Efficient creation of multipartite entanglement in flux qubits

We investigate three superconducting flux qubits coupled in a loop. In this setup, tripartite entanglement can be created in a natural, controllable, and stable way. Both generic kinds of tripartite entanglement -the W type as well as the GHZ type entanglement- can be identified among the eigenstates. We also discuss the violation of Bell inequalities in this system and show the impact of a limited measurement fidelity on the detection of entanglement and quantum nonlocality.