title: Separable States can be used to distribute entanglement.
abstract: We show that no entanglement is necessary to distribute entanglement; that is, two distant particles can be entangled by sending a third particle that is never entangled with the other two. Similarly, two particles can become entangled by continuous interaction with a highly mixed mediating particle that never itself becomes entangled. We also consider analogous properties of completely positive maps, in which the composition of two separable maps can create entanglement.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann Strasse 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: T S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Cubitt
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Verstraete
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dür
authors.forename: J I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Cirac