The quantum marginal problem asks whether a set of given density matrices are consistent, i.e., whether they can be the reduced density matrices of a global quantum state. Not many non-trivial analytic necessary (or sufficient) conditions are known for the problem in general. We propose a method to detect consistency of overlapping quantum marginals by considering the separability of some derived states. Our method works well for the k-symmetric extension problem in general, and for the general overlapping marginal problems in some cases. Our work is, in some sense, the converse to the well-known k-symmetric extension criterion for separability.

Coauthors: Zhengfeng Ji, Nengkun Yu, Bei Zeng