While quantum entanglement is known to be monogamous (i.e., shared entanglement is restricted in multipartite settings), here we show that distributed entanglement (or the potential for entanglement) is by nature polygamous. By establishing the concept of one-way unlocalizable entanglement (UE) and investigating its properties, we provide a polygamy inequality of distributed entanglement in tripartite quantum systems of arbitrary dimension. We also provide a polygamy inequality in multiqubit systems and several trade-offs between UE and other correlation measures.

• Received 14 May 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.80.012324