Abstract

We show that entanglement guarantees difficulty in the discrimination of orthogonal multipartite states locally. The number of pure states that can be discriminated by local operations and classical communication is bounded by the total dimension over the average entanglement. A similar, general condition is also shown for pure and mixed states. These results offer a rare operational interpretation for three abstractly defined distance like measures of multipartite entanglement. This interpretation can also lead to bounds on the classical capacity quantum LOCC channels. We show some examples when, and when not, these bounds can be achieved.