Entanglement production in non-equilibrium thermodynamics

Abstract

We define and analyse the concept of entanglement production during the evolution of a general quantum mechanical dissipative system. While it is important to minimise entropy production in order to achieve thermodynamical efficiency, maximising the rate of change of entanglement is important in quantum information processing. Quantitative relations are obtained between entropy and entanglement productions, under specific assumptions detailed in the text. We apply these to the processes of dephasing and decay of correlations between two initially entangled qubits. Both the Master equation treatment as well as the higher Hilbert space analysis are presented. Our formalism is very general and contains as special cases many reported individual instance of entanglement dynamics, such as, for example, the recently discovered notion of the sudden death of entanglement. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd.