We prove experimentally the predicted existence of a three-qubit quantum state with genuine multipartite entanglement which can be certified solely from its separable two-qubit reduced density matrices. The qubits are encoded into different degrees of freedom of a pair of correlated photons and the state is prepared by letting the photons to propagate through a linear optical circuit. The presence of genuine multipartite entanglement is verified by finding numerically a fully decomposable entanglement witness acting nontrivially only on the reductions of the global state. Our result confirms viability of detection of emerging global properties of composite quantum systems from their parts which lack the properties.

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Genuine multipartite entanglement underlies correlation experiments corroborating quantum mechanics and it is an expedient empowering many quantum technologies. One of many counterintuitive facets of genuine multipartite entanglement is its ability to exhibit an emergent character, that is, one can infer its presence in some multipartite states merely from a set of its separable marginals. Here, we show that the effect can be found also in the context of Gaussian states of bosonic systems. Specifically, we construct examples of multimode Gaussian states carrying genuine multipartite entanglement which can be verified solely from separable nearest-neighbour two-mode marginals. The key tool of our construction is a genuine multipartite entanglement witness acting only on some two-mode reductions of the global covariance matrix, which we find by a numerical solution of a semi-definite programme. We also propose an experimental scheme for preparation of the simplest three-mode state, which requires interference of three correlatively displaced squeezed beams on two beam splitters. Besides revealing the concept of emergent genuine multipartite entanglement in the Gaussian scenario and bringing it closer to experimentally testable form, our results pave the way to effective diagnostics methods of global properties of multipartite states without complete tomography.

Genuine multipartite entanglement underlies correlation experiments corroborating quantum mechanics and it is an expedient empowering many quantum technologies. One of many counterintuitive facets of genuine multipartite entanglement is its ability to exhibit an emergent character. That is, one can infer its presence in some multipartite states merely from a set of its separable marginals. Here we show that the effect can also be found in the context of Gaussian states of bosonic systems. Specifically, we construct examples of multimode Gaussian states carrying genuine multipartite entanglement which can be verified solely from separable nearestneighbor two-mode marginals. The key tool of our construction is an entanglement witness acting only on some two-mode reductions of the global covariance matrix, which we find by a numerical solution of a semidefinite program. We also propose an experimental scheme for preparation of the simplest three-mode state, which requires interference of three correlatively displaced squeezed beams on two beam splitters. Besides revealing the concept of emergent genuine multipartite entanglement in the Gaussian scenario and bringing it closer to experimentally testable form, our results pave the way to effective diagnostics methods of global properties of multipartite states without complete tomography.

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