We consider the amount of work which can be extracted from a heat bath using a bipartite state ρ shared by two parties. In general it is less then the amount of work extractable when one party is in possession of the entire state. We derive bounds for this “work deficit” and calculate it explicitly for a number of different cases. In particuar, for pure states the work deficit is exactly equal to the distillable entanglement of...

We present a simple quantum network, based on the controlled-SWAP gate, that can extract certain properties of quantum states without recourse to quantum tomography. It can be used as a basic building block for direct quantum estimations of both linear and nonlinear functionals of any density operator. The network has many potential applications ranging from purity tests and eigenvalue estimations to direct characterization of...

A model of discrete dynamics of entanglement of a bipartite quantum state is considered. It involves a global unitary dynamics of the system and periodic actions of local bistochastic or decaying channel. For initially pure states the decay of entanglement is accompanied by an increase of von Neumann entropy of the system. We observe and discuss revivals of entanglement due to unitary interaction of subsystems. For some mixed states...