entangled state. For two-qubit systems and some special classes of states in higher-dimensional systems, the explicit formula and the lower bounds for the negative entanglement measure (NEM) have been presented, and it always vanishes for bipartite separable pure states. The negative entanglement measure can be used as a useful quantity to describe the entanglement dynamics and the quantum phase transition. In the transverse Ising model, the first derivatives of negative entanglement measure diverge on approaching the critical value of the quantum phase transition, although these two-site reduced density matrices have no entanglement at all. In the one-dimensional (1D) Bose-Hubbard model, the NEM as a function of $t/U$ changes from zero to negative on approaching the critical point of quantum phase transition.

• Received 18 November 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.82.062312