Tomographic causal analysis of two-qubit states and tomographic discord

We study a behavior of two-qubit states subject to tomographic measurement. In this Letter we propose a novel approach to definition of asymmetry in quantum bipartite state based on its tomographic Shannon entropies. We consider two types of measurement bases: the first is one that diagonalizes density matrices of subsystems and is used in a definition of tomographic discord, and the second is one that maximizes Shannon mutual information and relates to symmetrical form quantum discord. We show how these approaches relate to each other and then implement them to the different classes of two-qubit states. Consequently, new subclasses of X-states are revealed. •Quantum tomography.•Quantum causal analysis.•Quantum discord.