Unextendible and uncompletable product bases in every bipartition

Abstract

Unextendible product basis is an important object in quantum information theory and features a broad spectrum of applications, ranging from quantum nonlocality to quantum cryptography. A generalized concept called uncompletable product basis also attracts much attention. In this paper, we find some unextendible product bases that are uncompletable product bases in every bipartition, which answers a 19 year-old open question proposed by DiVincenzo et al (2003 Commun. Math. Phys. 238 379–410). As a consequence, we connect such unextendible product bases to local hiding of information, positive-partial-transpose entangled states and genuinely entangled states. Furthermore, we give a sufficient condition for the existence of an unextendible product basis that is still unextendible in every bipartition, and the existence of such a UPB is another open question proposed by Demianowic et al (2018 Phys. Rev. A 98 012313). Our results advance the understanding of the geometry of unextendible product bases.