Global entanglement in multiparticle systems

We define a polynomial measure of multiparticle entanglement which is scalable, i.e., which applies to any number of spin-1/2 particles. By evaluating it for three particle states, for eigenstates of the one dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet and on quantum error correcting code subspaces, we illustrate the extent to which it quantifies global entanglement. We also apply it to track the evolution of entanglement during a quantum computation. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.