ua nt - p h / 98 04 07 5 v 2 2 2 M ay 1 99 8 Teleportation , Entanglement and Thermodynamics in the Quantum World

Quantum mechanics has many counter-intuitive consequences which contradict our intuition which is based on classical physics. Here we discuss a special aspect of quantum mechanics, namely the possibility of entanglement between two or more particles. We will establish the basic properties of entanglement using quantum state teleportation. These principles will then allow us to formulate quantitative measures of entanglement. Finally we will show that the same general principles can also be used to prove seemingly difficult questions regarding entanglement dynamics very easily. This will be used to motivate the hope that we can construct a thermodynamics of entanglement. * present address: Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, UK