A recursive approach to determine the Hilbert–Schmidt measure of pairwise quantum discord in a special class of symmetric states of k qubits is presented. We especially focus on the reduced states of k qubits obtained from a balanced superposition of symmetric n-qubit states (multiqubit Schrödinger cat states) by tracing out n-k particles (k = 2, 3, …, n-1). Two pairing schemes are considered. In the first one, the geometric discord measuring the correlation between one qubit and the parity grouping (k-1) qubits is explicitly derived. This uses recursive relations between the Fano–Bloch correlation matrices associated with subsystems comprising k, k-1, … and two particles. A detailed analysis is given for two-, three- and four-qubit systems. In the second scheme, the subsystem comprising the (k-1) qubits is mapped into a system of two logical qubits. We show that these two bipartition schemes are equivalents in evaluating the pairwise correlation in multiqubits systems. The explicit expressions of classical states presenting zero discord are derived.
Quantum correlations of two-qubit states with one maximally mixed marginal
