Entanglement from thermal black body radiation

Abstract

Two non--interacting quantum systems which couple to a common environment with many degrees of freedom initially in thermal equilibrium can become entangled due to the indirect interaction mediated through this heat bath. I examine here the dynamics of reservoir induced entanglement for a heat bath consisting of a thermal electro--magnetic radiation field, such as black body radiation or the cosmic microwave background, and show how the effect can be understood as result of an effective induced interaction.