Detecting entanglement with a thermometer

Abstract

We present a general argument showing that the temperature as well as other thermodynamical state variables can qualify as entanglement witnesses (EWs) for spatial entanglement. This holds for a variety of systems and we exemplify our ideas using a simple free non-interacting bosonic gas. We find that entanglement can exist at arbitrarily high temperatures, provided that we can probe smaller and smaller regions of space. We then discuss the relationship between the occurrence of Bose-Einstein condensation and our conditions for the presence of entanglement and compare the respective critical temperatures. We close with a short discussion of the idea of seeing entanglement as a macroscopic property in thermodynamical systems and its possible relation to phase transitions in general. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.