Entanglement Dissipation: Unitary and Non-unitary Processes

Dissipative processes in physics are usually associated with non-unitary actions. However, the important resource of entanglement is not invariant under general unitary transformations, and is thus susceptible to unitary “dissipation”. In this note we discuss both unitary and non-unitary dissipative processes, showing that the former is ultimately of value, since reversible, and enables the production of entanglement; while even in the presence of the latter, more conventional non-unitary and non-reversible, process there exist nonetheless invariant entangled states.