Reduction criterion of separability and limits for a class of distillation protocols

We analyze the problem of distillation of entanglement of mixed states in higher-dimensional compound systems. Employing the positive maps method [M. Horodecki et al., Phys. Lett. A 223, 1 (1996)] we introduce and analyze a criterion of separability that relates the structures of the total density matrix and its reductions. We show that any state violating the criterion can be distilled by suitable generalization of the two-qubit protocol that distills any inseparable two-qubit state. In particular, this means that any state ϱ of two N-level systems with 〈ψ₊|ϱ|ψ₊〉>1/N can be distilled (ψ₊ is the singlet state generalized to higher dimension). The criterion also singles out all the states that can be distilled by a class of protocols. The proof involves construction of the family of states that are invariant under transformation ϱ⃗U⊗U^*ϱU^†⊗U^*†, where U is a unitary transformation and the asterisk denotes complex conjugation. The states are related to the depolarizing channel generalized to the nonbinary case.