Connecting the geometric measure of entanglement and entanglement witnesses

The geometric measure of entanglement is an approach to quantifying entanglement that is based on the Hilbert-space distance (or, equivalently, angle) between pure states and their best unentangled approximants. An entanglement witness is an operator that reveals entanglement for a given entangled state. A connection is identified between entanglement witnesses and the geometric measure of entanglement. This offers a new interpretation of the geometric measure of entanglement of a state, and renders it experimentally verifiable, doing so most readily for states that are pure.