Generation and application of a controllable multi-atom entangled state

In this paper, we present a scheme to prepare a set of the multi-atom entangled states by the cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) technology. The multi-atom entangled states have some particular entanglement properties. For example, the remaining reduced density matrices \rho_ij still retain entanglement or disentanglement when any N-2 atoms of the N atoms are traced out, which can be chosen freely according to our need, and the relative entanglement strength of any pair of atoms (measured by the concurrence) can be arbitrarily adjusted. In addition, they may be completely symmetric under the exchange of any two atoms, and perform certain quantum information tasks, such as telecloning, teleportation, secret sharing and so on.