Schemes to generate and distinguish a type of genuine four-qubit entangled states in a cavity QED system

We propose a scheme to generate a type of genuine four-qubit entangled states, which were firstly introduced by Yeo et al. [Y. Yeo, W. K. Chua, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 (2006) 060502]. These states have many interesting entanglement properties and possess possible applications in quantum information processing and in fundamental tests of quantum physics. We show that such a type of 16 orthonormal basis states can be deterministically distinguished by a cavity QED system. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.