We study strategies for establishing long-distance entanglement in quantum networks. Specifically, we consider networks consisting of regular lattices of nodes, in which the nearest neighbors share a pure but nonmaximally entangled pair of qubits. We look for strategies that use local operations and classical communication. We compare the classical entanglement percolation protocol, in which every network connection is converted with a certain probability to a singlet, with protocols in which classical entanglement percolation is preceded by measurements designed to transform the lattice structure in a way that enhances entanglement percolation. We analyze five examples of such comparisons between protocols, and point out certain rules and regularities in their performance as a function of degree of entanglement and choice of operations.

• Received 19 July 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.79.042324