Mixed-State Entanglement and Distillation: Is there a “Bound” Entanglement in Nature?

Abstract

It is shown that if a mixed state can be distilled to the singlet form it must violate partial transposition criterion [A. Peres, Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 1413 (1996)]. It implies that there are two qualitatively different types of entanglement: “free” entanglement which is distillable, and “bound” entanglement which cannot be brought to the singlet form useful for quantum communication purposes. A possible physical meaning of the result is discussed.