Characterization of maximally entangled two-qubit states via the Bell-Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality

Maximally entangled states should maximally violate the Bell inequality. In this paper, it is proved that all two-qubit states that maximally violate the Bell-Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality are exactly Bell states and the states obtained from them by local unitary transformations. The proof is obtained by using the certain algebraic properties that Pauli's matrices satisfy. The argument is extended to the three-qubit system. Since all states obtained by local unitary transformations of a maximally entangled state are equally valid entangled states, we thus give the characterizations of maximally entangled states in both the two-qubit and three-qubit systems in terms of the Bell inequality.