Reliable entanglement transfer between pure quantum states

Abstract

The problem of the reliable transfer of entanglement from one pure bipartite quantum state to another using local operations is analyzed. It is shown that in the case of qubits the amount that can be transferred is restricted to the difference between the entanglement of the two states. In the presence of a catalytic state the range of the transferrable amount broadens to a certain degree.Comment: 6 pages, 4 pictures; revised version; to appear in Phys. Rev.