Quantum entanglement

All our former experience with application of quantum theory seems to say: what is predicted by quantum formalism must occur in laboratory. But the essence of quantum formalism — entanglement, recognized by Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen and Schrödinger — waited over 70 years to enter to laboratories as a new resource as real as energy. This holistic property of compound quantum systems, which involves nonclassical correlations between subsystems, is a potential for many quantum processes, including “canonical” ones: quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation and dense coding. However, it appeared that this new resource is very complex and difficult to detect. Being usually fragile to environment, it is robust against conceptual and mathematical tools, the task of which is to decipher its rich structure. This article reviews basic aspects of entanglement including its characterization, detection, distillation and quantifying. In particular, the authors discuss various manifestations of entanglement via Bell inequalities, entropic inequalities, entanglement witnesses, quantum cryptography and point out some interrelations. They also discuss a basic role of entanglement in quantum communication within distant labs paradigm and stress some peculiarities such as irreversibility of entanglement manipulations including its extremal form — bound entanglement phenomenon. A basic role of entanglement witnesses in detection of entanglement is emphasized.