Remarks on entanglement swapping

In two partially entangled states, entanglement swapping by Bell measurement will yield the weaker entanglement of the two. This scheme is optimal because the average entanglement cannot increase under local operation and classical communication. However, for more than two states, this scheme does not always yield the weakest link. We consider projective measurements other than Bell-type measurement and show, numerically, that while Bell measurement may not be unique, it is indeed optimal among these projective measurements. We also discuss the non-uniqueness of Bell measurements.