Local extraction of EPR entanglement from classical systems

Abstract

Coherent states with large amplitudes are traditionally thought of as the best quantum mechanical approximation of classical behavior. Here we argue that, far from being classical, coherent state are in fact highly entangled. We demonstrate this by showing that a general system of indistinguishable bosons in a coherent state can be used to entangle, by local interactions, two spatially separated and distinguishable non-interacting quantum systems. Entanglement can also be extracted in the same way from number states or any other nontrivial superpositions of them.