The robustness of multipartite entanglement of systems undergoing decoherence is of central importance to the area of quantum information. Its characterization depends, however, on the measure used to quantify entanglement and on how one partitions the system. Here we show that the unambiguous assessment of the robustness of multipartite entanglement is obtained by considering the loss of functionality in terms of two communication tasks, namely the splitting of information between many parties and the teleportation of states.

• Received 20 August 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.82.052308