Internal entanglement and external correlations of any form limit each other

Abstract

We show a relation between entanglement and correlations of any form. The internal entanglement of a bipartite system, and its correlations with another system, limit each other. A measure of correlations, of any nature, cannot increase under local operations. Examples are the entanglement monotones, the mutual information, that quantifies total correlations, and the Henderson-Vedral measure of classical correlations. External correlations, evaluated by such a measure, set a tight upper bound on the internal entanglement that decreases as they increase, and so does quantum discord.