Basing on positive maps separability criterion we propose the experimentally viable, direct detection of quantum entanglement. It is efficient and does not require any a priori knowledge about the state. For two qubits it provides a sharp (i.e., “if and only if”) separability test and estimation of amount of entanglement. We view this method as a new form of quantum computation, namely, as a decision problem with quantum data structure.

• Received 7 February 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.127902