Optimal entanglement generation in GHZ-type states

Abstract The entanglement production is key for many applications in the realm of quantum information, but so is the identification of processes that allow to create entanglement in a fast and sustained way. Most of the advances in this direction have been circumscribed to bipartite systems only, and the rate of entanglement in multipartite system has been much less explored. Here we contribute to the identification of processes that favor the fastest and sustained generation of tripartite entanglement in a class of 3-qubit GHZ-type states. By considering a three-party interaction Hamiltonian, we analyse the dynamics of the 3-tangle and the entanglement rate to identify the optimal local operations that supplement the Hamiltonian evolution in order to speed-up the generation of three-way entanglement, and to prevent its decay below a predetermined threshold value. The appropriate local operation that maximizes the speed at which a highly-entangled state is reached has the advantage of requiring access to only one of the qubits, yet depends on the actual state of the system. Other universal (state-independent) local operations are found that conform schemes to maintain a sufficiently high amount of 3-tangle. Our results expand our understanding of entanglement rates to multipartite systems, and offer guidance regarding the strategies that improve the efficiency in various quantum information processing tasks.