Geometric measure of quantum entanglement for multipartite mixed states

The geometric measure of quantum entanglement of a pure state, defined by its distance to the set of pure separable states, is extended to multipartite mixed states. We characterize the nearest disentangled mixed state to a given mixed state with respect to the geometric measure by means of a system of equations. The entanglement eigenvalue for a mixed state is introduced. And we show that, for a given mixed state, its nearest disentangled mixed state is associated with its entanglement eigenvalue. Two numerical examples are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.