Local unitary symmetries of hypergraph states

Hypergraph states are multiqubit states whose combinatorial description and entanglement properties generalize the well-studied class of graph states. Graph states are important in applications such as measurement-based quantum computation and quantum error correction. The study of hypergraph states, with their richer multipartite entanglement and other nonlocal properties, has a promising outlook for new insight into multipartite entanglement. We present results analyzing local unitary symmetries of hypergraph states, including both continuous and discrete families of symmetries. In particular, we show how entanglement types can be detected and distinguished by certain configurations in the hypergraphs from which hypergraph states are constructed. (paper)